ArtScience Museum

ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands

A lotus-inspired building designed by Moshie Safdie that features 10 “fingers” anchored by a unique round base in the middle.

ArtScience Museum
Established 17 February 2011
Location 10 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore
Director Honor Harger
Website www.marinabaysands.com/ArtScienceMuseum

ArtScience Museum (Chinese: 艺术科学博物馆) is one of the attractions at Marina Bay Sands, an integrated resort in Singapore owned by the US Las Vegas Sands company. Opened on 17 February 2011 by Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, it is the world's first ArtScience museum.[1]

Although it has a permanent exhibition, ArtScience Gallery, the ArtScience Museum mainly hosts touring exhibitions curated by other museums.

Architecture

A night view of the museum photographed in February 2011

The architecture is said be a form reminiscent of a lotus flower.[2] It is designed by the architect Moshe Safdie.

Referred to as "The Welcoming Hand of Singapore" by Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson, the ArtScience Museum is anchored by a round base in the middle, with ten extensions referred to as "fingers". The design concept for each finger denotes various gallery spaces sporting skylights at the "fingertips" which are included as sustainable illumination for the curved interior walls.

Gallery spaces

The ArtScience Museum has 21 gallery spaces with a total area of 50,000 square feet (6,000 square meters).

Sustainability features

Rainwater is harvested and channelled down the center of the building, flowing through its bowl-shaped roof into a reflecting pond at the lowest level of the building. The rainwater is then recycled for use in the building's restrooms.

Exhibitions

Permanent exhibition

The permanent exhibition, the ArtScience Gallery, consists of three galleries - Curiosity, Inspiration, Expression.

Touring exhibitions

Some of the touring exhibitions at the ArtScience Museum include:

Exhibition Period Presenter
Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World[3] 19 Feb - 27 Mar 2011 American Museum of Natural History
Genghis Khan: The Exhibition[4] 19 Feb - 10 Apr 2011 Rex Exhibitions
Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds[5] 19 Feb - 2 Oct 2011 Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Asian Civilisations Museum, National Heritage Board, Singapore Tourism Board
Van Gogh Alive - the Exhibition[6] 16 Apr - 9 Oct 2011 Grande Exhibitions, VisionsCom
Dalí: Mind of a Genius – The Exhibition[7] 14 May - 13 Nov 2011 Stratton Foundation
Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition[8][9] 29 Oct 2011 – 29 Apr 2012 Premier Exhibitions, RMS Titanic, Inc.
Cartier Time Art[10] 14 Dec 2011 - 12 Feb 2012 Cartier S.A.
Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal[11] 17 Mar - 21 Oct 2012 The Andy Warhol Museum
Harry PotterTM: The Exhibition[12] 2 Jun - 30 Sep 2012 Global Experience Specialists, Inc., Warner Bros. Consumer Products
Outside In: A Magnum Photos Showcase[13] 10 Oct 2012 - 17 Mar 2013 Magnum Photos
The Art of the Brick[14] 17 Nov 2012 - 14 Apr 2013 Nathan Sawaya
Fujians: The Blue Ocean Legacy[15] 24 Nov 2012 - 28 Feb 2013 Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan
Mummy: Secrets of the Tomb[16] 27 Apr - 4 Nov 2013 British Museum
Essential Eames: A Herman Miller Exhibition[17] 29 Jun 2013 - 16 Feb 2014 Eames Office, Herman Miller
50 Greatest Photographs of National Geographic[18] 17 Aug - 27 Oct 2013 National Geographic Society
Dinosaurs: Dawn to Extinction[19] 25 Jan - 27 Jul 2014 American Museum of Natural History, PrimeSCI!, San Juan National Science Museum
Annie Leibovitz A Photographer's Life 1990 - 2005 18 Apr - 19 Oct 2014 -

Feature exhibitions

View from below.

The ArtScience Museum promises to feature 21 gallery spaces equating to 50,000 square feet (6,000 square meters) which will display exhibits from combined art/science, media/technology, as well as design/architecture motifs.

Permanent exhibits include objects indicative of the accomplishments of both the arts and the sciences through the ages, along the lines of Leonardo da Vinci's Flying Machine, a Kongming Lantern, and a high-tech robotic fish. The museum opened with an exhibition of a collection of the Belitung shipwreck cargo, and Tang dynasty treasures that were discovered and carefully preserved by Tilman Walterfang of Seabed Explorations NZ Ltd.

