Children's Season 2013: Family Fun with Herbs & Spices

Date: Saturday, 25 May
Timing: 2pm – 4pm
Venue: NUS Museum

Age Group: 5 – 12 years old

Fees: $15 per pair (Limited to 15 pairs of parent & child.)

To register, email museum@nus.edu.sg or call 6516-8817 / 4616.

Registration is confirmed only upon payment of workshop fees.

Bring your child for a day of family fun where children will be introduced to the unique and amusing characteristics of herbs and spices. We will find out more about their historical significance, scents and amazing properties. We will explore herbs such as the pandan leaf, lemongrass, lime leaf, curry leaf and many more. We will also take a closer look at spices such as cloves, cardamoms and cinnamon sticks. Working together as team, you will also learn how to make pomanders and herb sachets to scent your home!

About the Instructor

Poonam Lalwani is the Guest Relations and Outreach Manager at NUS Baba House. She handles guest services activities, outreach programmes and volunteer relations. She is constantly looking out for programmes that explore the boundaries of the Peranakan Culture.

Children’s Season 2013 is jointly presented by the National Heritage Board and Museum Roundtable.

Job Vacancy | Curator/Assistant Curator (Ng Eng Teng Collection)

 

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Participate in acquisition and valuation processes as curator in-charge of the Ng Eng Teng collection.
• Systematic cataloguing of the collection into the Museum's database according to museum conventions.
• Develop research and archival materials pertinent to the collection.
• Conceptualise and mount exhibitions as assigned, incorporating academic resources, working collaboratively where assigned, and working with with other museum staff including admin, collections management, programmes, and marketing.
• Write, edit and publish exhibition catalogues and other publications including websites.
• Develop public programs such as public talks, workshops and events in in collaboration with the Museum's outreach.
• Engage with campus and student communities and the public, through exhibition tours, educational programmes such as talks and workshops, volunteer events & others.
• Establish and sustain professional networks within and beyond campus, as well as Singapore and international institutions, academics and curators.
• Any other administrative duties, such as committee functions, as assigned by Head, Museum and Director, CFA.

Requirements:

• BA or MA in Art History, History, Cultural Studies, Arts Management or equivalent.
• Independent, with skills in research and writing. Prior experience as curator or researcher/archiver is an advantage.
• Good organisational and inter-personal skills, and able to multitask and work under pressure. Pleasant, affable disposition, resourceful and resilient in work situations.

To apply, please click here.

[Re]discovering the NUS Museum

Note: The [Re]Discover! campaign was carried out in 2013 by 3 honours year NUS Business School students Joyce Ho, Nicodemus Ler and Shirlyn Tan, as part of their Field Service Project with the NUS Museum. 

The year-long Field Service Project (FSP) experience with the NUS Museum was indeed an enriching experience for all of us in the team. It was an excellent opportunity for us to gain new perspectives and insights in the working world, particularly tackling the challenges in planning and executing a campaign.

A key highlight in our FSP experience with the NUS Museum was the [Re]Discover! event that we have successfully organised and carried out. [Re]Discover! was a student-initiated edutainment campaign aimed at reaching out to the NUS Community. It was held over 3 consecutive weekdays from 6-8 March 2013, 11 am – 4pm at 3 locations;

• Faculty of Arts and Social Science (Central Library walkway)
• NUS School of Business
• University Town (Benches outside Starbucks)

To create awareness and hype for the event, we engaged both online, (NUS Museum’s Facebook Page) and offline channels (Posters around school, flyers and tissue boxes in canteens).

The campaign was titled [Re]Discover! with the intention to brand and promote the event as a chance for existing students to rediscover and exchange students to discover the uniqueness of the NUS Museum right within their own campus.  Complemented with our on-going “did you know” campaign launched in 2012, the event provided an avenue for us to reach out to the students through the thought-provoking theme that helps to rejuvenate the museum’s formal and distant branding. At the same time, the use of various interesting yet unknown facts of the NUS Museum also helped to capture the students’ attention.

Planning a marketing campaign with the NUS Museum gave us a peek into the challenges that marketers face in the real business environment. In particular, we learnt and gained an understanding of the requirements of the NUS Museum and internalised them during our planning process.

Moreover, this project provided us an opportunity to hone our communication skills, as we often had to liaise with different parties such as the NUS Museum management, NUS facilities management and external suppliers to successfully execute our campaign. What we felt was more challenging was to attract attention of the students and tell them more about the museum. This was a step out of our comfort zone and helped us to build up our networking skills as well.

Lastly, this FSP experience has helped us gain a deeper understanding and gave us a unique opportunity to experience the culture of working in the museum industry. What’s more, it has helped us to have a greater appreciation for the arts and cultural scene in Singapore as well.

