KUCHING: While you are at the Sarawak Museum soaking in the atmosphere before it closes for conservation work, drop by the ‘Urang Sarawak: An Exhibition about US’ at the Art Museum next door for a taste of things to come.
Just a little over one year old, Urang Sarawak is the testing ground for the upcoming Sarawak Museum Campus and has collected rave reviews and nearly 100,000 visitors.
As their contribution to the ‘What About Kuching (WAK) 2017’ festival, the Sarawak Museum is holding guided tours every Saturday during October.
What’s special about the tours is that they are led by the very people who helped develop the exhibits, so you can ask them all about the artefacts, the research and selection process which established the exhibition.
Sarawak Museum Campus and Heritage Trail senior project leader Hans van de Bunte told The Borneo Post that it was the first time a museum collection was laid out in this manner and it was mainly to see how it would be received by Sarawakians.
“Before we do it in the new building, it’s better to test it on the local audience. This exhibition is on the history and cultures of Sarawak. It’s small at 400 sq metres but it’s still a proper exhibition,” he said.
Tourists also get a quick introduction to Sarawak, from the history with the Brookes to what Sarawak is like today.
It also gave them a chance to bring items out of storage, things that have not been exhibited before, added van de Bunte.
He pointed out how information is being presented not only in text, but also in pictorials, videos, audio and interactive displays.
“We brought out the big topics for human beings everywhere in the world – life.”
When visitors walk through the exhibits, they are presented with things they can instantly relate to – marriage, death, religion, family.
While the information is admittedly basic for some topics, van de Bunte said his team is working on more comprehensive exhibits for the new building which hopes to open in mid-2020.
Urang Sarawak will be running two more tours this month – one on Oct 21 by Rebecca Richard and another on Oct 28 by Rahmah Enche Yusop.
Tours start at 10am and end at 11am. Meeting place is at the entrance of the Urang Sarawak exhibition. Entry and tour are free but limited to a maximum of 12 people.
Reserve a spot via email to Hazinda Dollen at [email protected].
Sarawak Museum is also holding talks at the Museum Cafe and Shop, Main Bazaar on Sunday mornings, starting 11am.
The two upcoming talks include ‘A peek into the history of the Sarawak Museum collections’ by Jennifer Rachel Morris, which is happening on Oct 22.
Dr Oliver Venz will be speaking on ‘Animism, Head-taking & skulls in Borneo. An ethnolinguistic perspective’ on Oct 29.
Entry is free. Reserve your seat for the talks by emailing Hazlinda Dollen at [email protected].