Volunteer Voices: Youth Volunteers

Museum volunteers are typically thought of as retirees with the time and resources to further their passion for art. Young volunteers, who have to juggle rigorous school commitments, social lives and outside interests, are assumed to be few and far between. Yet the Gallery’s volunteer programme, Best Friends of the Gallery (BFG), sees youths who dedicate their weekends and holidays to sharing their love for visual art with the wider community.

Tay Yu Qing, a final-year student from Nanyang Technological University’s School of Art, Design and Media, and Jamie Ng, also a final-year student from Arts Management at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, joined the BFG programme in 2017. Yu Qing is the Gallery’s youngest docent, while Jamie was an individual volunteer on various assignments such as installation assistant and community host. She later completed an internship with the Gallery in 2019. Samantha Rin and Samuel Sim came on board more recently, volunteering at Light to Night Festival 2020 as installation assistants. Samantha is in her third year of Global Studies at the National University of Singapore, and Samuel is in his first year of junior college at Raffles Institution. COVID-19 has not dampened their enthusiasm for the Gallery—over a video conference call, they shared their motivations for joining the BFG family and volunteering experiences, as well as their unique perspective on the Gallery’s most recent exhibition Latiff Mohidin: Pago Pago.

How it began

Samantha: I was very lucky to have a docent programme in my secondary school, and I was a student docent at the Asian Civilisations Museum. It was pretty chaotic as I was this Secondary 1 kid guiding Primary 3 kids around. But the experience was really fun and made me want to continue volunteering in a museum. Being in museums just makes me happy. 

Samuel: Similar to Samantha, I also volunteered in a museum in Secondary 1 and 2. I was a docent for overseas students at the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall. I find museums a safe space as they allow me to think about things in a new light. I came here [to the Gallery] a lot, particularly during the school holidays, when I first joined the BFG Programme. The Gallery is also the only place I applied to that responded to my interest in becoming a volunteer!

Yu Qing: I became interested in the docent role after meeting a docent at the Singapore Arts Museum who talked about art in a way that made each painting come alive. To me, docents are the most effective bridge between art and community. They make art so digestible by putting it into a context that makes it relevant to visitors. Without that, a painting is often just a painting.

Jamie: When I saw the 2018 Children’s Festival volunteer assignments at the Gallery, I was like “I like kids! I’m going to sign up!” and that was when I got really involved. In the first month of the festival, I signed up for more than 10 assignments. I realised then that I really liked the Gallery, and the BFG team here is wonderful. When it came time to apply for an internship for school, I was fixated on the Gallery and only applied here. It was a big risk but my YOLO attitude paid off as I got the internship in the end!

On challenges as a volunteer

Yu Qing: I initially struggled with the age gap when interacting with other docents. During docent training, I was invited to a dinner with the rest of my peer group. I was so nervous that I googled “how do you talk to older adults.” Google’s answer was “as long as you are nervous talking to them, they are also nervous talking to you, someone younger”. To be honest, Google’s advice helped a lot! Despite this age difference, I feel included and that my perspectives are valued. More importantly, I learn a lot from docents who share their life advice with me. Just recently, a fellow docent shared tips to further my job search.

Jamie: My challenge is wayfinding as I’m terrible with directions. It doesn’t help that the Gallery is huge. Once, I panicked when a visitor asked me for the way to the auditorium! During the first week of my internship, I spent a lot of time attending tours and studying directions to assist visitors if needed.

Samuel:  I quite agree about directions. I’ve accepted that I need to get lost first! A big challenge I face is interacting with different types of people, and sometimes difficult people. When I was an installation assistant for Clement Space during Light to Night Festival 2020, someone drilled me on what the artwork meant. My answers didn’t satisfy him, and a member of the Gallery had to come to the rescue. I now think of it as an experience that motivates me to learn how to interact with all kinds of people.

Samantha: As Samuel shared, it is difficult when visitors challenge your point of view, and even more so when they get quite rash. But I think of these encounters as interesting learning experiences too. Another challenge I face is my language skills. Whenever I’m asked a question in Mandarin, I have to intersperse my answer with English and Singlish to drive home the point I’m trying to make

On their ideas and aspirations for the BFG Programme

Samantha: This volunteering role doesn’t exist yet, but I would like to accompany visitors and talk to them about art. Whenever I volunteer at the Gallery, I feel the need to talk to visitors and ask them what they think about certain works of art. It can be a “rent a person” concept where it would be like having a friend to chat with during your Gallery visit.  

Jamie: If it were possible, I would be interested to volunteer in art conservation. Touching up bits of missing paint would be the only opportunity I would ever get to paint on an artwork. As for the BFG Programme, we need more culturally diverse volunteers.

Yu Qing: I agree with Jamie. With docents of different backgrounds, we can consider different types of tours! For example, if there are grandparent docents and they can guide young children (their own grandchildren even), it would make for an interesting tour experience. I would love to volunteer for the Education team to learn how they make works of art interesting and relevant to children and families. Whatever I learn with them could be applied to guiding as a docent as well.

Samuel: I wish there were volunteering projects with the Curatorial team. I like how a curator draws different galleries and artworks together under a singular theme. On the other hand, I’m totally down to organise an internal book club for BFG volunteers!

Samantha: Oh I like that idea! We could create a library, I love community libraries! Also resonating with what Yuqing said about grandparents guiding their grandkids, maybe we could have a special tour just for them, or for couples. So thematic tours that focus on female artists or on politics in art etcetera.

A question on art: Latiff Mohidin’s Pagoda II

Samantha: I love the rhythm and geometry of this painting! I find its colours and varied shapes captivating and oddly calming. To me, this painting represents the aesthetic of  Southeast Asia, as well as its philosophy and currently overlooked potential. Also… I named my Animal Crossing island after Pago Pago.

Jamie: This artwork resonates with me because I have always been fascinated by the intersection of art and architecture. Paintings with architectural elements allow me to imagine the endless possibilities for the design of buildings and monuments. This also reminds me of the Golden Pagoda in Myanmar. I have a Burmese pen pal who often goes to visit as she is a Buddhist. I would love to visit when I get the chance too!

Yu Qing: At first glance, I recognise the tiered structure and the ornamental finial of a pagoda. The broad, painterly patterns, however, are a stark contrast to the detailed motifs I remember of pagodas. If Latiff Mohidin’s artwork is an amalgamation of the places he travelled to, my personality is a pastiche of the people I’ve encountered. In (and beyond) the Gallery, I’ve met people from all walks of life. They made me question my preconceived notions, renewed my perspectives and directly or indirectly shaped my personality.

Samuel: For me, this artwork represents the various cultures and beliefs that compete within spaces. In the painting, some qualities seem to stand out more than others: the middle pagoda occupies a broader, more central area, obscuring the adjacent pagodas, while the pagoda on the left is in a bolder shade of red and black, demanding more attention than the paler surrounding colours. The rigid, flat depiction of these constructions highlights their entrenchment, not unlike the practices and structures that govern society.

Editor’s note

Find out more about the Best Friends of the Gallery (BFG) Programme here.