06/05/2026
National Heritage Month celebration in the Philippines often turns attention to churches, ancestral houses, and historical monuments; but this year, one exhibition at the National Museum of Fine Arts is revisiting a different chapter of the country’s cultural memory—the sleek, glamorous, and distinctly modern world of Art Deco, the design movement that reshaped Philippine architecture, fashion, and everyday life in the early 20th century.
“Art Deco was the design sensation of the 20th century. The French government wanted to cement their status as the forefront of design in the world at the time,” said Ivan Man Dy, author of “Deco Filipino: Art Deco Heritage in the Philippines” and guest curator of the exhibition, noting that the style was introduced to the Philippines by “Western-educated Filipino architects” such as Juan Arellano and Tomas Mapua.
𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲—𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀.
