Asian Civilisations Museum seeks new faces to breathe life into exhibits
Photo: Asian Civilisations Museum
SINGAPORE — Trained guides, such as Ms Elaine Tan, breathe life into museum exhibits for many visitors. She is part of a new group of docents who work on weekends at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM), which is currently undergoing a revamp.
She said her passion to share the culture, history and art of Asia is driven by visitors who love to hear her stories: “Whenever we guide, we do it in an interactive manner. It is always an exchange of knowledge. Our visitors love to know the stories; it is not just the facts that they are interested in. That makes history come alive.”
Fellow docent Sadra Kuramasamy shared similar sentiments: “I have always been interested in culture and the way people practise their beliefs. I think this is a wonderful opportunity to tell people about how those in the past practised their beliefs and you can always see a link between the past and present.”
The Museum Volunteers group at the ACM was launched in 2004 and currently has around 200 docents who come from all walks of life. The group includes engineers, lecturers, architects and doctors, among others.
Ms Karen Chiang Kar Lin, the training co-chair of Museum Volunteers, said: “We have a training programme for docents. We have invited many experts from local universities and curators to give talks to them.
“With the Asian Civilisations Museum opening up new galleries. We anticipate that more and more visitors will ask for guided tours.”
“NOT JUST A HISTORY LECTURE”
Visitors said docents help make history come alive for them.
“They really dig into the information. Like there was this exhibit where they gave deeper information about the dates, where they found it, how and why it was built,” said Mr Sam Santos, a museum visitor. “For us tourists and for people who appreciate it, it is very detailed. We learnt a lot from them.”
Another visitor, Ms Sally Kim, added: “It is nice to know the history behind it because the plaque can only show so much. The historical aspects such as the background are not always provided on the plaque. It could be related to something else, from a different country, another culture that you would never have known about before.
“It is not just a history lecture. It is informative on many different levels.”
The ACM, which was named as one of the top 10 museums in Asia last year, is currently filled with artefacts from all over Asia, with an emphasis on diverse ethnicities and religions. In the next few months, new displays in the museum will look at the rich trading culture from the previous millennia and will trace the relationships between people and the artistic forms they created.
When renovations are completed, the ACM will also have a new river-facing entrance on the waterfront, as well as a restaurant, café and retail spaces. CHANNEL NEWSASIA
