All day Museum day...

Good morning, Saturday!

Who gets up before 6AM on a Saturday?! Lol!

It's going to be an entire day at the museums today.

In the morning, I have an activity at the National Museum. I'm helping out interview docent programme applicants! Whoa! Two years ago, I was the one being interviewed. Now, I'm the one doing the interviews. Hehe!

In the afternoon, I have volunteer shifts at the newly-opened National Gallery. Today will be my debut as a museum guide for the fantastic gallery. I'm very, very excited to see the space finally completed. I'm also excited to converse about the art works.

This weekend and next weekend, we will be doing soapbox tours (which means I'm stationed at one painting and if there are any visitors, I would engage them in a convo about the painting). I would say that I'm more knowledgeable in Singapore and Malayan art. For the soapbox tours, I chose the work of one Malayan artist - Chuah Thean Teng and one FILIPINO artist - Jose Joya.

Joya's work featured at the National Gallery was a loan from the National Museum of the Philippines. I couldn't be more proud to talk about it and see it in Singapore!

So, yeah, it'll be an all day museum day today!

Busy August 1...

Can't believe it's already August! Time is flying by so fast!

The first day of the month turned out to be a very long one. I hope it's not a sign of how the rest of the month will be. Haha!

I left the house around 730 to attend the last lecture for the National Gallery Docent Training. I have to admit I am amazed that we have reached the final lecture. The first lecture was some time in late January. Now, here we are several months later equipped with information and (hopefully) ready to guide when the museum opens this November. I just need to write two papers and pass my assessment tour. After that, I'll be officially a docent of NGS. Yay!

We had a whole day lecture today. During lunch, my team mates and I headed to the nearby Din Tai Fung. I'm going to miss seeing these lovely ladies every Saturday morning. Hehe! I hope we do stay in touch even after we start guiding.

From Bras Basah, I took the bus to River Valley to attend the sunset Mass at St. Bernadette. I figured I might as well attend Mass today since Sunday will also be packed with activities.

After Mass, I headed back to Orchard and spent a good hour at the library at 313 Somerset to work more on my tour paper.

When the announcement came on that the library was closing in five minutes, I packed my stuff and just headed to the MRT station for the journey home.

Tired and exhausted now. I'll just rest a bit before hitting the shower and zzz...

Docent training with Guggenheim's Director of Education...

While almost everyone I know back in Manila (including my own family) celebrated Mother's Day, I was at faraway Gillman Barracks and attended a whole day docent training for a special exhibit.

No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia is the inaugural exhibit of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative. The exhibit was first presented at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The exhibit then traveled to Hong Kong before arriving in Singapore.

We had two speakers for the day. In the morning, the curator June Yap talked about all the works on display. She started by giving a backstory on the homeland of each artist. This was followed by talking about the art work. It was quite interesting.

I must say though that the afternoon session was much more enjoyable and inspiring. Guggenheim Museum's Director of Education Sharon Vatsky spent a few hours talking to the group about possible ways to guide for the exhibit. It was such a fantastic session. After a brief talk at the conference room, we moved to the exhibit venue where she conducted a walkthrough for us. It is just amazing how we spent a little over an hour discussing just three works.

Aside from learning about the exhibit, I certainly picked up a lot of other ideas that may be used when guiding for the museum. I was really glad I got to attend the session. If that was how sessions are conducted in contemporary art museums, then I am quite sure more people will be open to understanding and even possibly appreciating contemporary art.

Another interesting thing about the exhibit is that it seems fitting that it is staged in Singapore since most of the artists feature come from this region. Two paintings by Filipino artists Poklong Anading and Norberto Roldan are included in the exhibit. I met Norberto Roldan several years ago at Green Papaya gallery. He sold me 5 collages by Geraldine Javier. I also became a frequent visitor of the gallery and eventually bought a few more pieces by Mariano Ching and Jonathan Olazo. Really glad to see his work here in Singapore.

No Country touches on themes such as ethno-nationalism, national identity in an age of globalisation, to name a few. The 22 works on display include paintings, sculpture, photography, video, and installation. The exhibit will run until July 20 at the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), Singapore, a national research centre of Nanyang Technological University.

Docent training...

When I signed up to be a museum docent, I did not expect that it was going to be very much like being a student again. Hehe!

Sure, I anticipated having to attend lectures every so often, but I did not expect that it was going to be very busy.

I have to admit though that I'm really enjoying it. I enjoy knowing more about the country and the people that adopted me. I enjoy being able to tell other people about Singapore's history. I enjoy being part of a museum.

I've written before that to be a museum docent was something I've always wanted to experience. I'm glad that I am able to do it now.

Most of the senior docents have been guiding for years! My mentor has been guiding for five years or so, I think. Another mentor I chatted with shared that she's been guiding for 14 (!!!) years. A number of mentors guide at the National Museum and in other museums as well.

Talk about passion and commitment.

Seeing how active the leadership of the different Museum Volunteers groups are is inspiring. Almost everyday, I would receive an invite to a talk about Singapore history/culture and about Asian culture/history as well. It's really exciting.

Last Saturday, I attended the curator lecture for the next special exhibit at the National Museum. Initially, I was just curious to attend the lecture and take note of information I can use for guiding at the Singpore History Gallery.

But after listening to curators Daniel and Szan, I really felt the urge to volunteer as one of the guides for the exhibit.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to write about it already, but I will say that the exhibit will showcase paintings by local artists. I wanted to volunteer because paintings are very close to my heart thanks to my late father. One of the things he really instilled in me was a love for the arts.

So even though I have yet to learn about local artists, I feel that I can contribute something being the son of an artist myself. My father used oil in his early years. When I was growing up, he switched to watercolour. Towards his last few years, he switched to oil pastel.

