Sunday 10 August 2008

SAM & ACM

We went to Singapore Art Museum (SAM) & Asia Civilisation Museum (ACM) today. SAM is located on Bras Basah Road which is opposite SMU and is within walking distance from the National Museum.
Singapore Art Museum SAM stands for Singapore Art Museum

SAM was located on the Former St Joseph’s Institution. The premise was gazetted as a national monument in 1987. The design of the the classical grand façade and dome was inspired by Bernini’s Colonnade in front of the St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Front Facade

If I remember correctly, these 5 "dolls" were previously situated along the Singapore river at Clarke Quay.
Forgot their names

There are 3 storey inside the museum. All the 5 museums which I have visited have lift access except the Philatelic museum which makes them disabled friendly.

If this is part of my house...

Isn't the lights unique?

Notice that the 1st goddess is carrying a laptop? The 4th goddness is carrying a PDA. Haha... They are so modern.


6 goddess

Punching bag

Astronaut

Dog?

Shaking hand

Spiderman?

YQ handprint
Special shape basket
Starburst


Frankly speaking, SAM is really not my cup of tea. We spent less than 1 hr in SAM and we nearly fall asleep while visiting the galleries. Seems that those paintings are lullabies. I really dunno how to appreciate them. Those photos which I had taken are the more interesting ones. We have skipped the paintings.

We continued to our next destination - Asian Cilvilisation Museum (ACM). ACM is located at the Empress Place Building which is near the Singapore river. Empress Place Building used to house the Citizen's Registry, Immigration Department, and Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Asian Cilvilisation Museum

Civil officer 文官 Military officer 武官
Weaving machine Look at the sign for direction

ACM houses 11 galleries which showcase over 1,300 artefacts on the civilisations of China, Southeast Asia, South Asia and West Asia/ Islamic. Now I realised that we missed out the gallery on Singapore River. Never mind,  we shall visit the museum again next time.


Ancient bronze drum
Map of China

Dragon robe

文房四宝 - 纸,毛笔,墨 & 砚

Deities

New knowledge learn


Just for fun
I like this colourful window
Maze


YQ is trapped

After visiting ACM, we enjoyed ourself by sitting along the Singapore River eating ice-cream and enjoying the skyscrapers, clouds and breeze. It is such a relax day on Sunday at Raffles Place watching people strolling along the Singapore River. Actually I realise that there are quite a lot of things that are free in the world but maybe we just don't have the time to slow down our pace to enjoy it.

Competing to be the richest

Victoria concert hall

Actually there are more than 19 museums in Singapore which include the 7 National Heritage Board museums and other museums such as the Mint Museum of Toys, NUS Museum and many more.

Among the 5 museums which I have visited, the Philatelic museum is the most interesting. It's because I'm a stamp collector and I had been collecting stamps since primary 3. Amazing that in the IT era now, I'm still collecting stamps and phonecards. 

The museum that I found the least interesting without doubt is the SAM. This is the museum which I spent the least time in it and I doubt I'll revisit in the future. I'll definitely revisit the other museums again if there are interesting exhibitions. I still find the peranakan funeral wake creepy although I only took a glance at it and didn't went inside.

Visiting museums is indeed an educative experience and in the future, I would definitely bring my kids to these museums.

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