Meet Siang, curator and art historian, as she discusses the making of her latest exhibition, “Gifts: a prospectus”. More than a recollection of past donations, the exhibition explores the development of the Museum’s collections and how the gifts received have contributed to the university’s cultural and academic life.

Find out what goes on behind the scenes at our Brown Bag talks—a lunchtime conversation series between Museum staff and the NUS community.

About the exhibition

Gifts: a prospectus brings together recent works donated to the NUS Museum between 2016 to 2020. The exhibition explores the development of the Museum’s collections from its origins in the University of Malaya and Nanyang University’s collections, and how the gifts received throughout its institutional history have contributed to the cultural and academic life at the University.

More than a recollection of past donations, Gifts tracks the decisions behind the Museum’s acquisitions and how they reflect historical and current cultural undercurrents, from Singapore’s movement into independence and the search for its identity, to the developments in national arts and educational policies. Gifts highlights the way its collections have responded to these contexts through teaching, research and exhibitions, and prospects into areas which can be developed further.