Fortnight-long celebration of free events and activities includes weekend carnival; admission will be free for all
By Huang Lijie, Arts Correspondent, The Straits Times, 4 Nov 2015
The National Gallery Singapore, which has been in the making for a decade, will open on Nov 24 with a two week-long celebration of free events and activities.
* PM Lee Hsien Loong unveils National Gallery Singapore
The opening weekend, in particular, will be marked by a carnival that spills out of the museum and onto the Padang, with roads in the area closed to traffic. The outdoor block party from Nov 27 to 29 will run from 5pm to midnight and include art workshops, interactive installations and food stalls at the Padang.
Admission to the museum's galleries and exhibitions will also be free for all visitors during the opening fortnight, from Nov 24 to Dec 6. The museum is open during this period from 10am to 7pm, Mondays to Thursdays, and 10am to 11pm from Fridays to Sundays.
Admission to the museum's galleries after the opening celebrations remains free for Singapore citizens and permanent residents, as well as children aged six and under, except for special exhibitions. For non-Singaporean adults, admission is priced at $20, and for children aged seven to 12, admission is $15.
At Tuesday's (Nov 3) press briefing on the museum's opening celebrations, its chief executive Chong Siak Ching said: "We want as many people as possible to enjoy the art and our programmes. We will have over 20 free events, exciting performances, including a grand facade show... and many other art activities for all ages."
The facade show, held during the opening weekend, is a light and sound display that will project animated images of iconic works from the museum's collection, including Cheong Soo Pieng's Drying Salted Fish and Chua Mia Tee's Epic Poem Of Malaya, across the front of the former Supreme Court and City Hall, which the museum occupies.
In line with the museum's mission to make art come alive and have it spark creativity, the opening celebrations will also feature performances in the genres of dance, music, theatre and film.
The Arts Fission Company will perform a dance inspired by the shades of red in works of art in the galleries, at the Padang Atrium space, while theatre group spell#7 will stage a participatory play on the second floor of the City Hall Wing that is inspired by Chua Mia Tee's National Language Class.
By Huang Lijie, Arts Correspondent, The Straits Times, 4 Nov 2015
The National Gallery Singapore, which has been in the making for a decade, will open on Nov 24 with a two week-long celebration of free events and activities.
* PM Lee Hsien Loong unveils National Gallery Singapore
The opening weekend, in particular, will be marked by a carnival that spills out of the museum and onto the Padang, with roads in the area closed to traffic. The outdoor block party from Nov 27 to 29 will run from 5pm to midnight and include art workshops, interactive installations and food stalls at the Padang.
Admission to the museum's galleries and exhibitions will also be free for all visitors during the opening fortnight, from Nov 24 to Dec 6. The museum is open during this period from 10am to 7pm, Mondays to Thursdays, and 10am to 11pm from Fridays to Sundays.
Admission to the museum's galleries after the opening celebrations remains free for Singapore citizens and permanent residents, as well as children aged six and under, except for special exhibitions. For non-Singaporean adults, admission is priced at $20, and for children aged seven to 12, admission is $15.
At Tuesday's (Nov 3) press briefing on the museum's opening celebrations, its chief executive Chong Siak Ching said: "We want as many people as possible to enjoy the art and our programmes. We will have over 20 free events, exciting performances, including a grand facade show... and many other art activities for all ages."
The facade show, held during the opening weekend, is a light and sound display that will project animated images of iconic works from the museum's collection, including Cheong Soo Pieng's Drying Salted Fish and Chua Mia Tee's Epic Poem Of Malaya, across the front of the former Supreme Court and City Hall, which the museum occupies.
In line with the museum's mission to make art come alive and have it spark creativity, the opening celebrations will also feature performances in the genres of dance, music, theatre and film.
The Arts Fission Company will perform a dance inspired by the shades of red in works of art in the galleries, at the Padang Atrium space, while theatre group spell#7 will stage a participatory play on the second floor of the City Hall Wing that is inspired by Chua Mia Tee's National Language Class.
Three short films, commissioned for the opening, will also premiere at the celebrations in conjunction with the Singapore International Film Festival. The trio of films inaugurates the museum's annual film commission series, which premieres South-east Asian short films inspired by art in the museum.
The museum, which can accommodate up to 8,000 visitors at a time, expects 120,000 people to take part in the fortnight-long celebrations. To manage the anticipated crowd and minimise queues, admission tickets during the opening fortnight will be released online from tomorrow at https://tickets.nationalgallery.sg. While admission to the galleries is free during the opening fortnight, tickets are required for entry and, should there be a crowd, priority will be given to visitors with pre-booked tickets.
