“It’s unique for a country to have a museum dedicated to both art and science, and Singapore has embraced that uniqueness representing the interconnection between these disciplines,” Harger said. “Having such an institution to unite these disciplines and tell unique stories is really special.” Honor Harger, ArtScience Museum Executive and Artistic-Scientific Director and Marina Bay Sands Vice President of Attractions The ArtScience Museum marks its 15th anniversary this year, establishing itself as one of the world’s preeminent institutions that champions immersive experiences, interdisciplinary collaborations and speculative thinking.

“Our early years were spent defining what an art-science museum could be. We’ve matured over the last decade and settled into a clear identity: future-facing and technologically adventurous exhibitions, programming, stories, and permanent offerings complementary to our colleague institutions and cultural ecosystem.” In this interview, Harger shares more about an institution that invites guests to imagine new possibilities, where cutting-edge innovation meets emotional resonance, and where boundaries of knowledge are continuously redefined. Hi Honor.

Please tell us about your role at the ArtScience Museum and your day-to-day responsibilities. I’m both the executive and artistic-scientific director of the ArtScience Museum, and also vice president of attractions at Marina Bay Sands. My day-to-day duties involve leading the team and managing the executive side of ArtScience Museum, overseeing budgets and audiences, and shaping our artistic and scientific programme by deciding which exhibitions we stage each year and what story those exhibitions tell over the annual cycle.

Exhibitions are planned two to three years ahead; programmes are about six months out. Much of my job is building the broader vision and finding the projects, stories, content, art, and science that will populate that vision. Speaking of vision, the ArtScience Museum celebrates its 15th year.

How do you think the museum’s identity and role have evolved within Singapore’s cultural landscape? It’s unique for a country to have a museum dedicated to both art and science, and Singapore has embraced that uniqueness, representing this interconnection between the two disciplines. Having such an institution in our ecosystem that can specifically bring together these disciplines to tell stories that might not otherwise be possible is really special.

Our early years were spent defining what an art-science museum could be — there weren’t many models that offered such guidance, and so we had to define it ourselves. Over the last decade, though, we’ve matured and settled into a clear identity about the exhibitions, programming, stories, and permanent offerings that the ArtScience Museum would stage: future- facing, technologically adventurous, and complementary to our colleague institutions and cultural ecosystem. Based on your interactions with audiences, do you feel this principle of combining science and the arts resonates with the public and that they understand it better now when they walk through those doors?

Our local audiences do. Many grew up with us and intuitively understand our DNA and what it means to bring these two disciplines together. Future World, our long-running teamLab exhibition, has been invaluable for us to communicate — almost without words, but through experiences — what it means to bring art, creativity, technology, and science into one environment.

Tourists are different; we work hard to ensure they understand our proposition during their visits, which may only be once [in their lives]. As such, we encourage them to explore the full museum through special ticketing to get that cumulative understanding. The world’s one and only Light Sculpture with Paper Airplane installation at teamLab Future World Part of the ArtScience Museum’s identity involves asking audiences to imagine possible futures.

Why do you think it is important for a cultural intitution to engage with people of different nationalities, age groups and generations over such questions? That’s a very perceptive remark, and it’s something we’ve consciously embraced, particularly over the last five or six years. There are two exhibitions that exemplify this approach.

For Singapore’s bicentennial in 2019, instead of looking back 200 years, we projected forward to 2219. That leap into the far future, beyond most people’s ability to conceptualise, was to make a powerful and emotional statement: Singapore will endure until 2219, and its culture and traditions will survive dramatic ecological shifts. Tropicalia Vulgaris, 2025, Photographs by Finbarr