SEACS will be holding its AGM for fiscal year 2024 on Friday, 14 March in the Visitors’ Room of the Singapore National Library. All members will receive an announcement via email. If you cannot attend and would like to assign your proxy to the President or another Council member please download this form, fill it in, and return it to the e-mail provided. This would be much appreciated as it helps us reach a quorum to begin the meeting on time as scheduled. Members can refer to the society’s current Constitution at this link. The AGM will be held from 6:00-6:45 pm to be followed (after a short break) by the annual William Willetts talk.
Our speaker will be former SEACS President and founding director of the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) and the Peranakan Museum (TPM), Dr. Kenson Kwok, who will be sharing with us the story of the Frank and Pamela Hickley Dehua Collection.
Dr. Kwok is an architect and environmental psychologist by training, but the ceramic medium has been an abiding interest for him since childhood. Landing in the museum world in mid-career was therefore a very happy accident. In retirement after 18 years at the ACM, he continues to be active in the museum sector.
The talk describes the journey of a collection of blanc de Chine – how it travelled from the home of Singapore collectors Frank and Pamela Hickley, via Dehua to a new home in the Asian Civilisations Museum. A sizeable group of pieces from the collection remains on permanent view at the ACM today. The talk closes with an assessment of the collection with reference to recent archaeological excavations, and several examples of recent production from Dehua, some of which have entered the museum’s collection.
Members may invite their friends to attend the talk, which is open to the public and will begin at 7:00 pm. No reservation is required but seating will be on a first-come/first-served basis. The talk will be recorded as usual and available on our website for SEACS members who cannot attend in person on the 14th.
Those who are interested in learning more about the society’s William Willetts Lecture series can click here.