from The New York Times -
A New Concept in Handling Art
go to article

Just as Switzerland - the last bastion for the trafficking of "antiques" without provenance - is tightening their act to ensure that illegally excavated and exported antiquities are more closely monitored, Singapore goes in and fill that gap by offering an even more lax set of regulations - effectively encouraging the next generation of shady deals with accompanying questionable ethics.

"In 2005, Switzerland enacted strict federal legislation, based on a 1970 Unesco international convention against art and antiquities trafficking. The legislation, prompted by scandals and foreign criminal cases involving stolen works trafficked through Switzerland, regulated Swiss free ports handling cultural goods and set criminal penalties for violators. But Singapore opted out of the Unesco Convention in 1985 and chose not to sign a 1995 international agreement on the repatriation of stolen or illegally exported cultural goods."

Ironically (and disturbingly), Singapore's foremost government-funded agencies for art, culture and heritage (the National Heritage Board and National Arts Council) are in cahoots in implementing the scheme by each taking "a 5 percent stake" in the venture. What a shame ...
.

from The New York Times -
Pictures That Were Worth a Thousand Calling Cards
go to article

A review in the New York Times, no less, of the current exhibition at the Asian Civilisation Museum - “Neither East Nor West: Asians in Monochrome” until 1st February 2009.
.

from NUS Museum -
Newsletter, Issue 4, 2008
go to newsletter (PDF format)

WARNING: Shameless plug ahead!

I did a recent e-mail interview with NUS Museum - after moving there earlier in the year - which is now published online (on page 12 of the PDF issue). While downloading the issue, do have a look at the various interesting articles and exhibition reviews included in the newsletter - a vast and refreshing improvement over the usual dry and uninspiring corporate communications stuff that one has come to expect from museums.

Link via NUS Museum.
.

from i came i saw i come i see -
out of the blue - what's your hallmark
go to post

An interesting account, arising from a visit to the Baba House Museum along Neil Road, on the historic use of architectural colours and also the tradition of hanging clan name insignia.
.

2007 URA Architectural Heritage Awards
go to press release
go to web-site

Yet another round of the award which, perhaps, is Singapore's unique and consistent contribution to re-definition of the term "conservation" as both a pragmatic pursuit and end-point.
.

from Newsweek -
"I'm Not a Service Company"
go to article

Following on the last post, an interview with the man who made the Guggenheim brand (in)famous. And quoting a revealing passage from amongst the rambling and deluded answers:

"Will the Guggenheim make any efforts to include local arts and culture in the museums?"
"That's not my option. I'm not a service company. What we do at the Guggenheim has an objective to be one of top elite cultural institutions in the world. We set out a conscious global strategy."

And this is the reason why if Singapore is still keen to grow her own artistic talent base, then a Guggenheim museum must never be allowed to be built here at all cost.

See earlier posts here, here and here.
.

from Radio Singapore International -
Heritage Conservation Centre
go to programme notes
go to MP3 (2.29 Mb)

A nice (audio) overview of the work that goes on behind the scene.
.

s/pores: New Directions in Singapore Studies
go to online journal

Citizen Historian: The Unrewarded Amateur Conscience
go to online journal

Archives & Social Studies: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Research
go to online journal

Beginning Preservation: A forum for discussing preservation and conservation
go to weblog

Added several links on the sidebar which point to online journals and weblog that may be of interest.
.

from yesterday.sg -
Panel discussion about heritage on Radio Singapore International
go to web-post

A couple of recent radio interviews related to museums in Singapore. It may be the sign of the times that museums are now "officially" a life-style centre. Whose life-style was that again? And are we in danger of confusing the means with the end?
.

from yesterday.sg

A slew of interesting posts in the past weeks which looked back on various familiar places in Singapore:

shots@ bonham hill (view from Fort Canning Hill)
Beauty World
Lorong Chuan
Bishan Two Zero

Enjoy!

from ashpanda
Save Palmer Road
go to blog post
go to "Save Palmer Road" web-site

A worthy local effort to raise awareness and preserve the dwindling historic areas still standing in present-day Singapore. Also see previous post here.

