History Of The ArtScience Museum In 1 Minute

The ArtScience Museum is Singapore’s most recognizable and least well-known building. Whereas the Marina Bay Sands hotel has become a symbol for Singapore, the large, uniquely shaped white building directly in front of it gets little to no attention. The ArtScience Museum is one part of the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort, which includes the hotel, the museum, and Shoppes by the Bay.
Similar to the Marina Bay Sands hotel, the ArtScience Museum faced its own complications during the construction process. Originally the bowl of the museum was going to feature a 3,000-seat amphitheatre, however architect Moshe Safdie was horrified when several people told him that his original design brought to mind a bunch of bananas. He had his team of engineers use three-dimensional modeling to change the design to what we see today. The structure itself is made up of ten irregular petals, a building process that required 5,000 prefabricated pieces that were then carefully assembled like a terrifying high-stakes giant jigsaw puzzle.

The name of the museum is a reflection of its goal to focus on the fundamental interconnectedness that exists between art and science. They do this through high-tech exhibits that demonstrate the crossover between these seemingly disparate disciplines. With a floor space of nearly 50,000 square feet, the museum enjoys being able to have exhibits on a grand scale. In the past, this has included exhibitions featuring dinosaurs, the Titanic, the animation of Dreamworks, and more. Besides exhibitions, the museum also screens films and holds a variety of workshops catered to all ages.

Future World is the museum’s latest permanent exhibition where art installations come to life based on visitor interaction. Currently, the two feature exhibits are ‘Big Bang Data’, which looks at the effect of all the data we give out to multinational companies and how it is used, and ‘Journey to Infinity’, which presents over 150 works of MC Escher under several themes, including a section on ‘Escher mania’ that examines his impact on modern pop culture. The museum also holds monthly ArtScience Late events with performances that take advantage of the unique space at night while popup food and beverage stalls offer art-inspired snacks and drinks.

📅 The ArtScience Museum is open daily from 10am-7pm. Expect queues on weekend afternoons. Admission varies. Get more information and purchase tickets here.