Images of Singapore is an award-winning historical museum in that exhibits the culture and history of Singapore using multi-media displays, multi-screen theatre presentations and lifesize tableaus depicting major events in Singapore's history.The attraction is housed in a former military hospital used throughout 1893-1950.
The Images of Singapore museum is located in Imbiah Lookout, Sentosa, Singapore near the Singapore Cable Car stop at Sentosa and the Merlion. The museum offers a chronological history of Singapore from its earliest days to the present. There are numerous exhibitions, covering the pre-British period of Malaysian rule, British colonialism, the founding of colonial Singapore by Thomas Stamford Raffles, the Japanese occupation, and the post-colonialist era under Singapore's first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew .
Opened in 1983 as the Pioneers of Singapore & Surrender Chambers museum, the museum was extended in 1994 to include a section called Festivals of Singapore and the attraction was rechristened with its present name. Stories of the Sea, a new multi-sensory maritime experience was opened in 2002, but was removed from the museum within the following year when it proved unpopular with guests. The museum was closed in 2003 for a major upgrade and reopened in 2005 with a new, more integrated look and additional attractions, including the multi-screen special effects show Four Winds of Singapore, a tribute to the national contributions of Singapore's Chinese, Eurasian, Malay and Indian populations.
The 2005 renovation won a prestigious Thea Award for "Best Reinvention of a Cultural Heritage Center" in April 2006.
A restaurant and a souvenir shop is located inside and at the exit area of the museum.
Famous quotes containing the words images of and/or images:
“It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past.... Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)
“For thousands the world is a freak show, the images flicker past and disappear, the impressions remain flat and disconnected in the soul. Thus, they are easily led by the opinions of others, are willing to let their impressions be reordered, rearranged, and reevaluated.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)