Curator Daniel Tham: upholding Singapore's positive brand image with a professional tour of the museum. Credit: National Museum of Singapore
SINGAPORE - Inbound MICE planners who are seeking to stay connected with clients through a cultural tour of Singapore will find some help from Singapore's latest free digital exhibition which went live on 15 April 2020.
The National Museum of Singapore's An Old New World: Digital Edition virtual exhibition brings visitors on a digital journey through the National Museum's recently concluded Bicentennial exhibition. Entitled An Old New World: From the East Indies to the Founding of Singapore, 1600s - 1819, it ran from 21 September 2019 to 29 March 2020.
The museum's director, Ms Chung May Khuen, said: "We are excited to present the digital edition of An Old New World after its physical display period, allowing more visitors to enjoy this immersive and educational exhibition experience - from the comfort of their homes.
"While our museum may be closed during this period, this offers us a great opportunity to launch various digital efforts to continue reaching out and engaging our visitors, while experimenting with different ways and perspectives of presenting our stories beyond our galleries.
"It is also our way of providing a much needed 'culture boost' and uplift spirits as we face this challenging period together. When this is over, we hope that people will come visit the museum and see in person what we have to offer."
The virtual tour starts here. Credit: National Museum of Singapore
Through the virtual exhibition, visitors will explore personal collections from the families of Stamford Raffles and William Farquhar, and treasures from international museums such as the Royal Collections Trust, London and Rjiksmuseum in Amsterdam, Holland.
The exhibition offers two modes of navigation - guided and self-exploratory. In the former, visitors are taken on a specially curated exploration of artefacts while listening to narrations by curators, Mr Daniel Tham and Mr Iskander Mydin, along the themes of Knowledge and Power and Seeing the Indigenous.
The exhibition investigates the 200 years leading up to 1819 (founding of Singapore) when the English and Dutch East India companies were first started.
An additional transcript function provides the tour script via a button on the bottom right-hand side, enabling persons with hearing disabilities to access to the tours. Alternatively, visitors may also navigate the galleries at their own pace via the self-exploratory mode.
The National Museum has also planned for additional content to be added at a later stage, including an educator's commentary for lower secondary students.