We were first greeted by the elegant architecture of the building. It was beautiful; sparkling white and it looking exactly like a cathedral. That was when we knew that its history was related to the Catholic religion.
However, we were first drawn to the attractive ornaments outside the museum! The ornaments were quirky, which fit in perfectly with an art museum, as it would definitely draw attention from passersby.
Singapore Art Museum was formerly known as St. Joseph's Institution, which was for boys of any religion. Father Jean-Marie Beurel, a French Priest, founded this institution in 1852 with a small group of LaSalle Brothers but construction of the building only began in 1855. The picture below shows a statue and a plaque with the inscriptions: “J LA SELLE”, referring to the 17th century saint, John Baptist de La Salle.
We went in to find out more about the place, and came across the chapel. A plaque outside indicated that the chapel was dedicated to Reverend Brother Michael. He was said to be the Director of SJI from 1900 to 1914 and played a major role in the development of the building.
We went around and saw the glass hall, the courtyards and some of the galleries. We spent quite a bit of time there just roaming around and below are some of the many pictures we took.
This school accommodated the Air Raid Precautionary Group and provided the area for the Red Cross hospital during World War Two. However, when the Japanese came, the institution was renamed as the Bras Basah Boy’s School and they used it for military purposes. After the war, the school was re-opened.
Recently built was an extension building called "SAM at 8Q".
St. Joseph's Institution was Singapore's leading secondary school in Singapore and its former site is now used as a museum, preserving and presenting art histories and contemporary art of not only Singapore, but also the Southeast Asian region. It now has one of the world’s largest public collections of modern and contemporary Southeast Asian artworks. This has made the Singapore Art Museum historically and culturally significant to be placed on the map and our heritage trail. We believe it is well preserved as it looks almost identical to how it looked like in the past. The glass hall and the chapel were even restored to its original state. It showcases Singapore's history through the art works. We feel that there should be a write up of the building in it as well, although they did preserve the prominent parts of St. Joseph Institution.
And here is our group picture with the Singapore Art Museum, although the passerby who helped us take the picture unfortunately missed out the full name of Singapore Art Museum.
We have a group member named Samuel, so he took this opportunity to pose with his namesake.
And what can we say, we love museums!
