Mallika Dureja
The Asian Civilisations Museum is a tribute to the varied history and culture of Singapore as well as the rest of the Asian continent. It was established in 1997 in the building that once housed the Tao Nan School on Armenian Street.
The museum originally comprised ten halls, each of which presented a different quarterly exhibition in addition to displays centered on China. However, in 2003 the museum was moved to its current position within the walls of the Empress Place Building. Since then, it has been expanded to include a number of themed exhibitions that are scattered across all three levels of the building.
The National Museum of Singapore, the Peranakan Museum, the Singapore Art Museum, and the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) are the four largest museums in Singapore. These four institutions make up the greatest of Singapore’s museums. The ACM is the only one of these four that focuses on the cultures and customs of Pan Asia.
It is interesting to note that the Peranakan Museum was initially merely a temporary special exhibition housed in the former location of the Asian Civilizations Museum (ACM). Due to the positive reception it received from visitors, the Board decided to make the exhibition a permanent fixture, and it eventually evolved into its own unique institution.
Southeast Asia, China, as well as South and West Asia, are among the territories that ACM covers to a significant extent. The neoclassical structure that houses the American Civil War Museum today dates all the way back to 1867, when it was used as an office by a number of different government departments.
