HOW lucky can you get? Twice I’ve been to the BenCab Museum in Tuba, Benguet, and twice I’ve caught Ben Cabrera, the National Artist, there and had pictures taken with him. The first time was in July of 2012, and the second time was during my recent visit to Baguio last October (2013). Both times, I was staying at Azalea Residences in Baguio, and included in city tours during both stays was a visit to the BenCab Museum along Km. 6 Asin Road, Tadiangan, Tuba, Benguet.
A brief 15-minute drive from the nerve center of Baguio City, the museum, owned by 2006 National Artist Ben Cabrera, better known as simply BenCab, is committed to the promotion of the arts and the preservation, conservation and protection of the environment as well as of the culture and traditions of the Cordilleras. It features not just collections of BenCab’s works but also of other noteworthy artists, including both acknowledged Filipino masters and rising contemporary artists.
Built on a promontory and commanding a breathtaking view of the Cordillera mountains in the vicinity and the West Philippine Sea in the distant west, the BenCab Museum is four floors down and consists of various art galleries.
These galleries are:
· The BenCab Gallery – which features the National Artist’s own works over a continuing artistic career that spans more than four decades. This is where visitors get to know one of the artist’s muses, a vagrant woman named Sabel, whose portraits and vignettes BenCab has painted in different forms using different mediums.
· The Cordillera Museum – is a repository of the artist’s collection of tribal artifacts and indigenous crafts of the northern Philippine highlands, including bulols or rice granary gods venerated through rituals to ensure abundant harvest and protection against natural calamities, as well as other ceremonial artifacts and functional objects like food containers.
· The Philippine Contemporary Art Gallery – which highlights paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture.
· The Maestro Gallery – which houses works by acknowledged Filipino masters, such as Jose Joya, Ang Kiukok, Arturo Luz, Cesar Legaspi, Juvenal Sanso, Victorio Edades and Araceli Lincaco Dans.
· The Erotica Gallery – contains paintings, drawings, installations, sculptures and other artworks by BenCab and other artists that tackle the erotic subject.
· The Print Gallery – highlights vintage maps, prints, photographs and postcards on the Philippines.
· Gallery Indigo – is a venue for changing exhibitions.
· Sepia Gallery – is a tall gallery adjoining the museum shop that also serves as a venue for changing exhibitions.
The BenCab Museum likewise has two patios, the Edison T. Coseteng Patio, where BenCab’s 32 Variations on Sabel, glaze-painted on Mariwasa tiles, can be found; and Patio Salvador, an open terrace adjoining Gallery Indigo, which is used for receptions and sculpture shows.
Other indoor features of the BenCab Museum include the Museum Shop, which sells art books, postcards, art reproductions, wood carvings, tribal jewelry and handmade paper products, among others; and Café Sabel, which serves fresh and natural food.
Outdoors, it boasts of a farm and a garden below the museum. The farm grows organic vegetables and the typical indigenous architecture of Ifugao, Kalinga and Bontoc, and the garden is crowned by a meandering river with cascading waterfalls on one side and a forested hill across which features an eco trail and is a source of fresh spring water used in the museum and farm. Assisted by native co-workers, BenCab himself grows seasonal vegetables, herbs, strawberries, sweet potatoes, coffee and ornamental plants. There is also an aviary where peacocks and various birds can be found, plus an animal farm with ducks, geese, turkeys and other fauna.
The fee for the museum does not include a tour of the gardens, but due to public demand, a tour of the eco trail and the gardens can now be made with or without a guide for a small additional fee.
(BenCab Museum can be found at Km. 6 Asin Road, Tadiangan, Tuba, Benguet; with telephone number (+63 74) 442-7165. It is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. General admission fee is Php100, while students and senior citizens with valid IDs pay only Php80.)
