Look inside

Asian Civilisations Museum

Director's Choice

Kennie Ting

Categories: Art, Collections, Director's Choice

ISBN: 978 1 78551 336 7

Size: 190 x 165 mm

Binding: Paperback

Pages: 80

Images: 40

In association with: Asian Civilisations Museum

Date published: July, 2021

UK £9.95

/ US $14.95

Highlights

Singapore’s history as a port city is used here as a means of examining the history of Asia.
Presents the art and culture of Southeast Asian mixed-heritage communities.
Director Kennie Ting has chosen his personal favourites from the collection, providing insightful descriptions of these masterpieces.
The first East Asian institution in the Director’s Choice series.

Description

The Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) opened in 1997, and has been in its present building by the Singapore River in the heart of the city since 2003. The museum traces its roots to the colonial-period Raffles Library and Museum, founded in the middle of the nineteenth century. ACM’s satellite Peranakan Museum opened in 2008, and presents the art and culture of Southeast Asian mixed-heritage communities. ACM is a National Museum governed by Singapore’s National Heritage Board.
Singapore’s history as a port city that brought people together from all over the world is used here as a means of examining the history of Asia. The objects presented tell stories of the trade and the exchange of ideas that were the result of international commerce, as well as the flow of religions and faith through Asia.
Director Kennie Ting has chosen his personal favourites from the collection, collaborating with ACM curators to provide readers with insightful descriptions of these masterpieces as well as a broad introduction to the museum.

Author information

Kennie Ting is the Director of the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum, and concurrently Group Director, Museums at the National Heritage Board (NHB), Singapore, overseeing national museums and festivals managed by NHB.

As Director of the Asian Civilisations Museum, he has overseen the shift in the museum’s curatorial approach from a geographical focus to a thematic, cross-cultural one, and from an ethnographic focus to a focus on decorative arts. He has helmed recent exhibitions on the arts of Myanmar, Korea, Angkor, and Java, on the material culture of cosmopolitan Asian port cities, and on contemporary Chinese couture. He is interested in the history of travel and the heritage of Asian port cities and is the author of the books The Romance of the Grand Tour – 100 Years of Travel in South East Asia and Singapore 1819 – A Living Legacy.