IN its efforts to establish a Southeast Asian AgriMuseum, the Philippine government-hosted Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) has tapped the assistance of a Japanese museum expert from the University of Tsukuba.
SEARCA Director Gil C. Saguiguit Jr. said Dr. Eiji Mizushima will provide technical advice in the establishment of the Southeast Asian (SEA) AgriMuseum in Los Baños, Laguna.
Mizushima is President of the Japan Museum Management Academy (JMMA) and the Museum and Culture Advanced Research Center in Asia Pacific (MARC-ASPAC).
"The first of its kind in the region, the SEA AgriMuseum will be a modern interactive facility featuring the history and future of agriculture in Southeast Asia," Saguiguit said.
He said that the museum will also "serve as a venue where the poor and the visionaries in agricultural and rural development would come together in one exhibition."
"The museum will also be a viable approach to educate people on the importance of agriculture and the challenges it faces, in general, and to address the declining interest in agriculture among young people, in particular," Saguiguit added.
Mizushima will visit SEARCA on March 6-10 with support from the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) under its Expert Dispatch Program to the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) centers, SEARCA's center for agriculture.
On March 6, he will also give a public lecture on "Museums in an Information Society: From Collection to Digital Archives," which is open to the public at SEARCA's Agriculture and Development Seminar Series (ADSS).
"Dr. Mizushima will share his wealth of experience in museology, cultural resources management, and digital archives and collection management," Saguiguit said,
On March 7, Maria Isabel Garcia, curator of The Mind Museum in Bonifacio Global City, will also deliver a public seminar at SEARCA on her experience in putting up and sustaining The Mind Museum.