The SPUQC Museum

The SPUQC Museum takes pride as the only school museum of its kind to become member of the National Commission of Culture and the Arts (NCCA). Its faculty curator, Dr. Abencio V. Rotor is a member of the Commission's committee on history.

Now on its 10th year, the SPUQC Museum continues to draw visitors from the Paulinian community, the academe and the public. It offers a variety of collections classified into four sections: Paulinian culture, natural history, humanities and the arts, and Philippine culture.

Workshops, lectures and contests are held regularly in the museum, specifically to commemorate special events like St. Paul Week, Linggo ng Wika, World Food Day, Health and Dental Week, Science Week, and the like.

The museum is open during regular schooldays, or an special arrangement with the curator (Tel. 726-7986 to 88).

The SPUQC Archives on the other hand is a repository of important records and historical documents about the SPC congregation and the school.

IMAGES OF NATURE IN MURAL
Part 1: The Tropical Rain Forest
By Dr. Abercio V. Rotor

The idea of Nature represents the entire universe in a state of perfection. Nature is one: it unites heaven connecting human beings with the stars and bringing them all together in a single family. Nature is beautiful. Nature is ordered. A divine law determines its arrangement, namely the subordination of the means to the end, and the parts to the whole.
Above is the caption I placed on a mural painting I recently finished for the St. Paul University System, Quezon City campus. After putting down my brush I took a view of the mural from a distance. The scene, unspoiled nature, nature spared from the hands of man and typified by the tropical rain forest, flowed out from a formerly blank wall.

In the course of painting the mural for seven days, and in the following days after its unveiling, I took notice of the reactions of viewers. It must be the stillness of the scene, the freshness of its atmosphere, and the apparent quaintness that attract passers-by, as if there is something therapeutic in it. It seems to slow down busy feet and soothe tired nerves, and there is something mysterious beyond aesthetics, too, for the huge scene is a drama of life completely different from city living. It is respite. It is transformation from concrete to greenery, cityscape to landscape, noosphere to ecosphere.

Yet I found it difficult to give the mural a title and an explanation that could capture both its essence and message. This time, many ideas crowded my mind, when at the start of painting, the difficulty was on how and where to start painting. What else is there to say after one has "said" everything in colors and lines, hues and shadows, perspective and design? What more do authors tell after the last page of their book? For a painting, it is the same.

Relaxation did not come easy to me after many hours of concentration on the subject, and in dealing with a fast-drying medium, acrylic, more so in catching fleeting impressions and recollections in the process of painting. I took a pen and slowly wrote my thoughts. From the mural I saw the scenery of my childhood on the farm, views in my travels here and abroad, imagery from my readings, and views drawn out like a thread from a mass of cyber ball. It was imagery and memory working together.  Read more about Images of Nature in Mural...