All in all, although at some points in time, we were faced with many tough challenges during the course of the project, we believed that we have emerged as better individuals at the end of the day.  Hence, we are thankful to both the NUS Business School and the NUS Museum for the opportunity to work on this project that set a memorable conclusion to our final semester in NUS.

The happy team with their Prof, Wu Pei Chuan (far left)

Check out photos from the campaign here!

Grounded Conversations Series | With filmmaker Surabhi Sharma

Thurs, 16 May 2013
7pm - 9pm
NUS Museum

Free admission with registration. To register email museum@nus.edu.sg

Please click here to read more on the films that will be presented.

Presenting a series of distinct projects on how art practitioners have begun to adopt comprehensive paradigms in their fieldwork methods traditionally associated with anthropological or historical research, Grounded Conversations brings together practitioners from the contemporary art world to unravel this ‘anthropological turn’.

SURABHI SHARMA is a filmmaker. Her films include Jahaji Music: India in the Caribbean, Aamakaar – The Turtlepeople and Jari Mari: Of Cloth and Other Stories. Using an ethnographic approach Surabhi’s key concern is to document cities in transition, and understand cultures in circulation. Her films explore a range of subjects, including music and identity, labour and globalization and women’s health. Her practice includes feature-length documentaries, video art and installation works. Surabhi is visiting faculty in film and design schools in India, and has curated programmes for festivals and organisations. Her documentaries have been awarded at international film festivals including Film South Asia, the Kara Film Festival, the Festival of Three Continents and Eco Cinema; and screened in museums and universities in Asia, Europe and north America. She is the recipient of the Majlis Fellowship, and was awarded the Puma Catalyst Award for Bidesia in Bambai. She recently completed Can we see the baby bump please? a film on commercial surrogacy in India.

Audio-visual presentation | Cultural Heritage of Sufi Nizamuddin Aulia in South Asia

Image courtsey of Yousuf Saeed

Cultural Heritage of Sufi Nizamuddin Aulia in South Asia
An audio-visual presentation by Yousuf Saeed

Moderated by Dr Gyanesh Kudaisya, Assoc. Prof, NUS South Asian Studies Programme
Co-organised by Asia Research Institute (National University of Singapore), NUS Museum and South Asia Studies Programme (NUS Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences)

Wed, 8 May 2013
6pm - 8pm

NUS Museum

Free admission with registration. To register email museum@nus.edu.sg

Please click here to view the e-flyer.

The 14^th century saint Nizamuddin Aulia and his disciple Amir Khusrau of Delhi, India, have remained popular legends for last over seven centuries through their poetry, music, anecdotes, and supposed spiritual power that seems to inspire the visitors to their combined shrine in the heart of New Delhi. This presentation will showcase examples of Khusrau’s poetry, musical compositions and cultural symbols still alive in India and Pakistan. The presentation also features the short film ‘Basant’ (12 mins) directed by Yousuf about the Sufi festival of spring being celebrated in the shrine of Nizamuddin Aulia.
 

Yousuf Saeed is a New Delhi based filmmaker, archivist and author whose documentary films such as Basant, The Train to Heaven, and Khayal Darpan have been screened the world over. He is also the author of the book Muslim Devotional Art in India (Routledge, 2012). Yousuf is also connected with Tasveer Ghar, a digital archive of South Asian popular visual culture.

Internship Opportunities *UPDATED

Our Internship Programme

The NUS Museum Internship Programme

The NUS Museum Internship Programme is envisioned as the beginning of a relationship with the NUS Museum, and the museum and heritage industry. The programme aims to build rapport with students, provide opportunities to work closely with museum staff and gain first-hand experience of museum work.

To read more about previous interns’ experience, please read Diary of an NUS Museum Intern.

Internship Departments

Curatorial & Exhibitions

Interns assist with curatorial functions such as conducting curatorial research, planning and managing the exhibition process, installing exhibitions, publishing exhibition collaterals, conceptualising and running exhibition-related programmes, liasing with artists and partners. Candidates must be detail-oriented, interested in curatorial work, and be comfortable with research and writing.

Outreach

Interns assist with conceptualistion, organisation, implementation and support of outreach events and programmes (panel discussions, film screenings, workshops and school programmes), research and production of educational materials, guiding visitors, marketing and publicity efforts, press and media relations. Candidates must be comfortable with interacting with the public. Candidates who have knowledge of design programmes such as Photoshop, In Design, Illustrator and Dreamweaver a plus.

Collections

Interns assist with cataloguing and research of objects, handling of objects for display, performing condition checks on objects, monitoring object storage and other administrative tasks. Candidates must have knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel.

