NUS Museum & NUS Baba House Summer Internship 2021

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. Working alongside their mentors, our interns have waded through tons of historical research, assisted in curatorial work, pitched in during exhibition installations and organised outreach events! If you would like to become our next intern, visit our internship page for more information! 

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Wondering what the NUS Museum internship experience at the NUS Museum and NUS Baba House last summer was like? Find out more about the insights and takeaways our various interns have gleaned from the programme through their Microsoft Sway posts!




"to play a part in educating
and inspiring its visitors, to create, present and conserve cultures which may have been
silenced by dominant discourses, and to have important conversations that no one else is
having"




"I remember going home from the last day of my first week, telling my mother that I
probably just had the best week of my life, and I never expected that my first internship
would be such a wholesome experience."





"Everybody is in a rush to digitise, especially with what the pandemic has revealed to
us: go online or risk dying out! I digitised Peranakan family portraits, and I researched on digital archival methods. I debated on the merits of a digital museum space with other interns. And all the while I was thinking – can a Collections role be translated into the online sphere?"




"The fact that this much could be explored truly
fascinates me, and leaves me excited to see how many more such connections can be made from the house and its previous inhabitants, to the communities around them - now that we have kickstarted this process!"




"Therefore, our capacity to actively critique the narratives we
construct of the past constantly reminds us of the interpretive and subjective moves that invariably underpin all historical accounts."





"My research on the history of KentRidge, for instance, has made it possible for me to see Our Heritage differently.
When I look at these stones, I think also of other milestones in our institutional history."




"From conception to launch, the NUS Baba House Neighbourhood Project has been
molded by the hands of countless people. In this first phase of the project, we hope
to take a step in remembering the many lives—visible and invisible—that laid hand
on this ground. There is still much to include and explore."





"However, being given a chance to explore and learn about the
museum has allowed me to appreciate better what it offers (especially the Radio Malaya exhibition which I was admittedly a little dismissive of before joining this internship) and has made me love the art scene even more, no matter how small and difficult the industry is to work in. If anyone's looking for an internship in the museum scene that seeks to develop you holistically, then this is definitely the right place to look."




"For me, it has always been the personal question of figuring out how we know what we
know, no matter if it was the sciences or humanities. But can we be so certain of the past particularly when what we know about history mere remnants?"






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