5 Things You Can Do for the Manila Metropolitan Theater

This heritage building lay silently like a beautiful creature decaying under urban grime, graffiti, and the shadow of a noisy flyover. The Manila Metropolitan Theater, built in 1931 and once a glowing symbol of pre-war Philippines, had been forgotten for almost two decades. It is one of the finest examples of Art Deco and was created by the best artists of that time, with architecture by Juan Arellano, sculptures by Francesco Riccardo Monti, carvings by Isabelo Tampingco, and murals by Fernando Amorsolo.

In recent years, the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the National Center for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) worked on an agreement on reviving the theater. The NCCA eventually bought it from GSIS in 2015, and renovations are currently under way. While we wait for its ultimate transformation, here are five things we can do—because information is an important part of the conservation.