Jose Hong Straits Times 20 May 12;
More than 700 people crowded the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research at its last open house yesterday.
The event was part of the museum's winding down as it prepares to move into its new home, which is also on the grounds of the National University of Singapore. The new Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum is due to open in 2014.
Visitors were engaged in activities such as guided tours, workshops and children's booths.
This year's open house was smaller in scale, due to renovation works, and all the space in the museum and the corridor outside was used.
That, however, did not seem to deter the visitors.
When The Sunday Times visited the museum around 4pm yesterday, the corridor was still filled with families taking part in activities. And even near the closing time of 5pm, volunteers held an extra pottery session for children to make clay dinosaur models because of the strong demand.
Ms Seng Ling Ling, 34, who visited the museum with her husband and two children, said the open house was very educational because of the many specimens on exhibit. These included stuffed animals such as turtles and birds and preserved specimens such as butterflies, crabs and jellyfish. The specimens in the scientific collection are open for public viewing only during open houses.
Ms Sandy Tee, 39, praised the volunteers who guided the families around the museum, saying that they engaged their audience very well. She added that her two children, Darius, five, and Claudia, six, spent almost all their time at the badge-making booth.
The open house's 60 volunteers, mostly made up of NUS students and alumni, were very enthusiastic about the event.
Ms Iffah Iesa, 20, who had never volunteered for previous museum open houses, said she joined because she was 'very interested in biodiversity'.
'I have met a lot of people who are like-minded, which is the great thing about this event', added the second-year life sciences student at NUS.
She felt that the final open house, rather than being something to be sad about, was a cause for celebration. 'Once we move into a bigger environment we can benefit more people and hold bigger exhibitions,' she said.
The event was also held in collaboration with the National Heritage Board's Children's Season and to mark International Museum Day.
With the open house over, the museum will settle all outstanding loans it has with major research institutions around the world, ranging from the National History Museum in London to the National Museum of Natural History in Washington.
The loans are mainly of marine invertebrates such as crustaceans and worms.
At the same time, it will host members of the international scientific community who are arranging to examine and borrow specimens from its collection.
The museum's scientific collection, which holds more than 500,000 specimens, will be closed to all but museum staff after September.
Ms Joelle Lai, research officer at the museum, said staff will then start taking inventory of the scientific collection. 'We have a lot of archival material that we need to digitise and there are a lot of miscellaneous things that we will need to work on as well,' she continued.
However, the main gallery will remain open until April next year. And even when that closes, lovers of the museum need not wait till the new museum opens to have access to its natural history as it will be holding roving exhibitions as part of its continued public outreach.
