Singapore’s Museums and Galleries Will Close for a Month as Its Prime Minister Abandons Crowd-Control Measures for a Full Lockdown

Museums and galleries across
Singapore will close this week as the country aims to protect
against a possible new wave of COVID-19 infections.

The National Gallery of
Singapore, the Nantang Technological University Centre for
Contemporary Art, and numerous commercial galleries will shut their
doors for at least four weeks starting tomorrow. The closures were
mandated by prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, who announced Friday
that all non-essential businesses in the island city state would be
halted. 

“We have decided that instead of
tightening incrementally over the next few weeks, we should make a
decisive move now, to pre-empt escalating infections,” Lee said in
his announcement, noting that the number of new cases has increased
dramatically in recent weeks. 

To date, Singapore has just over
1,300 confirmed cases and six deaths. The country has been praised
for its handling of the pandemic as it turned to a system of
preventative measures and testing practices developed in the wake
of the Sars outbreak in 2002-03. 

The city-state has banned
travelers from mainland China since late January, and all peoples
entering the country have had their temperatures taken.
Entertainment venues were shut down on March 24, and museums
implemented crowd control measures such as limiting visitor numbers
and requiring all entrants to register. 

Singapore’s Asian Civilizations
Museum previously closed for two days after March 19, when one of
its employees tested positive for Covid-19 after returning from a
trip to the United States, according to ArtAsiaPacific.

But as a second wave of
coronavirus cases coursed throughout southeast Asia,
Singapore had to adopt
the across-the-board closures already implemented by China, South
Korea, and other countries. After starting to reopen its own
museums, galleries, and other businesses, the government of Hong
Kong reintroduced social
distancing measures in
late March as the number of new cases rose dramatically in a short
period of time.  

Following Prime Minister’s Lee’s
order, the National Gallery of Singapore launched #GalleryAnywhere,
a new online programming initiative across its website and social
media channels. The institution will grant public access to its
archive of artist interviews, recordings of performances and
panels, and scholarly articles. 

The post Singapore’s Museums and Galleries Will Close for a
Month as Its Prime Minister Abandons Crowd-Control Measures for a
Full Lockdown appeared first on artnet News.