With a rich history dating back to its inception in 1887, the National Museum of Singapore is Singapore’s oldest museum with the youngest and most innovative soul. Designed to be the people’s museum, the 121-year-old prides itself on introducing cutting-edge and varied ways of presenting history to redefine the conventional museum experience.
More than just a space for exhibitions and artefacts, the National Museum also distinguishes itself through its challenging and vibrant festivals and events that unleash new possibilities in culture and heritage.
The National Museum of Singapore reopened its doors to the public in December 2006 after three years of refurbishment and reinvention. The new Museum is more than twice its original size and brings more compelling content to its gallery spaces.
It has set itself the bold task of encouraging visitors to rethink the history they learn from the pages of textbooks and tourist pamphlets.
Reflecting its new soul, the Museum uses multimedia to bring history to life. The Companion, an “intelligent” audio visual guide, is specially developed for the Singapore History Gallery. The Gallery juxtaposes popular history and anecdotal history to present different points of view in two paths. The former of events path follows the historical accounts of the major events and characters of Singapore’s history, while the personal path tells it through the eyes of the man on the street. As visitors enter the gallery, they can choose to explore either path, guided along by different sets of multimedia content in The Companion that present a fresh perspective on Singapore’s history over a span of 700 years.
The four Singapore Living Galleries, namely Food, Fashion, Film and Photography, celebrate Singapore’s multi-racial and multi-cultural society and are unique platforms for the world to appreciate Singapore’s creativity through time.
The Film Gallery traces the emergence of local films and Chinese opera in Singapore. Artefacts include antique projectors, cinema tickets, exquisite Chinese opera costumes and hand puppets.
The Fashion Gallery explores the changing identities of Singaporean women through the notions of beauty and modesty. Traditional outfits from yesteryear can be found here, together with antique sewing machines and other artefacts
The Food Gallery explores the lives of Singaporeans from the 1950s to 1970s through popular dishes sold by street hawkers.
The Photography Gallery looks at how the family unit in Singapore has evolved over the past hundred years through family photographs taken in the early 20th century.
The National Museum of Singapore is the country’s largest and most modern museum, and an ancient treasure that has been brilliantly rediscovered for the modern age.