National Gallery Singapore Open

Management executive Berlinda Cheong does not consider herself an art enthusiast, but she is excited about the National Gallery Singapore, which opens in the former Supreme Court and City Hall buildings today.

The 25-year-old cannot wait to "get a taste of history" as she roams the landmark monuments once closed to the public and, yes, appreciates the art within.

The launch of the museum in the breathtakingly restored buildings is indeed history-making. It is the first museum of such scale in the world that is dedicated to the art of Singapore and South-east Asia. At 64,000 sq m, the $532-million museum is larger than London's Tate Modern (34,500 sq m) and the Museum of Modern Art in New York (58,529 sq m).

Its permanent galleries alone - the DBS Singapore Gallery and UOB Southeast Asia Gallery - display about 800 works of art from the 19th century through to the modern day. These include paintings by pioneer Singapore artists Cheong Soo Pieng and Chen Wen Hsi and forerunners of modern art in the region such as Indonesia's Raden Saleh and the Philippines' Hernando R. Ocampo.

Two other exhibitions will open on Thursday - a historical survey of the career of renowned Singapore artist Chua Ek Kay and a show of more than 80 paintings by famed Chinese artist Wu Guanzhong, who donated 113 works to Singapore's national collection in 2008.

The decade-long dream for a museum that will cement Singapore's bid to become a global art powerhouse is finally a reality.

Now, all eyes are on the museum and what it will mean for the country, its people and the art world.

For a start, many people, including Dr Nora Taylor, professor of South and South-east Asian art history at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, are simply thrilled. The art historian, who has been studying the field for more than 20 years, says: "Masterpieces of South-east Asian modern art were scattered around Asia and rarely seen. To assemble them in one museum is remarkable and long overdue."

While the collection on display is by no means exhaustive, it has "filled a major gap in our visual and cultural history", says Singapore artist Milenko Prvacki, a senior fellow at the Lasalle College of the Arts. "A country without a national gallery is like a country without history," he says. "And it has been very difficult to teach art without a national gallery."

The Singapore Art Museum has been around since 1996, but it has never held extensive, permanent exhibitions that trace the historical development of art in Singapore and South-east Asia. Its focus is now on contemporary art of Singapore and the region.

More stories: The Straits Times