UST Museum of Arts and Sciences, Scientific and artistic museum in Sampaloc district, Manila, Philippines
The UST Museum of Arts and Sciences is a museum located inside the Main Building of the University of Santo Tomas in the Sampaloc district of Manila, Philippines. It holds collections covering natural history specimens, Oriental art, ethnographic materials, Philippine religious images, and historical documents from different regions and periods.
The collection began in the 17th century as a Gabinete de Fisica, a room for minerals, botanical specimens, and biological objects, set up by the Dominican fathers of the university. That early gathering of objects grew steadily over the centuries, making this the oldest operating museum in the Philippines.
The galleries display paintings by Filipino artists such as Fernando Amorsolo and Vicente Manansala, showing landscapes and everyday scenes from different periods. Alongside the paintings, ethnographic objects and religious images from across the country give a direct sense of how different communities lived.
The museum is inside the Main Building of the university on Espana Boulevard and can be reached directly from the main campus entrance. Plan enough time for the visit, as the displays fill several rooms, each with a different type of collection.
The museum runs its own conservation laboratory where objects from the collections are treated and restored using specialized techniques. This working space is not open to visitors, but its work is what keeps the artifacts in the condition seen throughout the galleries today.
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