45-65 at the National Museum and A Surprise Discovery

When I got wind of this new exhibition at the National Museum, I was pretty much excited for two reasons. First, admission is free; secondly, it talks about our pre independence history, the period between 1945 and 1965, that I recently found an interest in. Let this short introduction whet your appetite:

The exhibition brings visitors through the tumultuous period of post-war recovery and illustrates the challenges and hardships of building a nation then. At the same time, the awakening of a national consciousness further contributed to the determined struggle for decolonisation and self-rule. The events of these 20 years of rebuilding a nation, independence from the British and separation from Malaysia - set the stage in our quest for a national identity.

The surprising thing is, through the exhibition which I visited on 8 July just one day after its opening, I made a discovery of a "second shot nature", which incidentally has nothing to do with the exhibition at all.

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Plug for International Museum Day 2012

A sign that I have not been keeping up with happenings in our heritage institutions, I was somehow taken aback to receive not one, but two emails from one external public relations company of NHB which reminded me that International Museum Day (IMD) is just around the corner this weekend. Do mark this date down, if you are an avid museum-goer, or if you are simply waiting for a free lunch from NHB, because IMD is an open house day for the 7 NHB museums, so visitors get to enjoy free admission to the exhibits.

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Soft Launch of Good Morning Yesterday @ Peranakan Museum

After "many many hours of disciplined hard work", the baby is finally out of the oven. For Chun See, with the publishing of Good Morning Yesterday the blog into Good Morning Yesterday the book, all those hours toiling in front of the computer to write and rewrite the chapters must have been worth it. Congratulations to Chun See for achieving the next milestone in his heritage blogging career!

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The Early Bird Catches the Worm, the Late Bird Catches a Free Worm - My Visit to Pompeii Exhibition

Our NHB has habit of throwing surprises like proverbial free worms. Since Oct 16 last year, the National Museum of Singapore (NMS) ran an exhibition titled Pompeii: Life in a Roman Town 79CE priced at $12 for adults, $6 for Senior and NSF and free for students and children. Suddenly without warning, like Mount Vesuvius the protagonist in the Pompeii story, it was announced that admission would be free during the two weekends before the exhibition ends on Jan 23. In effect it was an undeclared Open House as I were to discover in NMS: admission to other galleries were free too!

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National Art Gallery Open House – From where did our PM see the Cows?

As I stood dejected in City Hall, having missed out the goodie bag and the organized tour despite being an early bird, I resigned to fate, became my own tour guide and found my way to the Chamber. Alas, it was darkened for some architectural video screening. Then it hit me that I am now lost, wandering along the corridors of City Hall and not knowing what is my objective. At this moment, my mind recalled a photo in Dr Tan’s stamp book and instantly my interest in City Hall was re-aroused.

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National Art Gallery Open House - Gather Moments While You May

To be honest, I have not heard of the song that has in its lyrics my title for today (I’m not that old, hor). Incidentally the two most famous heritage bloggers in Singapore - Chun See and Laokokok – got their blog names from the song. Which reminds me, maybe I should change my blog to "The Memories You Left Behind" or "Do you remember, baby" to ride on the good name of the song, heh. My title was inspired by Chun See when he blogged, using the same title, about fast disappearing scenes in Queenstown. I will do the same today but for "fast disappearing scenes" in our future National Art Gallery.

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National Art Gallery Open House - I was in the Chamber

I have to admit I am not a person who likes going to art galleries, which explains why after so many years I have not stepped into the Singapore Art Museum at former SJI. However when the future National Art Gallery had its Open House last weekend, it was a different matter. Visitors like me flocked to the former Supreme Court and City Hall, not to look at artworks, but to learn about the rich history of the two grand national monuments. Quite literally the Open House was a last chance for the public to visit before the two monuments close for redevelopment into the National Art Gallery.

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2nd Shot: Where's the tree outside National Museum?

For over a century, the National Museum stand guard at the junction of Stamford and Orchard Road and bear witness to the changes in her surrounding. While geography has not changed - the building sitting at the foot of Fort Canning Hill and embraced by the gentle downslope curl of Fort Canning Road - a significant landmark visible in the old photo has gone missing.

