Open Call Details
How will COVID-19 be remembered? The National Museum of Singapore launched a COVID-19 collection drive from 22 May 2020 to 30 June 2021 to call for individuals, communities and organisations to contribute materials that document experiences of the pandemic in Singapore. This project aimed to capture a fuller picture of life during these times, add to the nation’s history and collection, and enrich future generations’ understanding of this extraordinary period.
Through this public call, ‘Documenting COVID-19 in Singapore’, the National Museum sought to engage the public to capture this key historical moment as it unfolded. This was part of the National Museum’s ongoing efforts under our ‘Collecting Contemporary Singapore’ project that documents significant moments in Singapore’s recent and contemporary history, through the collection of objects and stories that capture people’s lived experiences. Doing so will enable the our museum to preserve and present a more complete and richer picture of life in Singapore during COVID-19 for future generations.
From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum’s curators kept a close watch on developments, and documented important objects and stories that captured the sentiment and experiences of life in Singapore during COVID-19.
Deliver by Zakaria Zainal features Zulkifli Atnawi, whose routine during the pandemic included buying and delivering groceries to vulnerable members of the community.
The Community Healthcare series by Edwin Koo spotlights elderly day care centres and community nurses who continued to visit patients at home even during the Circuit Breaker period.
The National Museum commissioned five photographers – Bob Lee, Edwin Koo, How Hwee Young, Brian Teo and Zakaria Zainal – and filmmakers Dave Lim and Adar Ng to produce 272 photographs and a short film, which were aimed at capturing the experiences of fellow residents in Singapore. Told through the lens of the photographers, filmmakers and curators as well as the subjects themselves, the project lent a platform to lesser-known stories of this pandemic. It also offered a glimpse into the social bonds, tenacity and resilience across the diverse communities in Singapore.
The collection was displayed in the exhibition Picturing the Pandemic: A Visual Record of COVID-19 in Singapore that ran from 27 February to 17 October 2021.
The National Museum also received various objects and stories that were contributed by members of the public, including an assortment of handmade face masks, visual diaries documenting the Circuit Breaker, thoughtful thank-you notes to our essential workers, and other creative responses like artwork depicting everyday life during the pandemic.
Visual diaries as part of pandemic-related objects contributed by the public.
Chung May Khuen, Director of the National Museum of Singapore said: “We are amazed by how people continue to innovate in times like these and come up with such creative responses along with their inspiring stories.”
Some of these objects were first showcased at the Picturing the Pandemic exhibition, as well as in the Home Truly: Growing Up with Singapore, 1950s to the Present exhibition from 19 Dec 2020 to 3 October 2021.
About Collecting Contemporary Singapore
The National Museum is expanding our public engagement efforts to crowdsource objects and related stories/photos from residents in Singapore, so as to broaden our contemporary collection. We will be focusing on different themes each year to encourage Singaporeans to contribute to this project and reflect upon life in Singapore in recent times.
These contributions may reveal different perspectives of contemporary Singapore that will shape and inform the curation of the museum’s future exhibitions. Selected objects may also be featured in relevant exhibitions presented by the National Museum.
If you have other objects that you are keen to contribute to the National Museum of Singapore but which do not fit the ongoing theme(s) of our current open call(s), please email your story and photos of the object to NHB_NMS_Curatorial@nhb.gov.sg for our curators’ assessment.