Once in, visitors can navigate the 64,000 sq m museum and locate 100 key works of art in the galleries with the help of the museum's Gallery Explorer mobile application.
The mobile app, developed in partnership with Accenture, offers visitors self-guided tours and turn-by-turn directions from one's current location to points of interest within the museum. It also provides additional information for some 100 works of art, as well as allows users to share and comment on their favourite works, and even come up with their own customised tour. The app is free for download from Apple's App Store from Nov 18 and will be available on the Google Play Store later.
Ms Chong said: "(The mobile app) encourages visitors to create dialogues about their experiences with art, which we believe is a very important aspect in making the Gallery a place that visitors will keep returning to, and also a place for the community."
Celebration highlights
The Straits Times, 4 Nov 2015
Five highlights from the National Gallery Singapore's two week-long opening celebrations:
Art Carnival
What: A block party will be held at the Padang offering art workshops, interactive installations and food stalls. Visitors can also enjoy a 10-minute light and sound show projected across the museum's facade three times a night at 8, 9 and 10pm.
Where: The Padang
When: Nov 27 to 29, 5pm to midnight daily
Art Forum: Trends and points of collaboration across museums
What: The museum's curatorial and collections director Low Sze Wee will be joined by museum directors and specialists from Hong Kong and China who will discuss how museums in Asia can boost art appreciation and scholarship.
Where: National Gallery Singapore Auditorium, City Hall Wing, basement 1
When: Nov 26, 10am to noon
Memora(film)ia: Random Acts Of Remembering
What: Three short films by Kan Lume, Megan Wonowidjoyo, Sanif Olek and Liao Jiekai, commissioned for the museum's opening celebrations, will make their world premiere. This trio of films inaugurates the museum's annual film commission series, which premieres South-east Asian short films inspired by art in the museum.
Where: National Gallery Singapore Theatrette, Supreme Court Wing, level 5
When: Nov 27 to Dec 6, start of each hour from 10am to 10pm, Fridays to Sundays, and 10am to 6pm, Mondays to Thursdays
Resonates With
What: This performance of cross-genre musical collaborations between classical music ensembles and contemporary musicians is curated by multi-disciplinary artist Bani Haykal. The sounds are inspired by the works and lives of artists featured in the museum.
Where: National Gallery Padang Atrium
When: Nov 27 to 29 and Dec 4 to 6, 7.30, 8.30 and 9.30pm daily
In The Name Of Red
What: This site-specific performance by home-grown contemporary dance group The Arts Fission Company is inspired by the shades of red in works of art in the galleries.
Where: National Gallery Padang Atrium
When: Dec 4 to 6, 9pm daily
The Straits Times, 4 Nov 2015
Five highlights from the National Gallery Singapore's two week-long opening celebrations:
Art Carnival
What: A block party will be held at the Padang offering art workshops, interactive installations and food stalls. Visitors can also enjoy a 10-minute light and sound show projected across the museum's facade three times a night at 8, 9 and 10pm.
Where: The Padang
When: Nov 27 to 29, 5pm to midnight daily
Art Forum: Trends and points of collaboration across museums
What: The museum's curatorial and collections director Low Sze Wee will be joined by museum directors and specialists from Hong Kong and China who will discuss how museums in Asia can boost art appreciation and scholarship.
Where: National Gallery Singapore Auditorium, City Hall Wing, basement 1
When: Nov 26, 10am to noon
Memora(film)ia: Random Acts Of Remembering
What: Three short films by Kan Lume, Megan Wonowidjoyo, Sanif Olek and Liao Jiekai, commissioned for the museum's opening celebrations, will make their world premiere. This trio of films inaugurates the museum's annual film commission series, which premieres South-east Asian short films inspired by art in the museum.
Where: National Gallery Singapore Theatrette, Supreme Court Wing, level 5
When: Nov 27 to Dec 6, start of each hour from 10am to 10pm, Fridays to Sundays, and 10am to 6pm, Mondays to Thursdays
Resonates With
What: This performance of cross-genre musical collaborations between classical music ensembles and contemporary musicians is curated by multi-disciplinary artist Bani Haykal. The sounds are inspired by the works and lives of artists featured in the museum.
Where: National Gallery Padang Atrium
When: Nov 27 to 29 and Dec 4 to 6, 7.30, 8.30 and 9.30pm daily
In The Name Of Red
What: This site-specific performance by home-grown contemporary dance group The Arts Fission Company is inspired by the shades of red in works of art in the galleries.
