BenCab Museum

I've been to many museums before, one here in Baguio and few in Metro Manila. But for the 3 years I’ve been staying here in Baguio, it is my first time to visit the BenCab Museum located in Asin, Benguet, a few kilometers from the town proper of Baguio City.

Just yesterday (September 4, 2011), me and my groupmates in Tourism Planning planned to visit BenCab Museum as our destination for the tourism research. We chose it for some several reasons that we think it needed some improvements because it is a great place for arts, history and, well, leisure or solemnity.

It is almost 1400H (2:00pm) when we went to BenCab Museum and we thought it is a bit late but still we managed our time because we already made some reservation for us to have the pictorials for documentation. As we approached the place, thick fog covered us with cold breeze that kept on touching our pores and skin. It is so cold and some raindrops still splashing from atop.

Front of the museum

Well, we are warmly welcomed by the resident manager Maam Vina who also let us has a guide inside the place. If you are not that typical art addict person, I think you will not enjoy roaming around alone. The guide helped with the informations that we needed for our documentation. He tried to fill every artwork’s history and, well, the meaning of it, for some.

The museum is composed of different artworks that filled every corner of the museum from Ben’s (artists) collections to paintings and artworks of his fellow artists. Most of it are paintings and sculptures. It also houses the different artworks and tools used by the native Igorots long ago.

At the back of the museum is a great place for relaxation and sightseeing. It is a wide garden with a wide pond in mountain slope with a nipa hut at the center connected by a wooden bridge for standbys. The scenery was very cool (literally) by the time we went there because the place is still fresh from the raindrops splashes. At that time, the rain stops and the thick fog made it way to other side of the mountain but still it was cold.

Me in the wooden bridge at the lake

My tourism planning groupmates

We went back to the lobby for some interview or chat with the manager and after that we went back to the trail to have some rest and an afternoon snack pleased our tired feet for almost two hours of discoveries.

BenCab Museum is a project of the BenCab Art Foundation that supports activities related to the arts and environment.

It is about 15-minute drive from Baguio City center and about eight to ten Km. Away from the City’s town proper. There is an entrance fee for Php100.00 and Php80.00 for students and senior citizens with valid ID.