Diary of an NUS Museum Intern: Joellyn Boey

Note: Diary of an NUS Museum Intern is a series of blog posts written by our interns about their experiences during the course of their internships. Besides working hard and fast in their cubicles, our interns have travelled to Bandung and Malacca, organised symposiums, waded through tons of historical research and pitched in during exhibition installations. If you would like to become our next intern, visit our internship page for more information!

3 Temasek Junior College students joined the museum for the month of January as part of their Wonder-Observe-Weave! (WOW!) programme. Read on to find more about their experiences!

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I had a really fulfilling experience during these 3 weeks at NUS Museum. Through this attachment, I was able to find out more about the artist Ng Eng Teng and the history of his art pieces in our college, Temasek Junior College (TJC). Also, I was able to take a look at the 4 exhibitions offered by the NUS Museum and plan an exhibition at TJC.

Our first project was to write an article about the sculpture Pioneers of Temasek and the murals Light of Life. Both art pieces are currently in TJC and were created by Ng Eng Teng, an artist that is very significant to the art scene in Singapore. I am glad that I was able to know of such a great artist who has his sculptures all over Singapore, such as the Mother and Child sculpture and The Explorer sculpture. This project gave me a chance to know more about the history of Ng’s art works in TJC. Many students and staff walk pass the murals and sculpture everyday but no one really knows the meaning behind the art pieces. I find this a real pity as the sculpture and mural hold so much meaning to the college.

 

The second project was to plan a travelling exhibition to TJC, which was to promote NUS Museum and Ng Eng Teng’s art pieces in TJC. At first, I was overwhelmed as I had never done this sort of work before. After going to look at the exhibitions offered at NUS Museum and with some help from our mentor, our group was able to get an idea of how we should plan the museum. What I learnt from planning the exhibition was that detailed planning is very important as even the tiniest detail can make a difference. On the day of the exhibition, we were surprised to find that people are actually interested in Ng Eng Teng and his art works. This made the job of our group much easier and we were more confident in promoting to them.

Our group really worked well together during these 3 weeks, which makes my experience here at NUS Museum even better. We would brainstorm together for ideas or think of solutions to problems that we faced. We also learned some important work skills such as learning to operate the photocopy machine and transcribing.

Above all, I found that I have grown to love museum exhibitions. It was very interesting to walk through the exhibitions at NUS Museum as I learn so much about the art history of Singapore. The NUS Baba House, a heritage home run by NUS Museum, also raised my interests in the Peranakan culture.  Exhibitions give us so much information and present them in a way that we would be able to understand.