Belitung shipwreck treasure

Tilman Walterfang and his team found the Tang dynasty artifacts in the Gaspar Strait in 1998 among the wreck of the Belitung shipwreck, a large 9th-century Arabian dhow wrecked around 830 AD. For the next six years, they were desalinated, conserved and researched by his company Seabed Explorations Ltd in New Zealand. They were eventually purchased for around 32 million USD.[20][21]

An accurate reproduction of the Arab dhow ship, named The Jewel of Muscat, was recently presented by the Sultanate of Oman to the government and people of Singapore.[22]

The exhibition will include sufficient items to ensure that the collection on tour will reflect accurately the assortment and magnitude of the find and its global inter-cultural significance, as this is the single largest consignment of Tang Dynasty export goods ever discovered. The find includes some of the oldest cobalt-blue-and-white ceramics made in China, several gold items made with Arabic designs and swastikas, jars filled with spices and incense resins, bronze mirrors, thousands of glazed bowls, ewers and other fine ceramics, as well as lead ingots. The pièce de résistance of the exhibition is a small cache of magnificent, intricately tooled vessels of silver and gold, which remain unparalleled in quality and design from the period.

World tour of Tang Dynasty shipwreck treasure

With support from the estate of Tan Sri Khoo Teck Puat, the cargo of the Arab dhow, which was used as the true and original model, now generally referred to among academic circles as the "Tang Shipwreck Treasure: Singapore's Maritime Collection,"[23]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "About ArtScience Museum". Marina Bay Sands. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  2. ↑ "Design: Architecture in Bloom - Singapore's ArtScience Museum". Time 177 (14): 52–53. 11 April 2011.
  3. ↑ Travel the ancient Silk Road for the first time in Asia
  4. ↑ Genghis Khan “invades” Singapore: Largest collection of Genghis Khan artifacts makes exclusive Asian appearance in Singapore
  5. ↑ Ninth century Tang archaeological finds go on display at Integrated Resort Marina Bay Sands' latest architectural showpiece
  6. ↑ Van Gogh’s masterpieces come alive at Marina Bay Sands’ ArtScience Museum
  7. ↑ Explore the distorted reality of Dalí: Mind of a Genius – The Exhibition at ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands
  8. ↑ After almost 100 Years, the Titanic arrives in Singapore at ArtScience Museum
  9. ↑ Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, Singapore
  10. ↑ ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands hosts the first Cartier Time Art exhibition in Asia
  11. ↑ Largest collection of Warhol’s artworks ever displayed in Singapore at ArtScience Museum
  12. ↑ "Experience the Magic of HARRY POTTER: THE EXHIBITION for the First Time in Asia at ArtScience Museum, Singapore" (PDF) (Press release). Marina Bay Sands. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-05-17.
  13. ↑ ArtScience Museum zooms in on Outside In: A Magnum Photos Showcase
  14. ↑ The Art of the Brick® brings sculptures to life at ArtScience Museum
  15. ↑ Fujians: The Blue Ocean Legacy exhibition at Marina Bay Sands opens in conjunction with the 7th World Fujian Convention
  16. ↑ Journey to the Egyptian afterlife at ArtScience Museum with Mummy: Secrets of the Tomb
  17. ↑ ArtScience Museum brings the story of iconic design duo Charles and Ray Eames to Singapore
  18. ↑ 50 Greatest Photographs of National Geographic to debut at ArtScience Museum
  19. ↑ Unearth the history of life and enter the world of terrestrial reptiles at "Dinosaurs: Dawn to Extinction"
  20. ↑ "Sentosa Proceeds to Buy 9th Century Treasure". Singapore: Sentosa. April 8, 2005. Retrieved 17 February 2010.
  21. ↑ "CHINA MARITIME SILK ROAD MUSEUM". The Australian National University. Retrieved 17 February 2010.
  22. ↑ "Jewel of Muscat Website Launch". Jewel of Muscat. 15 March 2009. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  23. ↑ "Tang Shipwreck Treasure Singapore's Maritime Collection". YouTube. 8 July 2010. Retrieved 10 July 2013.

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Coordinates: 1°17′10″N 103°51′33″E / 1.28611°N 103.85917°E / 1.28611; 103.85917

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