Sarawak Museum Campus project to be built

KUCHING, May 30, 2014: Dewan Tun Abdul Razak, another gallery of the Sarawak Museum, is to be demolished, paving the way for the construction of the Sarawak Museum Campus project.

The project will be a state of the art purpose built museum building with a connected annexe for collections storage, conservation, museum administration and research.

 

The project is expected to be completed in phases by 2019 due to the need to always have some parts of the Sarawak Museum open for visitors.

Assistant Minister of Tourism and chairman of the Museum Taskforce Talib Zulpilip briefed the Governor Abdul Taib Mahmud on the project yesterday.

Also present were Group Managing Director of Cahaya Mata Sarawak Richard Curtis, Director of the Sarawak Museum, Ipoi Datan and Director of Arkitek KDI Sdn Bhd John Lau.

Dewan Tun Abdul Razak was named after the second Prime Minister.

It has two floors and was previously used as a Legislative Assembly Hall from the year 1973 to the year 1975.

In 1982 it was converted into a museum exhibition gallery and was officially opened in 1983.

The ground floor has been converted into a temporary exhibition hall.

This floor also accommodates the Museum Shoppe, which sells a wide variety of perfect souvenirs ranging from traditional arts materials, as well as T-shirts, books and more.

The first floor is housing two temporary exhibitions which displayed mostly items related to pre-historical era, such as the colourful jars, brasswares, Chinese furniture, longhouse gallery and others.

Substantial amount of archaeological materials excavated in Sarawak is also being displayed on this floor.