Unit head of DBKU’s Cat Museum Bahtiar Affendi takes reporters on a tour around Gallery C.
KUCHING: The Cat Museum at the Kuching North City Commission (DBKU) headquarters in Bukit Siol, Jalan Semariang here, is a unique art museum entirely dedicated to cats and the feline’s long history with humans.
Covering 1,035.9 square metres, the museum houses four galleries with over 4,000 pieces of interesting collections on all there is to know about and appreciate cats.
It displays a wide selection of paintings, sculptures, photos, artifacts, figurines, artwork, memorabilia, exhibitions and so much more to show the colourful history of cats from around the world.
Founded in 1993, the Cat Museum also serves as a centre to research, preserve, document, collect data, promote, educating and study the history as well as the depiction of cats in different cultures.
Kuching truly is a city of cats, this ‘Cat-traction’ has received 16,518 visitors from January to March this year while in 2015, it received 75,812 visitors.
Gallery A showcases, among others, the significance of cats in the Malay and Chinese communities as well as cat-related folklore of the Iban and the famous Japanese lucky cat ‘Maneki-Neko’.
Gallery B reveals interesting facts like cats in ancient Egypt, cats in oriental art, cats in medieval age as well as anecdotes on cat fights, cat sleep, cats at play and a collection of artwork by Jane Yap Jian Yi.
Gallery C shows visitors the five ages of a cat, cats funeral, the latest collection of 539 cat artifacts by Dr Betty Jamie Chung, cats in cinema, music and advertising as well as everything about cat’s eyes and whiskers.
Gallery D consists of a children’s corner, Garfield collection, Hello Kitty collection, cats in comic, as well as an exhibition of local cats and wild cats of Borneo.
The museum welcomes the public from 9am to 5pm daily except on public holidays.
DBKU hopes the Cat Museum can put Kuching in the international limelight through events and activities like Sarawak Cat Show which is held bianually in the council’s efforts to turn Kuching into a ‘City with a Soul’.