The Philippine government-hosted Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) is looking to Dr. Eiji Mizushima of the University of Tsukuba, an eminent Japanese museum expert, to provide technical advice in its efforts to establish a Southeast Asian AgriMuseum in Los Baños, Laguna.
“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,” Searca Director Gil C. Saguiguit Jr said.
He added that the AgriMuseum will also “serve as a venue where the poor and the visionaries in agricultural and rural development would come together in one exhibition.”
Mizushima will visit Searca from March 6 to 10, with support from the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, under its Expert Dispatch Program to the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (Seameo) centers. Searca is the Seameo center for agriculture.
The president of the Japan Museum Management Academy and the Museum and Culture Advanced Research Centre in Asia Pacific will also give a public lecture on “Museums in an Information Society: From Collection to Digital Archives” at Searca’s Agriculture and Development Seminar Series on March 6 at Searca. The lecture will be at 3 p.m., and it is open to the public.
Mizushima will share his wealth of experience in museology, cultural resources management, and digital archives and collection management.
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.
Searca sees the SEA AgriMuseum as 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.