Where: National Gallery Padang Atrium
When: Dec 4 to 6, 9pm daily
Building the future while saving the past
By Jose B. Collazo and Curtis S. Chin, Published The Straits Times, 5 Nov 2015
After three years of legal haggling, the intertwined fate of Manila's 49-storey Torre de Manila condominium tower and historic Rizal Monument is now in the hands of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. Completed in 1913, the monument is a popular site erected to honour national hero Jose Rizal.
Final arguments wrapped up in September over whether the condo, already under construction and dubbed by opponents the "national photobomber", harms the monument's "physical integrity". Petitioners seek its demolition for allegedly marring the skyline of the Rizal Monument. The court has yet to give its findings.
Whatever the outcome, the Rizal Monument has fared much better than other urban heritage sites throughout South-east Asia. It will have had its day in court. Other sites have not been as lucky.
If not already demolished for rampant urban development projects sweeping Asia, a city's heritage sites are often dwarfed by them. This process threatens a city's distinctive quality of life and urban vibe, and severs the past and present from the future.
In Myanmar, in the city once known as Rangoon, the race is on for the Yangon Heritage Trust to catalogue the nearly 200 buildings it has identified as part of the one-time capital city's unique heritage. This includes architectural gems from the city's British colonial past, such as the Secretariat and High Court Building. Yet, cataloguing and then conserving and revitalising are all very different challenges.
Sadly, it is too late for some of the works of Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann. His New Khmer Architecture movement blossomed in the 1960s, fusing traditional Khmer building styles with Modern Movement elements.
Two of Molyvann's masterpieces, the Council of Ministers building and National Theatre, have been erased from Phnom Penh's cityscape. His iconic National Olympic Stadium is being hemmed in by rapidly encroaching development. That structure's significance is gradually being drained by what seems is quickly becoming every city's must-have vanity project - a glass-encased, high-rise condominium building.
But, we would be wrong to think that the phenomenon of disappearing urban heritage - and the debate over it - is a challenge for just "developing Asia" or of South-east Asia alone.
Today, even in the wealthiest of Asia's nations, Japan, the outcry still resonates over the impending demolition of the main building of Tokyo's Hotel Okura. Protests also have led in part to the cancellation of a design for a new Olympic stadium that would have overshadowed the iconic Olympic Arena created by architect Kenzo Tange for the 1964 games.
By Jose B. Collazo and Curtis S. Chin, Published The Straits Times, 5 Nov 2015
Final arguments wrapped up in September over whether the condo, already under construction and dubbed by opponents the "national photobomber", harms the monument's "physical integrity". Petitioners seek its demolition for allegedly marring the skyline of the Rizal Monument. The court has yet to give its findings.
Whatever the outcome, the Rizal Monument has fared much better than other urban heritage sites throughout South-east Asia. It will have had its day in court. Other sites have not been as lucky.
If not already demolished for rampant urban development projects sweeping Asia, a city's heritage sites are often dwarfed by them. This process threatens a city's distinctive quality of life and urban vibe, and severs the past and present from the future.
In Myanmar, in the city once known as Rangoon, the race is on for the Yangon Heritage Trust to catalogue the nearly 200 buildings it has identified as part of the one-time capital city's unique heritage. This includes architectural gems from the city's British colonial past, such as the Secretariat and High Court Building. Yet, cataloguing and then conserving and revitalising are all very different challenges.
Sadly, it is too late for some of the works of Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann. His New Khmer Architecture movement blossomed in the 1960s, fusing traditional Khmer building styles with Modern Movement elements.
Two of Molyvann's masterpieces, the Council of Ministers building and National Theatre, have been erased from Phnom Penh's cityscape. His iconic National Olympic Stadium is being hemmed in by rapidly encroaching development. That structure's significance is gradually being drained by what seems is quickly becoming every city's must-have vanity project - a glass-encased, high-rise condominium building.
But, we would be wrong to think that the phenomenon of disappearing urban heritage - and the debate over it - is a challenge for just "developing Asia" or of South-east Asia alone.
Today, even in the wealthiest of Asia's nations, Japan, the outcry still resonates over the impending demolition of the main building of Tokyo's Hotel Okura. Protests also have led in part to the cancellation of a design for a new Olympic stadium that would have overshadowed the iconic Olympic Arena created by architect Kenzo Tange for the 1964 games.
Urban preservationists point to the Hotel Okura as a jewel of Japanese Modernism architecture, which took root in the 1960s. The now-closed main building is a synthesis of modern design and traditional themes found in Japanese culture. Stepping into the hotel's lobby was like entering a time machine, transporting one back to a bygone, more glamorous and jet-set era.
