FROM CONSERVED MONUMENTS TO POPULIST MUSEUM - A CASE STUDY OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY SINGAPORE

Abstract

Since the mid-1990s, Singapore produced several arts institutions from national monuments, including the Singapore Art Museum (former St. Joseph’s Institution), the Arts House (former Parliament House), the first Asian Civilisations Museum turned Peranakan Museum (former Old Tao Nan School), the current Asian Civilisations Museum (former Empress Place Building) and, most recently, the celebrated National Gallery Singapore (former Supreme Court and City Hall). There are two apercus here. First is the sheer number of museums instituted in Singapore within the last 20 years. This is part of a global phenomenon that has been attributed to the emergence of the populist museum brought upon by global capitalistic forces, whereby success of the museum is measured by “the command of money, resources, publicity, prestige, and sheer numbers of people” (Kramer, 2006). Second, the prima facie is that the modus operandi for managing conserved national monuments in Singapore is to convert them into museums. While this may well be the best case economically or, even perhaps, socially, it should not be taken as a default; it is worthwhile to investigate the intrinsic architectural qualities in conserved buildings which enhance or diminish its new museological functions. Therefore, this dissertation hypothesises that, in the context of the populist museum, the conversion of the conserved monuments into the National Gallery Singapore (NGS) serves (1) the State and NGS as a Singapore icon most, which creates challenges for (2) the Curator and the exhibition spaces in the NGS, that affects (3) the Visitor and the museum experience of the NGS. Sequenced by the hierarchy of influence over the architectural product, there is a corollary of State policies, on the curatorial decisions, which consequently impacts the visitor’s museum experience.