SINGAPORE – The National Gallery Singapore (NGS) celebrates its 10th birthday with a weekend bash on Nov 15 and 16. Closing time will be extended from 7 to 10pm, with all-day crowd-pleasing draws including a rave and a pop-up market of local brands.

The $532 million gallery housed in the restored buildings of the former Supreme Court and City Hall is marking its first decade of welcoming more than 14 million visitors since opening to much fanfare on Nov 24, 2015.

Exhibitions will be open to the public for free, including the highly anticipated blockbuster show Into The Modern: Impressionism From The Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston. The year-end anchor, which opens on Nov 14, has brought in works never-before exhibited in Singapore by beloved French painters including Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne and Edgar Degas.

There will be an Old Chang Kee mobile food truck, a Milo van, tutu kueh and ice cream. Brands such as Singapore’s first home-grown sunglasses brand Rocket Eyewear, jewellery label Curious Creatures, craft company Bynd Artisan, design brand Supermama, camera manufacturer Leica and fashion studio Ans.Ein will have bespoke merchandise reimagining NGS’ spirit and identity on sale.

Since a delayed opening plagued by construction delays and high-level staffing issues in 2015, NGS has established itself at the centre of the visual arts ecosystem in the country, becoming Asia’s seventh most-visited museum drawing two million visitors in 2024.

By the numbers, NGS has presented some 70 exhibitions, and grown its staff and curators by 85 per cent since 2015. It has also procured over 2,000 works of art in the intervening years to boast 9,000 works in its collection, holding the keys to the largest public collection of South-east Asian art in the world today.

Its chief executive Eugene Tan says NGS remains committed to Singapore and South-east Asian art in an increasingly crowded Asian art landscape.

While tapping continued worldwide interest in the histories and art of the Global South and those outside the Eurocentric frame, it will also continue to make sure its efforts and research ...