Who We Are Looking For

Applicants who are keen to explore the museum and heritage industry, interested in heritage, arts and culture, meticulous with a keen attention to detail, be self-motivated, have a positive attitude, willing to learn, fluent in spoken and written English (proficiency in Mandarin a plus). Applicants who have completed one year of their undergraduate studies are preferred but others who are interested may also apply.

Internship Information

Duration: 1-3 months

Stipend: $500 per month

Vacancies

There are currently no vacancies at the moment.

Application Information

To apply, please return a copy of the internship application form with a copy of your CV and a recent essay/writing sample via email to museum@nus.edu.sg with the subject header “NUS Museum Internship Programme”.

Click here to download the application form.

For more information about the NUS Museum Internship Programme, please contact Michelle Kuek at michellekuek@nus.edu.sg or call 6516-8428.

Tiger Fangs | Film Screening, Wed, 10 April 2013, 7pm

Image from here.

Tiger Fangs (1943)

Wed, 10 April 2013
7pm, NUS Museum

Following on the Frank Buck fever, we present Buck's 1943 Tiger Fangs.

To register, please email museum@nus.edu.sg





Please visit www.malayablackandwhite.wordpress.com for more details.

Presenting Portraiture Series | Chasing the Wild Goose

Presenting Portraiture Series: Chasing the Wild Goose 
Co-organised by NUS Museum and Archaeology Unit (Nalanda Sriwijaya Centre), Institute of Southeast Asian Studies 

Thurs, 21 Mar 2013
7pm - 9.30pm

NUS Museum

Free admission
To register, please email babahouse@nus.edu.sg

Programme:
7pm - 8pm - Talk by Patricia Bjaaland Welch
8pm - 8.30pm - Panel discussion with Patricia Bjaaland Welch, John Miksic and Lim Chen Sian
8.30pm - 8.45pm - Q & A


In Chinese ancestral portraits, it was a common practice for subjects holding titles in the Qing court to be depicted in their official robes. There were nine ranks for civilian officials, each represented by a different bird embroidered on a rank badge sewn at the front of the robe. Wee Boon Teck, the second generation patriarch of the family at 157 Neil Road, was conferred a fourth rank represented by a wild goose on the badge. What does this symbol mean in Asian art and culture?

The wild goose or hamsa has been a popular motif in Asia for over 2000 years, featuring in both Hindu and Buddhist art (gazing down at a reclining Vishnu, at Amaravati, on the cross-bars of Buddhist thrones), cave murals and paintings (such as those at Ajanta and Ellora), ancient Indian textiles, as well as figuring in some of the region's best known classical stories, such as the Mahabharata and the Hamsajataka. They appear on Tibetan sutra covers, Kashmiri tiles, as well as Thai royal barges. One of China's most famous pagodas is called 'The Wild Goose Pagoda'. But why?

This was the question our speaker pondered last year, a question that took her on, in her own words, her "wild goose chase". Join us as we travel together with her on this journey discovering the meaning and symbolism of the wild goose, its many forms, and the role it has played in South, Southeast and East Asian religious art.

Mrs. Patricia Bjaaland Welch, M.A., is a former Lecturer in Asian Religion and Philosophy (College of Liberal Arts, Boston University) and an independent researcher and author of several books including Oxford University Press' Chinese New Year and Tuttle's Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery. She is currently a resident in Singapore, where she is an active docent and lecturer, and a part-time resident in Bangkok.

Prof. John Miksic grew up in western New York State, where he found stone arrowheads made by the Iroquois on his grandfather's farm. In 1976 he participated in his first archaeological expedition, to northern Canada to study Inuit. The next year he joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Malaysia, whereupon he was entranced by the archaeological potential of this region. He obtained his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1979 after studying an ancient port in northeast Sumatra. He lived in Bencoolen for two years, Yogyakarta for six years, and moved to Singapore in 1987. He teaches at the National University of Singapore, and heads the Archaeology Unit in ISEAS.

Lim Chen Sian is presently a Visiting Research Fellow with the Archaeology Unit, ISEAS. His research interest includes material culture from the age of early European contact in Southeast Asia.

Presenting Portraiture is a talk series conceived in conjunction with a two-part exhibition featuring portraits of the Straits Chinese. The first part entitled Dressing the Baba: Recent Donations of Portraits runs till 31 July 2013 at NUS Baba House, whilst the latter commences in late 2013 at NUS Museum. Straits Chinese portraits represent an emerging area of collecting interest and this talk series explores a range of themes, concepts and ideas surrounding the making, collecting and functions of such artworks, including artistic practice and studio processes; pictorial conventions; collecting patterns; technical conservation; iconography and artefacts; and reflections on the social milieu.

Diary of an NUS Museum Intern: Timothy Chua

Note: Diary of an NUS Museum Intern is a series of blog posts written by our interns about their experiences during the course of their internships. Besides working hard and fast in their cubicles, our interns have travelled to Bandung and Malacca, organised symposiums, waded through tons of historical research and pitched in during exhibition installations. It was definitely no ordinary internship for them! If you would like to become our next intern, visit our internship page for more information!

