Navigating Art and Innovation: A Conversation with Chris Lee, National Gallery Singapore
Chris Lee, Assistant Chief Executive of the National Gallery Singapore
In this engaging conversation with Corinne Estrada, CEO of Communicating the Arts, Chris Lee explains his unique role and vision for the institution, exploring how the Gallery seamlessly combines art, technology, and innovation to create a captivating visitor experience. Join us as we uncover the strategies, challenges, and ambitions that drive the National Gallery Singapore towards making art accessible and engaging to a diverse audience.
What is your role at NGS and your ambition for the institution?
I am the Assistant CEO at NGS. I lead a team that is called Museum Experience and Services, and I guess the simplest way to describe the collection of functions under my role is that we are responsible for thinking about exhibitions, programs, festivals that the gallery curates and make sure that they get delivered to the public and to our different stakeholders. From the stage of awareness all the way through the actual experience, whether its online or physical, or after they visit, to continue to connect with our audience. Essentially, I lead a group of functions that look at the whole customer journey from before the arrival at the museum, when they arrive at the museum and after they leave. These stages, given how cohesive digital technology is, the interactions can be physical, or it can be digital, it can be in the museum and also outside the museum. We have done a lot of outreach as we have learned that we needed to, since we opened the museum years ago. The team that I lead comprises a few functions. Marketing which handles the pre-visit and post-visit experience, whereas Visitor Experience handles the during visit experience - when people come into the museum – and this includes the Business Development team who looks after not just individual walk-in visitors but also groups, corporates, our B2B stakeholders. It is undeniable that technology and innovation have to be strong to link all these functions together. I also lead the innovation and technology team. We grouped these functions together in a recent time, about 2 years ago, because we thought it would make sense to look at the visitors’ journey from end-to-end.
When did you join the NGS?
I joined the gallery about 7 years ago in October 2016, a year after the NGS opening.
Overseeing the visitors’ experience, business development, technology and innovation, what is your ambition for the NGS?
In terms of the physical museum itself, making sure we build a connected journey, taking it from a visitor/audience perspective, not just from the museum perspective. Together with the marketing team and our museum planning and research team, we also look for a viewpoint from an external audience perspective, making sure we are making a lot of our planning position based on data and insights. Our ambition is to manage the whole experience to make it seamless, easy, and intuitive for the audience throughout the whole stage of pre-visit, during visit and post-visit. As I mentioned, the other ambition is for us to continue to grow the fan base for visual arts and for NGS. We want to make sure that we present ourselves in a relevant way, with significant touch points outside the museum to bring more and more people into the gallery.
How many visitors do you welcome each year at the gallery?
Currently, we are approaching approximately 90% of our pre-COVID level on an annual basis, with around 1.5 million visitors per year. Before COVID, we welcomed 1.7/1.8 million visitors annually. This is a robust figure, and we find encouraging in the post-COVID recovery, to be near our previous visitor number.
What is your challenge and commitment to go into the big data space and to go into the digital environment?
First, we debated a lot about this during Covid, when we were challenged with the gallery being closed or not being able to bring many people into the gallery. The question was “Does digital take over, does the technology-driven-experience now become the museum experience?” and we come out with a clear answer: physical experience in art is still the central proposition and value that the museum offers, technology is really an enabler and enhancer in that entire experience. That is the way we look at it. We really look at it from how we leverage technology to improve the connection with our audiences and our visitors either in terms of reaching out to them or enhancing and deepening their experience with us, whether it is how do they navigate internally or how they experience the art.
We look at technology in 3 ways as a tool:
1. To enhance the experience with art
2. Because we are a relatively large museum, to enhance the museum experience as people come into the building.
3. To capitalize on Big Data. It is a trend we are developing and progressing along because we can see how it adds value in how we run the museum more effectively.
We also look at how technology enhances our own staff base to do their work more effectively using relevant data.
In terms of audience, it must be important for you to attract a large and diverse audience with different communities. Do you know who is not coming to the NGS?
