Walking into a museum, full of detailed art exhibits and culture is a wonderful experience. Not only is it an jaw-dropping sight to see, it exposes individuals to the art of the culture they belong to, and to be able to go deeper within ancestry is unbelievably interesting.

On October 1st 2017, Heritage High School’s Filipino Club took a field trip to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, California to celebrate Filipino heritage Month.

The Asian Art Museum held an exhibition on 25 Filipino works of art, from indigenous peoples jewelry to modern religious Catholic art. This exhibition was the first to show art from the pre-colonial period to modern time in America.

  “This experience helped me feel more connected to my culture, looking at the woven blankets that were from the indigenous peoples reminded me of the similar woven blankets that are in my house right now,” stated club member Milayna Lapitan (9).

  “The religious artwork that was showcased in the exhibit reminded me of my Catholic roots,  and evoked a weird emotion out of me. Catholicism plays such a huge role in my culture and i’ve never really noticed it this much to be honest, a good portion of the art that was showcased was Catholic-based,” said Jaelyn Lapitan (10).

 Most of the time at the museum was used silently looking at the art in awe, but interns from Art Speak high school held arts and crafts activities throughout the museum. One of those activities were lantern-making, the club members started making Filipino lanterns which were made of decorated thin cloth, ribbon, an a electric candle in the center.

  Due to time constraints, the group was not able to attend the big event that the museum was holding which had local Filipino folk dance group, The American Center of Philippine Arts, perform several indigenous dances. They performed Tinikling, Binasuan, and other ethnic dances of the Philippines.