Friends of the Museums (Singapore) and the Asian Civilisations Museum
In 1978 four women offered to organize a volunteer organisation for Singapore's National Museum. Their offer was accepted and Friends of the Museum (Singapore) was launched. Its initial programmes focused on study groups and lectures to build expertise of Singapore's and the region's history and culture. In 1980, the first docent training programme was established with the first graduates completing the course in 1981. The first docent tours were launched thereafter.
During the 1980s FOM's docent training courses, study groups, public lecture series and study tours (both local and international) attracted a growing and international membership. With the establishment of Singapore's National Heritage Board (NHB) in 1993 and the expansion of Singapore's museum sector, the group's name changed to Friends of the Museums and its focus on docent training intensified. Today, a team of over 400 FOM docents guide in French, Japanese and Korean (as well as in German, Italian, Mandarin and Chinese dialects, as needed) in nine museums and cultural institutions.
One of Singapore's most visited museums is the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM), which showcases the various communities that have helped Singapore become an international centre. The museum's focus is on the cross-cultural contacts and influences that have formed Singapore - the result of its unique location in the centre of long-established trade routes that pre-date Raffles by at least a thousand years. Key galleries focus on Ancient Religions, which showcases the religious beliefs of its diverse population; trade and the products that created the region's economic wealth (with a special emphasis on ceramics); the indigenous Southeast Asian cultures and people of the region; and China, as ethnic Chinese constitute 78% of Singapore's population. Of particular importance is the Tang Shipwreck Gallery, dedicated to the story of one of the oldest shipwrecks found in the region - an Arabian dhow discovered in 1998, that sank off Singapore's coast with a cargo of more than 60,000 9th century Chinese ceramics.
Patricia Welch