We are approaching our 8th anniversary, having made substantial progress. However, compared to many established museums worldwide, there is still much ground to cover. While our awareness is already quite high, our primary opportunity lies in engaging visitors less familiar with art and art history. We’ve successfully captured the interest of those curious about the arts, but there’s a significant group without art history education who might find art irrelevant or intimidating. Our goal is to reach out to this audience, extending our presence beyond the central city area to the neighborhood regions throughout Singapore. This is why I emphasized outreach earlier—over the years, we’ve learned the importance of going out into neighborhoods, towns, and cities.
How do you form partnerships with these prominent entertainment destinations?
What are the potential partnership opportunities that you can build with them?
Firstly, we’ve cultivated a robust partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board, ensuring our visibility as a key destination in Singapore. Additionally, we’ve ventured into partnerships with various institutions, extending our outreach to theme parks, nature parks, and shopping malls, creating a diverse partnership ecosystem. Through initiatives like our roving art truck, present at Gardens by the Bay, we’ve reached up to 2 million visitors, increasing awareness of the National Gallery and its offerings. Our strategy involves identifying key gathering points, recognizing that visitors at locations like theme parks, nature parks, and libraries are most receptive to new experiences. We’ve concentrated efforts there and also explored certain shopping malls, tailoring our approach to drive engagement. Engaging families with kids is a crucial aspect, and the Gallery takes pride in having dedicated spaces for families, including the Keppel Center for Art Education and Gallery Children’s Biennale. These initiatives enable us to extend outreach and effectively connect with families.
The NGS plays a leading role in Singapore and obviously in the region of South-East Asia. What is your international strategy? How do you want to position the National Gallery outside of Singapore?
We return to the core mandate and mission of the Gallery, which uniquely focuses on Singapore and South-East Asian art, particularly modern art from the 19th century to the present day. While our collection and curatorial approach are distinctive, we ensure global understanding by contextualizing it within the broader scope of global art history development. This involves creating a dialogue between the art’s evolution in Singapore and Southeast Asia and its connection to the overall development of art history worldwide. Even in collaborations with institutions like the Musee du Louvre or Musée D’Orsay, when bringing traveling exhibitions to Singapore, we emphasize the interrelationships between global art movements and the development of art history in Singapore and South-East Asia.
What is the master plan of the NGS for the next 5 and 10 years?
The foundation of our work is in place, and the significant opportunity lies in enhancing relevance and connection with our audience, with audience growth as a key focus. From a multi-dimensional perspective, building a compelling collection with recognizable tier one artworks is crucial. The ongoing revamp plans for our Singapore Gallery are integral to presenting it continually in a relevant way, considering collections, curatorial research, narrative perspective, and overall experience. As we develop exhibitions, storytelling, and the seamless integration of technology become essential, aiming to make technology imperceptible to the visitor while enriching the art and museum experience.
Approaching our 10th anniversary in two years, we’re revamping both the Singapore and Southeast Asia Galleries to refresh and engage audiences further. Situated in a historical part of Singapore, we’re exploring ways to bring the building history and the Civic District to life. The Padang, in front of the museum, and the Singapore River are integral parts of national history. We’re connecting offerings from art history, building history, and national history to deepen the storytelling and visitor experience. While considering the role of technology, we are cautious to ensure its alignment with our collection and curatorial mission, avoiding technology for its own sake. Our challenge is to integrate technology in a way that resonates uniquely with the National Gallery, avoiding distractions from trendy yet unrelated technologies. We prioritize careful selection to prevent dilution of the gallery’s identity and mission, with close collaboration between business development, visitor experience, technology teams, and the curatorial teams.
Why is hosting Communicating the Arts at the National Gallery important? What messages do you have for the cultural leaders attending the conference?
Our vision is to be a progressive museum, incorporating innovation not only from a technological perspective but also in terms of physical aspects, best practices, processes, and museology. We aim to share our journey of the past 8 years, highlighting both the positives and challenges, along with the valuable learnings acquired.
The Communicating the Arts conference serves another crucial purpose: learning from others. While we feel strongly connected to the global ecosystem and have had our unique journey, numerous established museums worldwide face diverse challenges and possess distinct insights. We eagerly anticipate connecting with counterparts from around the world to understand their experiences, overcome challenges, and explore how we can apply those lessons to advance our mission at the National Gallery Singapore.