The Empty Museum: A Southeast Asian Perspective

Abstract

We now regard the COVID-19 pandemic as a disaster like no other caught as we were, by the lack of foresight into its impacts on our lives and our work. With the creative and tourism industries most affected, museums were forced to reinvent their management strategies. In the context of Southeast Asia, the most immediate shock was the absence of visitors around mid-March 2020 when museums were forced to close and only a handful of staff were allowed to report for work to curb a silent and deadly disease from further spreading.

From conversations I have had with colleagues in the region through email and messenger, I realised that it took us some time to adapt to this new emergency situation. Our Disaster Risk Preparedness programmes focused on anticipating shorter, more dramatic events such as fire, flood, and civil strife. The shift from physical programmes to digital ones was difficult for many of us who did not consider the online format as effective as those public programmes we present in our galleries and activity centres.

This article attempts to give an overview of Southeast Asian museum managers’ perspectives from conversations I had with them between March 2020 and October 2021, when most Southeast Asian museums were opening tentatively. Bearing in mind the impacts on our staff, we discussed how the pandemic might determine how we run our facilities and organisations, and the potential relevance of this perspective on an international scale.

Keywords:

• Southeast Asia
• Pandemic
• Museums
• Mental health
• Covid-19

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador

Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador, PhD, is Honorary Senior Fellow of the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. Before stepping down as Deputy Director-General for Museums at the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) in 2021, she was for 10 years responsible for research development, museology, and technical assistance. Her role as chief curator and head of collections management was to make National Collections and sites accessible to audiences in its three flagship museums in Manila and 15 NMPs in different parts of the country. Dr Labrador is a social anthropologist and museologist by training, having obtained a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2000 and an MA in Museum and Gallery Management from the City, University of London in 1991. She taught for 22 years at the University of the Philippines at Diliman and Ateneo de Manila University. She is presently a member of the International Council of Museum’s Standing Committee for the Museum Definition, ICOM Define.