Art Museum Education in Singapore

Abstract

This study examines the practice of art education in one art museum (the Singapore Art Museum) through an analysis of its policy and curriculum, and the relationships between these and the public dimension of art museum education. The exhibition and public educational programmes serves as a basis for the discussion of three main issues in relation to museum educational policy in Singapore: (i) the creation of an awareness of national heritage among museum visitors, (ii) the notion of equity and inclusive museum education, and (iii) the concept of learning for life. The ‘reality factors’ that enable and inhibit the implementation of the art museum educational policy are presented and their implications for other contexts are considered: the tension between governmental aims of nation-building and post-modern concepts of art and art experience; policies of inclusion and the effects of self-exclusion for those without cultural capital; and the pressure to relate art education to economic development.KeywordsCultural CapitalInclusive EducationMuseum VisitorEducational RoleNational HeritageThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.