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On the Quest for Immortality at the National Museum

NHB had the customary Chinese New Year Open House on Tuesday, which marked the end of the long weekend Chinese New Year holidays. While people were stuffing themselves silly with bak kwa, pineapple tarts and their pocket with red packets, I took to the streets on Monday and Tuesday brandishing my camera ready for action mission. I had a "field day" looking for trees, walls, buildings and cemeteries. The National Museum I visited with this mentality, that the imaginary crowd were still chewing on their tarts at home.

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Female Nudes and Dead Horses at Deepavali Open House (Answer to Red Dot Quiz 5)

Quiz 5 was conceived at the National Museum and foreground shows the roof of the museum new annex. Thanks to all who participated. Once again, Victor never ceased to amaze us with his googling (and triangulation) skills.

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Mooncake Galore, Tea Parade, Lantern Riddles and the Goodie Bag at NHB Mid-Autumn Party

The FOYERs were cordially invited to NHB's "exclusive celebratory private party" - By the Light of the Lanterns - at Hua Song Museum. I have blogged about the museum tour; part 2 is about the party. It's party time!

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Free Tour of Hua Song Museum at NHB Mid-Autumn Party

The FOYERs were cordially invited to NHB's "exclusive celebratory private party" - By the Light of the Lanterns - at Hua Song Museum. I RSVPed, in anticipation of the free things what is to come.

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How I Beat the Crowd (Again) on International Museum Day

Quiz first - when is International Museum Day (IMD)? You may not get the answer after 365 attempts because there is no definite date. In fact, the International Council of Museums recommends celebratory activities around 18 May for members. Since 2006, IMD has been celebrated at NHB's museums during the last two weeks of May. This year, IMD fell on 23-31 May.

31 May was Open House Day (read: free entry) for participating museums. A sucker for free heritage stuff, I strategized/schemed to squeeze the most out of the lobang. Let's do the sums. Here's the list of NHB participating museums and the normal adult admission charges:

8Q Sam - $3
Asian Civilization Museum - $8
Memories at Old Ford Factory - $3
National Museum of Singapore - $10
Reflections at Bukit Chandu - $2
Singapore Art Museum - $8
Singapore Philatelic Museum - $5
The Peranakan Museum - $6

The $10 choice was out because this sucker has visited the National Museum on another occassion (read: another open house). ACM was picked because I can't appreciate art this would be my first visit and I could enjoy the Kangxi Emperor exhibition free.

My plan ready, its execution awaits on 31 May.

Finally the big day arrived. I alighted at City Hall MRT Station and grabbed my breakfast at Ya Kun Raffles Place. Luckily I stuffed myself 4 slices of bread because as it turned out, I skipped lunch later. The morning stroll to ACM along St. Andrew's Road was leisurely. The museum opens 9am on Sunday and I was there at 9:30.

The museum received her morning group of visitors but there was no crowd. You'd be hard-pressed to find a single soul at the entrance fronting the Singapore River.

By 11:30, I had chiong most of the galleries including the Kangxi Emperor exhibition. Here's the situation at the foyer and outside just before noon.

I hid inside the neighboring air-conditioned Art House before returning for a documentary screening at 1pm. The documentary was OK and I enjoyed my short nap near the end of the 45 minutes programme.

The crowd now had morphed into a long snake attacking the Special Exhibitions Gallery ....

The snake could climb stairs ....

and filled the area outside the entrance ....

even outside the museum ....

and into the tentage meant for Ancient Chinese Sports.

I laughed all the way to the bank beamed with pride about being the early bird again. It is regrettable that IMD may be the last Open House before the Kangxi Emperor exhibition ends its run on 28 June 09.

The queue was targeted at the exhibition; access to the other galleries remained uncontrolled. The museum repeated this announcement over the PA system. Some people might queue in vain when they could have given the exhibition a miss and chiong other galleries. Others might be intimidated by the queue and gave up on visiting ACM.