Project Details

Organisation:	Asian Civilisations Museum
Mentor:	Ms Karen Chin
Members:	Kueh Xiu Qing & Esti Asmira
Project Title:	Work Experience at ACM

A. Brief Description of Project

Working at ACM really took away the best years of our life. We aged, oh, maybe a couple of years from working strenuous hours (9am-6.30pm surrounded by museum artefacts is really no joke) & we came THIS close to losing our sanity. We often found ourselves wondering why we subjected ourselves to such misery & torment! But looking back on those days now, in the midst of our increasingly hectic school life, we are filled with a certain sense of fondness & nostalgia, and we only have this to say: WE WANT TO GO BACK! Of all the things we miss horribly:

ExplorAsian zone observations, checks & surveys, brainstorming & meetings with Karen, painting gold bars & getting caught in the rain, discussing feminism & our ideal weddings over lunch with colleagues and interns, sourcing, sewing & washing chinese opera costumes, falling asleep on a couch hugging the stuffed crocodile, moulding & painting Harappan toys, stressing out over deadlines & frantically amending To-Do Lists and timelines, navigating war zones in the Admin & PA Storerooms to settle the Handling Collection, pigging out on snacks from the pantry (M&M dispenser!), helping out at the SMU booth and standing for hours, eating doughnuts on our last day & emo-ing in corners because it was the end...

WE MISS YOU, ACM ):

B. Results

1. Sorely aching bodies & terrible eyebags

2. A newfound affinity with musty museums & rusty artefacts

3. An unexpected friend (Hello Charmine), a wonderful mentor (Thank you Karen) a caring family away from home (Much love to the Education Department!)

AND....

4. Memories to last a lifetime (BET YOU SAW THAT COMING, DINCHA!)

C. Reflection


Three content knowledge/skills that we have learnt


1. The importance of being open minded & flexible (because sewing Chinese Opera costumes definitely wasn't we expected. Xiu Qing can barely sew!)

2. Learning how to communicate ideas effectively so as to prevent potential misunderstandings or conflicts (and trust me, tempers can run high and senseless arguing is the result. Not pretty.)

3. Realising the importance of good time management, of goal-setting and proper planning, and of doing up feasible timelines (The alternative is being constantly stressed out and losing sleep. Very unglam)

Two interesting aspects about our learning

1. Being exposed to the realism of working life (IT IS NOT EASY. Seriously. How do working people have lives outside of work?! Working alone can kill you!)

2. Lunch time conversations at the Education Department in ACM can be very random and unexpectedly hilarious.

One take-away for life

1. The Asian Civilisations Museum IS AWESOME. END OF STORY.

Video
For our final product, we decided to follow Mr Heng's advice and did something that was supposedly creative. So here is the video that we filmed in between our working hours. Please feel free to laugh at us. We know our creativity level is non-existent.


Photo Gallery