The National Museum of Singapore houses the Singapore Stone, a National Treasure, and as of this October the Stone has a mascot with a name: Stoney.
That is not a joke the museum is making at its own expense. It’s the clearest signal yet of how the country’s oldest museum plans to spend its 139th birthday, and what it thinks a Singaporean under 35 wants from a building full of artefacts.
Stories of Everyday runs from 10 to 18 October 2026, nine days, 10am to 7pm, and entry to the celebrations is free. Locals and PRs get into the galleries free as well, which matters more than usual this year, because the Singapore History Gallery reopens on day one.
20 Years Since the Last Real Revamp
The Singapore History Gallery is the museum’s flagship, and it hasn’t had a full overhaul since it opened in 2006. A refresh in 2015 tided it over. This one rebuilds it, covering more than 700 years from the 14th century to right now, and it lands two days before the museum’s actual anniversary.
What makes it different from the version a lot of readers were marched through on a secondary school excursion is the question it organises itself around: Who are we? Instead of running purely on national milestones, the gallery puts eyewitnesses, descendants, contemporary writers, artists, and curators into the narrative alongside the artefacts.
The museum didn’t arrive at that on instinct. Through 2023 and 2024 it ran focus groups with more than 160 people across different ages and backgrounds, and a panel of 12 Singapore academics reviewed the approach. The feedback was blunt about what was missing: clearer context, and a stronger link to the present.
Chung May Khuen, Director of the National Museum of Singapore, put the reasoning plainly in the museum’s announcement. “Museums, and the stories they tell, must evolve alongside the communities they serve,” she said, adding that the hope is “every visitor will find something that resonates with them.”
An HDB Lift Is in the Gallery
Here’s the detail worth turning up for. Among the new and never-before-seen artefacts is a restored 1970s HDB lift, used to tell the story of the move from kampong to HDB living, including the people who found that transition hard rather than triumphant. An actual lift. In a gallery. About the decade your parents moved in.
Beside it sits a traditional Nanyang coffee roasting machine from Ho Tit Coffee Powder Factory, which is to say the ancestor of the kopi somebody is drinking within 200 metres of wherever you’re reading this. And there’s a newly commissioned timelapse by photographer Keith Loutit, The Lion City 2012–2026, compressing over a decade of the skyline changing into a single work.
The sections covering the 1980s onwards are mostly new material, and the museum has deliberately made them quieter and more reflective, asking what part individuals play in what comes next. Anyone who has seen the museum’s recent programming, including Once Upon a Tide, will recognise the direction of travel.
What to Actually Book Your Day Around
The nine-day programme is big, so here are the three worth building a Saturday around.
A Lighter Side of History: Voices from the Sea is the one to prioritise. Orang Seletar artisans talk about the Orang Laut, the sea peoples whose connection to the waters around this island shaped their lives and identities long before any of the other chapters started. It’s the part of the 700 years most Singaporeans genuinely cannot recite, told by the people it belongs to.
The National Living Room is the sentimental pick, an immersive installation recreating a living room of the past. If your grandmother’s flat had a particular kind of sofa and a particular kind of clock, you already know whether this one is for you.
The Living Archive: A Living & Design Market by Of Wonder Wander takes care of the rest of the afternoon, with ceramics, stationery, art prints, homeware, accessories, and food. Note the timing: the vendor line-up refreshes from 14 October, so the first weekend and the second weekend are two different markets. Going twice is a legitimate strategy.
Around all that, T.H.E (The Human Expression) Dance Company runs a participatory dance performance, Ann Siang Sounds hosts community jamming, and pop-up characters turn up inside the gallery itself. And Stoney gets a larger-than-life installation on the Lawn, wanders the grounds for photos, and stars in a drop-in craft session called Stoney, A Softie at Heart, where you build your own out of pipe cleaners.
A mascot drawn from a National Treasure is a sharper idea than it first sounds, and a fitting face for a gallery that stopped pretending history has one authorised version.
🗓️ Date: 10 to 18 October 2026
⏰ Time: 10am to 7pm (last entry to the galleries at 6.30pm)
📍 Location: National Museum of Singapore, 93 Stamford Road, Singapore 178897
🎟️ Admission: Free entry to the 139th Anniversary Celebrations; free gallery entry for Singaporeans and PRs
🖼️ Reopening: Singapore History Gallery, from 10 October
🛍️ Market: The Living Archive by Of Wonder Wander, with a refreshed vendor line-up from 14 October
🧸 Mascot: Stoney, with meet-and-greets, merch, and the Stoney, A Softie at Heart craft drop-in
The museum finishes its phased revamp in 2027 with the Level 2 galleries, in time for its 140th, so this October is the first look at what the whole thing is becoming. Nine days of free celebrations, a gallery two decades in the making, and a new mascot inspired by the Singapore Stone: clear a weekend for it. Full programme details are at the Stories of Everyday page, and Stoney’s adventures are being documented on the National Museum’s TikTok ahead of the big week!
Visuals courtesy of the National Museum of Singapore.
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