[ Thanks to yesterday.sg and Singapore Heritage List for the alert ]

Singapore Heritage Mailing List
go to web-page

Re-posting the following announcement and would like to encourage readers of this weblog to join in the diverse and insightful discussions over at the mailing list.

On 10/10/06 12:18 PM, "Chua Ai Lin" wrote:

Dear list members,

Today is the 6th anniversary of the Singapore Heritage Yahoogroup!

At this point last year, there were 267 registered subscribers, and now we have 461. In the past year, the number of postings each month have varied between 121 and 276.

If you have friends who would like to join the list too, do tell them that one does not need a Yahoo email address to receive messages, simply send a blank email to:
singaporeheritage-subscribe[at]yahoogroups.com

It's great to see more and more of you sharing on the list, and here's to more interesting discussions in the coming year!

--Ai Lin
Sg-Heritage Yahoogroup moderator

from BBC News
Singapore war internee's art on show
go to article

An article on BBC News about some recently donated watercolurs displayed at the Changi Museum (see museum wesite and previous post).

[ Thanks to Singapore Heritage Mailing List ]

from wikimapia
National Monuments of Singapore

Following on from an earlier post, I have finished marking-up all the locations of gazetted national monuments in Singapore for a start.




A close-up of the city centre area, which has the majority of the gazetted monuments:



Point and click on a location, and then click the "info" button to get links to more information and images, where available online.

Next in line will be various conservation areas and also locations which have some historic significance. As the wikimapia interface is very much a collaborative one, do add on information and locations where possible.

Also, I have tagged locations on wikimapia with a general tag: "heritage", and will also be using other more specific ones such as: "monument", "museum", "conservation_area" etc.

You can change markers on the map via the drop-down menu for filtering by tags at the top-right of the map window - or leave it unfiltered to get an overwhelming sense of details!

Have a browse round and leave your comments or feedback here ...

Seletar Airbase Project
go to weblog

A highly commendable project to document a historic part of Singapore that has to make way for "progress". Perhaps loosing physical markers of one's past and memories is the price one pays for growing up in Singapore - or does it have to be that way?

[ Thanks to yesterday.sg for the link ]

Save Our Chinese Heritage
go to web-site

A recently launched initiative to document historic Chinese architecture in Singapore by means of digital images.

[Thanks to the Singapore Heritage Mailing List and yesterday.sg for the heads-up!]

from Southeast Asian Archaeology
Palmer Road Wang Hai Da Bo Gong Temple
go to update
go to site report (3.46 MB, PDF)

An update to the archaeological dig at an unassuming historical site, which might even pre-date the arrival of Stanford Raffles in Singapore, tucked away at one end of Keppel Road. See satellite map of the area with the temple centered in the map.

Thanks to Lim Chen Shien for first news of the update on the Singapore Heritage Mailing List.

from Southeast Asian Archaeology
Fort Tanjong Katong
go to update (scroll down)
go to preliminary site report (2.27 MB, PDF)

An update on the popular archaeological dig (see previous posts here and here) which has confirmed the existence of a fort beneath the present-day park and also discovered several other features of the fort which were otherwise undocumented. Due to uncertainty on the next phase of the project, the team has decided to back-fill the exposed site in order to protect the archaeological finds, and await further development.

There is also a link to a previous architectural student project (397 KB, PDF) at NUS on "Exhibition of Design Ideas for an Interpretive Center at Katong Park" (8th January 2006).

For those not familiar with the location of the dig, here is a link to a satellite map of the area with the park in the centre.

Thanks to Lim Chen Shien and Chua Ai Lin for first news of the updates on the Singapore Heritage Mailing List.

from yesterday.sg
Conservation in Progress
go to weblog post

A belated link to a couple of on-going conservation projects at the Heritage Conservation Centre. There is also information on other current research projects.

from Otterman speaks...
Yesterday.sg Meetup No. 2
go to weblog entry

An update on the various progress and developments with the weblog on heritage matters in Singapore previously (see previous post).

Particularly interesting is a report done for a school project by 3 students from Raffles Girls' Secondary on Kampong Buangkok and ideas about its preservation.