Southeast Asia in the World at Asian Civilisations Museum
Christian Art | Islamic Art | Ancestors and Rituals
Three New Permanent Galleries Highlight Southeast Asia’s Global Identity Through Interconnections Between Cultures, Communities, and Generations
Set at the heart of global maritime trade routes between West and East, Southeast Asia has long been a region where different peoples, ideas, and art influenced each other. Profound interconnections between its many cultures and traditions have existed throughout history. With the opening of three new permanent galleries – Christian Art, Islamic Art, Ancestors and Rituals – along with newly rotated objects in the Trade galleries and a new series of museum trails, Singapore’s Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) greatly increases the Southeast Asian art on display in its thematically arranged galleries.
The three new galleries complete Level 2 of the ACM. Themed collectively as Faith and Belief, the second floor galleries tell stories of how systems of faith and belief spread across Asia, and show how traditions of religious art adapted as a result. This opening is one of the highlights for the museum’s ongoing Year of Southeast Asia.
Mr Kennie Ting, Director of the ACM, said: “Southeast Asia has an incredible diversity of indigenous and migrant peoples, cultures, and faiths. It is a region that has played a pivotal role in global maritime trade and the spread of systems of faith and belief across Asia. Visitors to our new galleries will be treated to displays of many exquisite forms of decorative art, sacred art and ethnographic material from across the region. Launching these new and refreshed permanent galleries under the theme “Southeast Asia in the World” is also a nod towards the heritage of Asian Civilisations Museum itself. The core of the museum’s collection was and continues to be the Southeast Asian ethnographic collection that previously belonged to the former Raffles Library and Museum (today’s National Museum of Singapore) and which was collected during the colonial period. With these new and refreshed galleries, ACM places Southeast Asia squarely at the heart of our museum’s overall curatorial narrative.”
Exhibition Preview | Ancestors and Rituals
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