On 20 January 1996, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong officially opened the Singapore Art Museum in the restored former St. Joseph's Institution on Bras Basah Road. The museum had first admitted the public in October 1995, but the January ceremony marked its formal launch as part of a larger national plan for an arts and heritage district. Developed from a National Museum project, SAM was positioned to collect and exhibit art from Singapore, Southeast Asia and East Asia with museum-standard facilities. It later became Singapore's first fully dedicated contemporary visual art museum and a key organizer of the Singapore Biennale.
The opening gave Southeast Asian contemporary art a major collecting and exhibition platform in Singapore.
Where it happened Singapore Art Museum, Bras Basah