Director of National Museum of Singapore: "Museums are dynamic spaces for community engagement beyond knowledge transfer"

Chung May Khuen, Director of the National Museum of Singapore, explained the changing role of museums and the transformation of visitor experiences. Serving as the final presenter at the '2026 National Folk Museum of Korea International Conference' held at the main auditorium of the National Folk Museum of Korea on April 23, 2026, Chung presented the direction in which world culture museums should move forward.

"A dynamic space for dialogue and learning, not just a simple repository of the past"

Director Chung May Khuen stated that the National Museum of Singapore is shifting from an expert-centered space that delivered knowledge of the past into a social space that interacts with visitors. According to the presentation content in the video, while museums in the past were a method of delivering information curated by experts to visitors, visitor expectations have changed over the last 20 years, and the way museums engage has also changed.

Chung mentioned that museums are now dynamic spaces for dialogue, learning, and community engagement, and are very important places for architecture. She added that considering Singapore is a multicultural society, it is important to build mutual understanding, trust, and respect. The explanation is that museums have now become part of the social fabric where families plan weekends or friends meet, and visitors want to consume information and experience things more actively.

Modern collection strategies and the 'Collecting Contemporary Singapore' initiative

To change the museum's content, the National Museum of Singapore expanded the focus of its collections from artifacts of the past to contemporary items starting from the pandemic period in 2020. This is an attempt to present Singapore's history from a modern perspective, which was materialized through the 'Collecting Contemporary Singapore' initiative. This strategy aims to collect various forms of artifacts, including new themes such as climate change and sustainability to tell stories of modern daily life.

Chung explained that these modern collection methods help to immediately establish a link between the past and the present. The collected artifacts are contextual, functional, and presented in an experiential way to reach visitors. Actual examples mentioned included a traditional coffee roasting machine from the 1940s, an elevator used in public housing estates in the 1970s, and a Flipboard from Changi Airport.

Creating the museum's narrative together with the community

The National Museum of Singapore is collecting citizens' stories and objects through an Open Call so that visitors can directly participate in shaping the museum's narrative. Since starting the first open call in May 2020, the museum has been regularly receiving contributions from citizens in connection with special exhibitions. This method makes citizens contribute more actively to the museum's content and enables exhibitions that reflect diverse perspectives as well as expert perspectives.

Chung emphasized that one of the museum's roles is to provide a platform so that visitors can have a voice in creating Singapore's stories and narratives. The diverse perspectives obtained through this citizen participation are also expected to be reflected in the curation of the permanent exhibition related to Singapore's history, which is scheduled to open at the end of this year.