Happy weekend everyone! I had a good sleep last night and woke up today feeling refreshed and rejuvenated for some museum exploration again. After my lunch, I made my way to The Private Museum, a non-profit private museum founded by a Singaporean philanthropist, art collector and real estate developer, Daniel Teo and his daughter in 2010. Housed in a historic bungalow, the museum provides a platform to showcase private collections to the public. Admission to the museum is free.
The museum is currently hosting a temporary exhibition called ‘Deja Vu: When the Sun Rises in the West.’ Today is the last day of the exhibition and it is also the last exhibition for the museum this year. It is quite an intriguing exhibition involving an array of mediums (paintings, sculpture, stained glass, embroidery and woodcut) by a renowned Thai artist, Natee Utarit.
His works reframes Western classical knowledge alongside Eastern and Buddhist concepts and challenges the idea that Western culture holds a monopoly on artistic or intellectual excellence. Symbols are striped of their fixed historical contexts and repurposed to serve new narratives. By the way, I also saw a similar exhibition at STPI Creative Workshop and Gallery by the same artist just last week. His works are found everywhere in Singapore recently.
Next, I went to MINT Museum of Toys. Most of the museums I have been to this year are free of charge. MINT Museum of Toys is an exception, and it charges quite a huge amount; SGD$30 dollar no matter you are a local or a foreigner. I actually thought twice just now before entering due to the expensive fee. In the end, I decided to proceed. By the way, MINT is an acronym for ‘Moment of Imagination and Nostalgia with Toys’.
The museum was founded in 2007 by a Singaporean avid toy collector, Chang Yang Fa and it showcases his private collection of over 50 000 vintage toys and collectables. To date, the museum which consists of five narrow floors remains the largest vintage toy museum in Asia. The toys or memorabilia on display are ranging between the years of 1840s to 1980s and include many famous characters like Astro Boy, Batman, Popeye the Sailor, Godzilla, Mickey Mouse, Pinocchio, Barbie, Tintin, etc.
The museum also has some rare toys such as toy that is one and only in the world, smallest doll in the world, oldest toy in the museum (made in 1840) and most valuable toy in the museum (valued at over $100 000). After my visit, I don’t feel like the museum has over 50 000 toys as claimed. Anyway, it was still a nice experience and I got to learn more on the history of toys after this particular visit.
