Review - Tumba Tumba Children’s Museum of Philippine Art

My mom and I recently went to UP Vargas Museum to go see “ Tumba Tumba Children’s Museum of Philippine Art”. This exhibit was presented by CANVAS, or The Center for Art, New Ventures, and Sustainable Development, as a study of an actual operating museum.  

Be prepared for a bunch of blurry pictures. I'm still learning how to take good, focused ones.

That's me standing beside the sign. So small!

When we were outside I noticed that there were colorful strings that act like walls but they are so thin that I barely noticed them, so be careful about that feature. After we went in and avoided the rainbow strings of annoyance, we had to register and leave our bags at the concierge.

After we gave our bags to him we noticed a shelf containing many weird things like a city made out of staples and a dragon/mini flamethrower. These were part of Abubot. These were pieces of art created by found objects like old books, used stapels, etc.

After Abubot, we took a right turn and was presented a room dedicated the works of  Renato “Jojo” Barjo, Jr. The people he painted and made into 3-D sculptures were real people that he came across while commuting.

 Each picture has a sad story like “The evacuee” beside a lovely picture the description says “ I get very scared when I hear loud noises, If my dad were here I wouldn’t be scared but I haven’t seen him ever since the day men shot at our house and he pushed me outside and told me to run.”

We walked through the amazingly creepy exhibit and we saw a book labeled “Children’s stories” It contained every story of all the pictures in the room. Each story made me sad and my stomach felt weird until I went home.

After that, we went into a room about cats! The exhibit is called, "Ang Aklatang Pusa," I love cats, specially the loyal ones. The happiness about cats made me forget about the sad stories for a while! This tiny room was filled with the works of Jared Yokte.

See the cat at the side?

Wall of cats

Trying  out Cats & Ladders

Jared Yokte is a great painter and an even greater sculptor. He even received a reward from Juniors choice awards in the Philippine art awards. 


While going upstairs, we noticed a painting. It was a picture of a man holding a lamp, and beside it was an actual old lamp, paper, pencils, and a sign that said “ Draw this lamp!”. After examining the cool lamp beside it, we saw another thing on the stairs, it was a clock with a man on a bike on it with a crank. When I turned the crank the man on top of the box of gears started to bike! I was amazed! Inside there were a lot of gears that was put together in order to make the clock move and the man too.

When we finally reached the top there was not much of interest for me. First thing we visited was a memory game with pictures of flowers. I played this with my mom and I won!

There was a room called “ Ipapasyal Namin si Lolo” where there were old pictures of houses people, paper foldings and how to make them. After that, there was a corridor showcasing 3 books that are going to be released and a picture of a giant carrying the moon. 

The exhibit will be until July 27. 

Tips: You will have to leave your big bags at the counter. Bring a jacket because it gets cold when it rains. UP students will need to pay 20 pesos as entrance fee. Outsiders pay 30 pesos. Parking is at the back of the building.

That’s all! I hope you enjoy!