CMCI Research Seminar with Guest Industry Speaker Jorell Legaspi

About the talk: Leading Change: Developing Museum Practices in an Archipelagic Nation

The Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands inhabited by over 180 ethnolinguistic groups. The Filipino diaspora is also one of the largest with close to 11 million around the world (DFA 2024). This presents an opportunity to examine how museums in the Philippines are being developed to engage with a geographically dispersed population through the lens of the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP), a government-funded institution of Spanish and American colonial origins, and from the perspectives of its senior leadership. While the NMP strives to encourage a “profound sense of Filipino identity” and “a progressive and sustainable future” by establishing museum facilities around the country, in practice, it navigates the administrative and museological challenges of centralisation, the complexities of access and inclusion, and the growing demands of an emerging economy. This talk/discussion emphasises the importance of community participation and stakeholder engagement, placemaking and revitalisation of built heritage, and the negotiation of colonial narratives deeply ingrained in Filipino culture and their relationship to contemporary debates around museum decolonisation.

About the speaker: Jorell Legaspi

Jorell Legaspi is the Deputy Director-General for Museums at the National Museum of the Philippines, a government trust responsible for developing and managing a rapidly expanding network of museums across the Philippine archipelago. In this role, he oversees the strategic development and operations of eight curatorial divisions, exhibition production, visitor experience, public programming, collections care, communications, and digital transformation.

With over 20 years of global experience in creative and cultural industries, Jorell began his career in brand communications and popular media in Manila and Doha. He joined Qatar’s museum sector in 2010 during the founding of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art as Head of Creative Communications. In 2013, he became Head of Publications at the Museum of Islamic Art. While pursuing his master's degree in Museum and Gallery Practice at University College London’s international campus in Doha, Jorell leveraged the opportunity to immerse himself in shifting curatorial practices and museum learning approaches. In 2016, he worked on SFMOMA’s newly established Public Knowledge initiative, developing strategies to connect artist/curator-led projects with diverse, often complicated, urban communities. That same year, Jorell’s particular interest in exhibiting alternative diasporic experiences earned him a spot in a Curatorial Intensive organized by Independent Curators International, held serendipitously in Manila. It was through these strands in his research journey that Jorell’s master’s dissertation came to fruition. His study on the role of artist-run initiatives on creative placemaking and urban revitalization in Manila’s inner cities, eventually inspired his return to the Philippines in 2017. Prior to joining the National Museum of the Philippines in 2022, he was a Lecturer in De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde’s Arts Management Program and an independent consultant for local city governments, the Ministry of Culture of Saudi Arabia and Art D’Égypte

Host or Publisher Migrateful/King's College London