The impending demolition of the Hotel Okura's main building raises the question of whether Tokyo, and for that matter any of Asia's cities from Yangon to Manila, can better manage the development process.
An unlikely inspiration to how different things can be lies across the street from the Hotel Okura at the United States Embassy in Tokyo. Ms Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the mother of the current US ambassador to Japan, Ms Caroline Kennedy, was no stranger to urban preservation.
In 1975, alarmed that the Beaux Arts-inspired Grand Central Terminal's preservation status was revoked, the former first lady partnered members of New York's Municipal Art Society to prevent the now-landmarked building's demolition. In place of the train station terminus, developers had proposed a 55-storey office tower.
In her letter to then New York City Mayor Abraham Beame, she wrote: "Dear Mayor Beame... is it not cruel to let our city die by degrees, stripped of all her proud moments, until there is nothing left of all her history and beauty to inspire our children? If they are not inspired by the past of our city, where will they find the strength to fight for her future?"
Thanks to her efforts, Grand Central Terminal, with its unique murals and masonry work, still inspires. Many of South-east Asia's historic urban structures, such as Malaysia's Alor Setar Railway Station which also was spared from demolition, can do the same.
LEE KUAN YEW ON HERITAGE
Today, millions of dollars are spent on campaigns to lure tourists to the region's cities. Experience firsthand the diversity and energy that have given birth to this "Asian Century", the country branding campaigns convey. How, though, can Asia's cities provide visitors an authentic experience if each city becomes indistinguishable from the other?
One need only look to the words of Singapore's founding prime minister, the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, to understand how important South-east Asia's endangered urban heritage is. "We made our share of mistakes in Singapore," he said in March 1995, acknowledging that in the process of building the young nation, too many of its signature buildings were demolished. "We realised we were destroying a valuable part of our cultural heritage, that we were demolishing what tourists found attractive and unique about Singapore."
LEE KUAN YEW ON HERITAGE
Today, millions of dollars are spent on campaigns to lure tourists to the region's cities. Experience firsthand the diversity and energy that have given birth to this "Asian Century", the country branding campaigns convey. How, though, can Asia's cities provide visitors an authentic experience if each city becomes indistinguishable from the other?
One need only look to the words of Singapore's founding prime minister, the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, to understand how important South-east Asia's endangered urban heritage is. "We made our share of mistakes in Singapore," he said in March 1995, acknowledging that in the process of building the young nation, too many of its signature buildings were demolished. "We realised we were destroying a valuable part of our cultural heritage, that we were demolishing what tourists found attractive and unique about Singapore."
But it is not too late to reverse this process. The frenzied pace of Asia's urbanisation need not lead to the wanton destruction of historic structures across the region.
Today, Asia's cities struggle to balance growth and urban preservation. Singapore has learnt the value of its heritage. Efforts to keep and revitalise historically ethnic neighbourhoods from Chinatown to Little India have paid off. Buildings also are being adapted and put to new uses. This month, the National Gallery Singapore will reopen in two of Singapore's iconic colonial-era buildings, the former Supreme Court and City Hall, opposite the Padang.
Five years out from its Olympics - the next Summer Games to be held in Asia, in 2020 - Tokyo also has a real opportunity to show that urbanisation can be managed differently as new buildings go up. This paradigm shift is urgently needed.
Five years out from its Olympics - the next Summer Games to be held in Asia, in 2020 - Tokyo also has a real opportunity to show that urbanisation can be managed differently as new buildings go up. This paradigm shift is urgently needed.
Japan, like China - together the largest economies in the world, after the United States - could certainly be a better example for an Asia-Pacific striving to forge cities that showcase the modern and the traditional. How sad that in so many tests, Tokyo has failed to show the way, as has its economic rival, Beijing, in their rush to modernise.
But perhaps, too, like cherry blossoms too soon gone, the Okura Hotel and other beloved sites brought down by real estate developers can inspire us by underscoring how fleeting is a city's beauty as it vanishes.
Let's hope that as South-east Asia moves forward, it finds that illusive balance between the best of the past and the present, while building for the future. We believe it can.
The first writer, a South-east Asia analyst, is an associate at advisory firm RiverPeak Group. The second writer, a former US ambassador to the Asian Development Bank, is RiverPeak managing director.
The first writer, a South-east Asia analyst, is an associate at advisory firm RiverPeak Group. The second writer, a former US ambassador to the Asian Development Bank, is RiverPeak managing director.
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