Yesterday afternoon, I dragged PG Boy to the library so that I can borrow a couple of books and start reading on local artists. While waiting for Next to Normal, I was reading through some of the books and taking down notes.

Hmm, I actually learned quite a lot in two hours - from the pioneer artists, the establishment of an art academy in Singapore, to early art groups in Malaya.

Really excited to guide for this exhibit. Woohoo! :)

Officially a museum guide at the National Museum of Singapore...

Saturday was a very special day for me.

After two months of history lectures and curator walkthroughs, two mock tours and my very first public tour a few weeks ago (which also doubled as my final exam), I am now officially a museum guide of the National Museum of Singapore.

A simple graduation ceremony for the new batch of docents (I like the sound of that!) was held last Saturday at one of the Seminar Rooms of the museum.

There are a total of 32 people who "survived" the rigorous training to be a docent. In my team alone, we had three people who left due to work (I think).

The new batch now joins the existing 40 over guides of the National Museum of Singapore and the more than 200 other guides of the 7 other museums under the National Heritage Board.

I'll be guiding at least once a month at the museum. The next one is towards the end of August. I'm excited because I get to do something that I've been wanting to do even when I was still in the Philippines.

I'm really happy to have been given the opportunity to be able to serve as a docent. As a foreigner living in Singapore, I feel that I am able to enjoy the best of two worlds - the Philippines and Singapore.

To a certain extent, this is also a simple way of me giving back to the country that has adopted me these past two years and counting. Though I've only been here for a little over two years, the experience is just awesome. (So please, MOM, keep extending my work permit. Hehe!)

Do drop by the museum one of these days...

First gallery presentation for the NMS training...

Last Saturday, I had my first gallery presentation at the National Museum as a docent.

This was part of the two-month intensive museum guide volunteer training.

The presentation was only for five minutes. There are two more to be done. The next one will be a 10-minute presentation, while the last and the finale will be a full one-hour tour. I'm going to be positive and say that it is very exciting instead of saying it was nerve-wracking. Hehe!

At the end of my presentation last Saturday, it did feel quite exciting and enjoyable. To be a museum docent was something I've always been wanting to experience. It's just amusing that I had the opportunity in another country. Hehe!

Initially, I thought that I would only be presenting to my two group mentors. However, it turned out that each one had to present to the mentors as well as the entire team. That made it more exciting. Hehe!

It was very good practice though. After my talk, I received good feedback from my mentors. As for points for improvement, I needed to work on my "hook" to catch the museum guests' interest.

The topic assigned to me was the Singapore Stone (pictured above). It's one of the national treasures of Singapore. It is one of the oldest relics of the country that gives insights to Singapore's pre-colonial times.

If you want to know more about it, meet me at the Singapore History Gallery of the National Museum. Hehe! Kidding.

Aside from the gallery presentations, the afternoon was a continuation of the weekly lectures on Singapore history. The one-hour lecture is immediately followed by a one-hour walkthrough at the section of the gallery that was the topic for the afternoon. The two curators who have so far given the lecture/walkthrough have been very inspiring and have given trainees ideas on how things should be done. (On a side note, they're both still very young!!! I'm so impressed. Hehe!)

So far, the past three weeks have been very interesting. The whole training is a crash course on Singapore history. For the past few weeks, I've been reading a book entitled Singapore: A Biography which summarizes the country's history from pre-colonial times up to the recent decades.

As an international museum guide, I feel that one good thing about it is that I am able to somehow compare and contrast the things I learn about Singapore history to Philippine history as well as current events in Singapore and around the region.

(Previously, I was very nervous about not having any background on Singapore history compared to my fellow docent trainees. After three sessions and a lot of reading, I feel like I am somehow catching up. Also, I am starting to realise that being a good docent doesn't necessarily mean memorising all the dates and events. All the facts and figures are available in different formats (Google, books at the National Lib, talking to resource persons, doing own research) -- what matters is how you present the story. Somehow, realising that minimised my insecurity about not knowing much about SG history. Hehe!)

There are a number of other trainees from other countries as well, including a fellow Filipino. It's great that everyone in the group has been very friendly and helpful. In my own group, there's one more guy and four women. We're quite an interesting mix, I think.

Looking forward to the next training sessions. :-)

Docent training begins...

Last Saturday was the first session for the Museum Guide/Docent Training Course at the National Museum of Singapore.

A day before the course, the organizers emailed readings - yes, readings - to all docent trainees I suppose.

On the way home last Friday and over breakkie last Saturday, I was reading on the pre-colonial history of Singapore.

It's very interesting. When I think about Singapore, what usually comes to mind are the skyscrapers, great shopping, chicken rice. It was good learning about the time before the island was occupied by the British in 1819.

The first session of the course was both fun and intense. The senior guides gave a lively and enjoyable talk on guiding skills for museum volunteers.

Afterwards, we were given a lecture on the Temasek history. Singapore was once known as Temasek. In Malay, it means sea town. That afternoon, I met Wang Dayuan, Sang Nila Utama, Raja Culan, Iskandar Shah, among others.

Following this was our first gallery walkthrough. I've been to the History Gallery a couple of times, but this is the first time that the artefacts and relics are having more meaning to me.

The session ended with an assignment. (It really does feel like going back to school!) I had to prepare a talk about a particular topic. Come the third session, I will be doing my presentation. Exciting and it's also making me nervous. Hehe! :D I'm really impressed with how organized the training course is. It was also great seeing how passionate the senior guides are in what they do.

We were given a schedule of the entire training schedule that will run until end of May. The senior guides are right. Our Saturdays will never be the same again. Hehe!

Looking forward to the next sessions.