Shahira BANU
NUS Museum

This introductory post provides an overview of teaching and learning initiatives that take place at NUS Museum and NUS Baba House, facilitated by personnel from the Museum’s Faculty Engagement unit, with NUS faculty and students.

Students at one of NUS Museum’s permanent exhibitions, Radio Malaya: Abridged Conversations about Art.
(Photo provided by the author)

Banu, S. (2024, October 23). Experiential learning with NUS Museum and NUS Baba House. Teaching Connections. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/teachingconnections/2024/10/23/experiential-learning-with-nus-museum-and-nus-baba-house/

When one thinks of a classroom, the image that likely pops up is a room with a whiteboard, chairs, tables, and a projector. Not often does one associate the image of a classroom being a space filled with objects, artefacts, and exhibitions. The NUS Museum and NUS Baba House are not only sites where exhibitions, stories, and leisurely visits can take place, but they also serve as places where teaching and learning occur for many students across campus. Course engagements are a key source of collaboration between the Faculty Engagement unit and NUS faculty and students. The Faculty Engagement unit typically works with faculty on what kind of session they would like to have at the NUS Museum and/or Baba House. We see over 30 courses visiting these spaces each semester from varying academic disciplines, such as the humanities, sciences, architecture, business, and so on.

By bringing students to sites of experiential learning, where they can learn by doing and take part in activities beyond their typical classrooms, students get a chance to engage with artefacts, archival materials, a heritage home and the various narratives that come with such spaces. Course engagements can take many forms at the NUS Museum and Baba House. For instance, students may experience and learn from curatorial activities, see conservation efforts and experiments, and even experience handling objects and materials that are not on display.

At the Museum, located on the Kent Ridge campus at the University Cultural Centre, we can bring out works that are not on display to enrich the learning experience upon request. We customise the visit experience depending on the learning objectives of the course, be it through specialised tours in alignment with specific learning objectives or by coordinating what may be needed by the faculty to enhance their teaching and learning experience.

Some faculty, students, and courses have even deeper modes of collaboration and experiential learning with the team at NUS Museum besides visiting the Museum or having access to collections and archival materials for classes or assignments. In Semester 1 of AY2023/24, for example, students from the Department of Architecture (DOA) taking the course AR5951D “Houses are People: Architecture and Disappearance in the Hot War” paid multiple visits to the Museum and the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute to develop a prep-room response (NUS Museum, n.d.-a) as part of their course. Guided by Dr William Davis (DOA) and Siddharta Perez, NUS Museum’s Senior Curator, Museum Curatorial Lead, the students in their groups had put together installations onsite at the Museum for visitors to engage with (Figures 1 and 2).

 

At the Baba House, located at 157 Neil Road, course engagements can look a little different. There are tours conducted within the house and the content can vary based on the learning objectives of each course (Figure 3). There is also a neighbourhood tour format which happens beyond the parameters of the House itself, and takes place in the surrounding Blair Plain conservation area (National Heritage Board, n.d.) (Figure 4). It is a classroom experience off campus, with students interacting and engaging with more than just written works or their immediate faculty and vicinity. However, fret not, if you need a classroom space at the Museum or a discussion space at the Baba House – we have that too!

Besides courses that take place at the NUS Museum and Baba House, various other projects are constantly unfolding. Whether it is exhibitions, programmes, the Prospectus initiative (NUS Museum, n.d.-b) and so on, the NUS Museum and Baba House are sites where experiential and out-of-typical-classroom learning take place. We look forward to sharing more about the partnerships, teaching and engagements at the NUS Museum and Baba House. In the meantime, you can keep in touch with what is happening at the Museum via our social media platforms and website.

References

National Heritage Board (n.d.). Blair Plain Conservation Area. National Heritage Board. https://www.roots.gov.sg/places/places-landing/Places/surveyed-sites/Blair-Plain-Conservation-Area

NUS Museum (n.d.-a). prep-room. NUS Museum. https://museum.nus.edu.sg/explore/about/prep-room/

NUS Museum (n.d.-b). Prospectus AY23/24: Collections as academic resource. NUS Museum. https://museum.nus.edu.sg/prospectus/

Shahira BANU is part of the Outreach team and is in the Faculty Engagement unit at NUS Museum. As part of the unit and Museum, Shahira’s work includes planning and developing initiatives to facilitate object-based learning and partnerships with courses across faculties. Along with the Faculty Engagement unit, the Outreach team has the Community Engagement unit whose work includes providing development and internship opportunities for students to work alongside Museum staff. NUS Museum and Baba House continuously develop partnerships within NUS, the culture and heritage industry, and the global knowledge community. Shahira can be reached at shahira@nus.edu.sg.