ArtScience Museum
Museum in Singapore
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| Established | 17 February 2011 |
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| Location | 6 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 018974 |
| Director | Honor Harger |
| Public transit access | CE1 DT16 Bayfront |
| Website | www |
The ArtScience Museum is a museum within the integrated resort of Marina Bay Sands in the Downtown Core of the Central Area in Singapore. Opened on 17 February 2011 by Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, it features major exhibitions that blend art, science, culture and technology.[1]
Although a permanent exhibition at the ArtScience Gallery has been planned, the museum mainly hosts touring exhibitions curated by other museums.
On 12 November 2025, its partnership with PGLang's creative agency Project 3 was officially announced, intended for the museum's rebrand and current-to-upcoming shows.[2]
Architecture
The architecture is said to be a form reminiscent of a lotus flower.[3] It was designed by Moshe Safdie and features an exterior made of fibre-reinforced plastic supported internally by a steel lattice.[4]
Referred to as "The Welcoming Hand of Singapore" by Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson,[citation needed] the ArtScience Museum is anchored by a round base in the middle, with ten extensions referred to as "fingers" in the shape of a flower.[5] The design concept for each finger denotes various gallery spaces sporting skylights at the "fingertips", which are included as sustainable illumination for the curved interior walls.
Aerial view of the ArtScience Museum
Night view of Singapore Art Science Museum, February 2019
The ArtScience Museum at twilight
A night view of the museum photographed in February 2011
View from below
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Gallery spaces
The ArtScience Museum has 21 gallery spaces with a total area of 64,583 square feet (6,000 square meters).[citation needed]
Sustainability features
Rainwater is harvested and channelled down the centre of the building, flowing through its bowl-shaped roof into a reflecting pond at the lowest level of the building. The rainwater is then recycled for use in the building's restrooms.[citation needed]
Exhibitions
Permanent exhibition
Since Future World there is no permanent exhibition.[citation needed]
Touring exhibitions
| Exhibition | Period | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World[6] | 19 Feb – 27 Mar 2011 | American Museum of Natural History |
| Genghis Khan: The Exhibition[6] | 19 Feb – 10 Apr 2011 | Rex Exhibitions |
| Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds[7] | 19 Feb – 2 Oct 2011 | Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Asian Civilisations Museum, National Heritage Board, Singapore Tourism Board |
| Van Gogh Alive - the Exhibition[8] | 16 Apr – 9 Oct 2011 | Grande Exhibitions, VisionsCom |
| Dalí: Mind of a Genius – The Exhibition[9] | 14 May – 13 Nov 2011 | Stratton Foundation |
| Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition[10][11] | 29 Oct 2011 – 29 Apr 2012 | Premier Exhibitions, RMS Titanic, Inc. |
| Cartier Time Art[12] | 14 Dec 2011 – 12 Feb 2012 | Cartier S.A. |
| Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal[13] | 17 Mar – 21 Oct 2012 | The Andy Warhol Museum |
| Harry Potter: The Exhibition[14] | 2 Jun – 30 Sep 2012 | Global Experience Specialists, Inc., Warner Bros. Consumer Products |
| Outside In: A Magnum Photos Showcase[15] | 10 Oct 2012 – 17 Mar 2013 | Magnum Photos |
| The Art of the Brick[16] | 17 Nov 2012 – 14 Apr 2013 | Nathan Sawaya |
| Fujians: The Blue Ocean Legacy[17] | 24 Nov 2012 – 28 Feb 2013 | Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan |
| Mummy: Secrets of the Tomb[18] | 27 Apr – 4 Nov 2013 | British Museum |
| Essential Eames: A Herman Miller Exhibition[19] | 29 Jun 2013 – 16 Feb 2014 | Eames Office, Herman Miller |
| 50 Greatest Photographs of National Geographic[20] | 17 Aug – 27 Oct 2013 | National Geographic Society |
| Dinosaurs: Dawn to Extinction[21] | 25 Jan – 27 Jul 2014 | American Museum of Natural History, PrimeSCI!, San Juan National Science Museum |
| Annie Leibovitz A Photographer's Life 1990 - 2005 | 18 Apr – 19 Oct 2014 | - |
| Human+: The Future of Our Species[22] | May 20 – Oct 15 2017 | Science Gallery, Dublin. |
Feature exhibitions
The ArtScience Museum features gallery spaces totalling 50,000 square feet (6,000 square meters) for exhibits from combined art/science, media/technology, as well as design/architecture motifs.
Permanent exhibits include objects indicative of the accomplishments of both the arts and the sciences through the ages, along the lines of Leonardo da Vinci's Flying Machine, a Kongming Lantern, and a high-tech robotic fish. The museum opened with an exhibition of a collection of the Belitung shipwreck cargo, and Tang dynasty treasures that were discovered and preserved by Tilman Walterfang of Seabed Explorations NZ Ltd.
Belitung shipwreck treasure
Tilman Walterfang and his team found the Tang dynasty artifacts in the Gaspar Strait in 1998 among the Belitung shipwreck, a large 9th-century Arabian dhow that sunk around 830 AD. For the next six years, they were desalinated, conserved and researched by his company Seabed Explorations Ltd in New Zealand. They were eventually purchased for around US$32 million.[23][24]
An accurate reproduction of the Arab dhow ship, named The Jewel of Muscat, was presented by the Sultanate of Oman to the government and people of Singapore.[25]
The items in the collection on tour accurately reflects the assortment and magnitude of the find and its global inter-cultural significance; this is the single largest consignment of Tang dynasty export goods ever discovered. The find includes some of the oldest cobalt-blue-and-white ceramics made in China, several gold items made with Arabic designs and swastikas, jars filled with spices and incense resins, bronze mirrors, thousands of glazed bowls, ewers and other fine ceramics, as well as lead ingots. The pièce de résistance of the exhibition is a small cache of magnificent, intricately tooled vessels of silver and gold, which remain unparalleled in quality and design from the period.
World tour of Tang dynasty shipwreck treasure
With support from the estate of Tan Sri Khoo Teck Puat, the cargo of the Arab dhow, which was used as the true and original model, is now generally referred to among academic circles as the "Tang Shipwreck Treasure: Singapore's Maritime Collection".[26]
