Opened in January 1996, the mission of the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) is to preserve and present the art histories and contemporary art practices of Singapore and the Southeast Asian region.
To date, SAM has amassed the world’s largest public collection of modern and contemporary Southeast Asian artworks with a growing component in international contemporary art. The Museum’s collection comprise over 7,000 Singapore and Southeast Asian modern and contemporary artworks and over 1000 works from its Tyler Print Collection, that include some of the most prominent names in the 20th century international art scene such as Frank Stella and Roy Lichtenstein. The collection includes paintings, sculptures, multimedia installations, drawings, prints, and photographs, among others.
Housed in a restored 19th century mission school, its permanent collection is displayed on a rotational basis. Along with Imaging Selves, Landscape In Southeast Asian Art, and Art of Our Time, all three exhibitions featuring its permanent collection, the Museum also curated country focus exhibitions, From There to Now, Soul Ties: The Land & Her People, Crossings, and Faith and Being, on Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand respectively. The art of the region is given international exposure through the Museum's travelling exhibition programme. SAM also loaned its collection and co-curated shows with regional museums including National Art Museum of China (Encounters Exhibition) and Ayala Museum in The Philippines (SAM’s Philippines Collection), National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (Cubism in Asia Exhibition) and National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea (Cubism in Asia Exhibition), and The Japan Foundation, Paris (Cubism in Asia Exhibition).
In addition to its expertise in Southeast Asian art, SAM has presented numerous international shows including Leonardo da Vinci :Scientist-Inventor-Artist, German Art:1960s to 1970s, The Origins of Modern Art in France (which involved collaboration with over 90 museums in France including Centre Pompidou & Musée d’Orsay), Monet to Moore: Millennium Gift of The Sara Lee Corporation, Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession, Ju Ming, Encounters with Modernism, Botero in Singapore, and more recently, All The Best – Works from Deutsche Bank Collection and Engraving The World – Works from the Louvre’s Chalcography Collection. These provide a context and forum for art development and practices of Southeast Asia.
Opened in August 2008, 8Q sam is a contemporary art space with fresh, multi-disciplinary, interactive and community oriented programming; a place where the public can directly experience the work and ideas of living artists, and in relation to its aesthetic and social context. 8Q sam will support experimental art forms and is envisioned to become a crossroad of new ideas and expressions. 8Q sam aspires to engage a broad and diverse audience, create a sense of community and be a place for contemplation, stimulation, and discussion about contemporary art and culture, and serves as a forum especially for the students. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience the diversity of contemporary art practices ranging from painting and sculpture, to installation, film & video, photography, new media, performance art and sound art.
SAM has worldwide links with international museums. Its programme partners include Louvre Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Shanghai Art Museum, Seoul National University Museum of Art, Stedelijk Museum, Bonn Art Museum, Centre of International Modern Art, National Museum of India, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Asia Society in New York, Fukuoka Art Museum and Queensland Art Gallery. SAM also worked with major art institutions in Southeast Asia and China. With Singapore becoming a global city for the arts, SAM’s international networks bring about a confluence of ideas, and create a dynamic arts scene invigorated by international flows of ideas, talents, knowledge and resources.
Community outreach continues to be an important area of the Museum's function. The Museum aims to promote awareness and appreciation of art within the local and regional context and in so doing, it hopes to encourage the growth of an active and stimulating cultural environment in Singapore. This is done not only through the Museum's exhibition programmes as well as its education and public programmes which cover a diversity of art trends and practices, fringe activities and public lectures, aimed at reaching the local community at large as well as regional and international visitors to Singapore. Since its opening, the Museum has been stimulating the cultural environment of Singapore and continues to do so with breathtaking shows and exciting programmes.
