Museums

With colonial history, and ethnic heritage Singapore has a history of its own which are depicted across many of its museums in the island state.

National Museum of Singapore

The National Museum of Singapore is the oldest museum in Singapore. Its history dates back to 1849 when it was started as a section of a library at Singapore Institution. After several relocations, the Museum was relocated to its permanent site at Stamford Road at the Museum Planning Area in 1887. The Museum is one of the four national museums in the country. The museum used to house a vast collection of zoological items, but was transferred to the National University of Singapore (NUS) and other museums in the Commonwealth. It currently has eleven precious artifacts, namely the Singapore Stone, the Gold Ornaments of the Sacred Hill from East Java, Dagguerreotype of Singapore Town which was one of the earliest photographs of Singapore, the will of Munshi Abdullah, the portrait of Frank Athelstane Swettenham, the hearse of Tan Jiak Kim, a Peranakan coffin cover, the mace of the City of Singapore commemorating King George VI's raising of the island's status to a city in 1951, the Xin Sai Le puppet stage, William Farquhar's drawings of flora and fauna and the portrait of Shenton Thomas, who was the former governor of Singapore. Rocks from the nearby Fort Canning Hill were used to create two sculptures commissioned from Cultural Medallion-winner Han Sai Por.

Asian Civilisations Museum

Asian Civilisations Museum is one of the pioneering museums in the region to specialise in pan-Asian cultures and civilisations. The museum specialises in the material history of China, Southeast Asia, South Asia and West Asia, from which the diverse ethnic groups of Singapore trace their ancestry. The Chinese collection is represented by fine Dehua porcelain figures, Taoist and Buddhistic statuary, export porcelain, calligraphy and other examples of decorative art. The South Asian Galleries feature statuary from a broad spectrum of periods including some fine Chola bronzes. Of particularly note is the Chola bronze sculpture of Uma, the consort of Shiva and that of Somaskanda. The early Buddhist art of India is also represented by works hailing from the Mathura and Gandhara schools. The red sandstone Mathura Buddha of the museum's collection dated to the Kanishka era is rare and masterful work. Other areas of note include South Indian woodwork, Nepali-Tibetan bronzes, textiles, late medieval miniatures and colonial prints. The Southeast Asian collections are broad in scope and are rich in ethnological material. Representing the aristocratic art of ancient Southeast Asia are Khmer sculptures, Javanese temple sculpture (some on loan from Leiden), later Buddhist art from Burma/ Thailand and the Sinicised temple art of Vietnam. Peranakan gold, textiles, tribal ornament and theatrical masks are other strengths of the collection. Certain gallery rooms are also used for temporary exhibitions. A recent exhibition included the display of the spectacular Bronze Age masks from Sanxingdui, Sichuan Province, China.

Singapore Art Museum

The Singapore Art Museum houses the national art collection of Singapore, possesses an impressive collection of 7750 pieces of Singaporean and Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary Art, and currently nurtures an expanding collection of New Asian and International Contemporary Art. It is one of the first art museums with international standard museum facilities and programmes in Southeast Asia and joins a league of new generation museums around the world with well-executed exhibitions and meaningful community outreach programmes. The museum is located alongside Singapore’s major performing arts and visual arts institutions: such as the Nanyang Academy of Fine Art, LaSalle College of the Arts, the Stamford Arts Centre, the Selegie Arts Centre, Singapore Calligraphy Centre, YMS Arts Centre, Dance Ensemble Singapore, Sculpture Square and Action Theatre as well as the School of the Arts.

Heritage Buildings

Singapore heritage buildings are influenced by Chinese, Malay and European architectures. Most of the heritage buildings are located around the Singapore National Parliament. The building housing the Supreme Court and the city hall are one of the most beautiful architectures in Singapore. The buildings have colonial legacy with Victorian style architecture. The old as well as new Parliament buildings narrate Singapore’s journey from colonial age to the modern age.

The most famous hotels in Singapore, The Raffles Hotel is housed one of the most beautiful Victorian style buildings in Singapore which has a charm and grandeur of its own. The Esplanade theatre across the Marina Bay resembles Singapore’s national fruit, the Durian. The tall skyscrapers in the Raffles Place remind us of lower Manhattan in New York. Apart from buildings, there are many landmarks of tourist interests. Few of them are the World War II memorial at City Hall MRT, the statue of Sir Stanford Raffles at Boat Quay etc.