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| HOW LEE KONG
CHIAN ART MUSEUM WAS WON |
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| Professor Teh Hoon Heng, 20 August 2000 | |||
| Another very creative achievement of Professor Rayson Huang with the help his Deputy Mr. Lu Yaw was the establishment of the Lee Kong Chian Art Museum in Nantah. The whole story is a classic example of great leaders in action. During and before the 1970s, Singapore was often criticized for being a cultural desert. Professor Huang decided to make Nantah an exception. He wanted to build a first class art museum in Nantah. He came up with a great idea and Mr. Lu Yaw implemented it in three simple steps. Step1. Mr. Lu Yaw approached The Lee Foundation to donate $100,000 to turn the right wing of the second floor of the old Nantah Library building into a first class empty art museum. Step2. Professor Huang then sent out invitations to all known art collectors in Singapore for a special dinner held at the ground floor of the same building. After the dinner, the guests were given a guided tour of the beautiful but empty art museum with a simple message from Professor Huang: " Nantah will help you to exhibit your valuable art pieces to the world with your names as donators and with professional descriptions of the various exhibits." Step3. The next few days, Nantah received a large number of valuable art pieces donated to this world class art museum later called The Lee Kong Chian Art Museum. There were so many donated pieces that they had to take turn to be displayed at the art museum. I was told that actually Nantah spent less than two thousand dollars to hold that special dinner. Hence, The Lee Kong Chian Art Museum was won! Cheers to Professor Rayson Huang and Mr. Lu Yaw! Editor: I think The Lee Kong Chian Art Museum is now located at the campus of National University of Singapore. Home |