Timothy Chua is an alumni of Anglo-Chines School (Independent) and will be matriculating to a university this coming August.

My four weeks at NUS Museum has quickly come to an end. In retrospect, the internship has been a memorable, worthwhile experience. During my time here, I was attached to Mr Shabbir HussainMustafa, a curator at the museum, to assist in the curatorial and administrative aspects of his work. One of my main responsibilities was to arrange and account for the source material of the 14 binders from the Camping and Tramping through the Colonial Archive: The Museum in Malaya exhibition. The process was tedious and repetitive at times, yet the level of accuracy and precision required during the task impressed on me the high degree of professionalism expected of curators. The extensive research on colonial archives found in the binders was also very impressive.

Listening to Mr Mustafa’s captivating presentation of the Camping and Tramping through the Colonial Archive: The Museum in Malaya exhibition to a group of NUS students was another highlight of my internship. He spoke with clarity, passion and was thoroughly engaging. Having viewed the exhibition and worked with the source materials two weeks prior, the presentation from the curator himself was timely and refreshing. I began to see the level of depth accorded to every detail of the exhibition, right up from why certain historical figures were introduced within the exhibition down to the exact positioning of the objects in the exhibition. All these revelations allowed me to appreciate the role of a curator better; of the potential for the curator’s conceptual vision to inspire and engage the audience, and of curator’s responsibility in handling history in all honest conviction and sensitivity.

Another task assigned to me was the compilation of references for an exceptionally unique, yet somewhat less renowned artist named Mohammad Din Mohammad. The assignment allowed me to view and appreciate the philosophy and background of Mohammad Din Mohammad from a variety of sources, and also made me wonder why such a seminal figure in the history of Singapore art has received less recognition than he probably deserves. I was once again reminded of the responsibility of the museum as an institution to preserve and document people and events of the past, lest such significant figures disappear into the past.

My time in the museum, and working along Mr Mustafa in particular, has exposed me to various aspects of curatorship. It has been an enlightening experience, allowing me to cultivate a deeper understanding and appreciation of the roles and workings of the museum. I am now able to see the museum as not just a static display of artifacts, but also as a dynamic, fluid space of propositions and conceptual thought. My four weeks have been worthwhile and engaging, and I would like to thank Mustafa for his patience and candour in sharing his experiences, and the rest of the NUS Museum team for their friendliness and warmth throughout my time here.

Diary of an NUS Museum: Nurul Syazwani

Note: Diary of an NUS Museum Intern is a series of blog posts written by our interns about their experiences during the course of their internships. Besides working hard and fast in their cubicles, our interns have travelled to Bandung and Malacca, organised symposiums, waded through tons of historical research and pitched in during exhibition installations. It was definitely no ordinary internship for them! If you would like to become our next intern, visit our internship page for more information!

Nurul Syazwani is a 4th year Southeast Asian major from the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Museums has always been a space that intrigues me because it morphs over time without losing the semblance of continuity. The opportunity to intern with NUS Museum was not only a learning process but also an eye-opener. Rather than seeing museums as they are, this internship allowed me to have a feel of how things are “behind-the-scene”.

The experience of working within the museum is one that I can never forget as I had the chance to spend more time at the gallery than I otherwise would. Looking through the details of the exhibitions, for instance the collated documents from the colonial era, made me reflect on how much effort is put into sorting, selecting and assembling the contents of the display. As such, I am able to better appreciate the human effort that keeps a museum functioning.

Under the guidance of my supervisor, I was also able to glimpse specifically into the history and developments of museums in Singapore. The main one was of the former Art Gallery at the National Museum. The research work also allowed me to better understand the roles of curators and to track the tireless efforts of a prominent Singaporean art historian. The biography of the individual art historian, namely Constance Sheares, was extraordinary as she helped to fill in the gaps in Singapore’s art history by sourcing for the works of contemporary artisans that was added to the then National Museum Art Gallery collection. Her opinions on the need to train more art historians, curators, conservators and the likes was also frequently reported on in the local newspapers. To find all these details, I spent the six weeks of my internship at various places to find the various sources.

During the six weeks, my time was divided between libraries, sifting through newspaper articles, museum catalogs, online databases and books. I was able to also learn more about Southeast Asian textiles such as batik and ikats through the written works of Constance Sheares. The various archival materials and documents allowed me to trace the works of an individual who has shaped and moulded the visions of past exhibitions. The contributions she made and its spillover effects on the art appreciation of the masses in Singapore definitely left me in awe. The internship had been a fruitful learning process and I can now better understand how the museum functions.