The world’s first ArtScience Museum will open at Marina Bay Sands on the auspicious date and time of 17 February 2011 at 1.18pm. Boasting an iconic lotus-inspired design, the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands is set to become the heart of the growing ArtScience movement as well as the premier venue for major international touring exhibitions from the most renowned collections in the world.

Featuring 21 gallery spaces totaling 50,000 square feet, the latest addition to Marina Bay Sands will deliver an impressive array of exhibits that embrace a spectrum of influences from art and science, media and technology, to design and architecture.

The brief from the Government of Singapore requested that the program at Marina Bay include an iconic cultural building on the promontory, facing the water. In response, internationally renowned architect Moshe Safdie conceived of a museum that fosters the interplay of art and science.

The Museum’s showpiece exhibition, ArtScience: A Journey Through Creativity, will feature a series of permanent exhibits that anchors the iconic venue at the forefront of technology, design and culture. The exhibition opens a dialog about art and science and the symbiotic relationship between them.
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“Curiosity” is an arrival gallery on the third floor of the Museum where visitors are introduced to a unique space by an ascending “floating” staircase. The gallery challenges guests with questions that have motivated artistic and scientific innovators through time via translucent scrolls hanging from the museum’s voluminous sloping ceiling.

“Inspiration” is an interactive gallery that features six large suspended artifacts representing known inventions throughout the ages that bridge the art and science divide. These include Leonardo da Vinci’s Flying Machine, a Kongming Lantern, a high-tech Robotic Fish, a model of the ArtScience Museum, a molecular model of a “Buckyball”, and an Ancient Chinese Scroll. The gallery also features engaging touchscreen units with information on ArtScience innovations in areas such as architecture, transportation, technology and exploration.

“Expression” is a dynamic multimedia gallery that combines lighting effects, sound and moving images. Visitors will be immersed in the innovation process through kinetic images that follow the journeys of great art/scientists across time and culture. Artifacts representing an array of disciplines light up on cue during the presentation.

ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands will also play host to marquee exhibitions curated by leading museums and collections from around the world.