The Art and Design of Asian Games

Singapore’s Asian Civilisations Museum is turning board games into gallery pieces and playable installations through June 7, 2026. (nhb.gov.sg) The exhibition, “Let’s Play! The Art and Design of Asian Games,” opened on September 5, 2025 at ACM in City Hall and brings together more than 150 games and game-related objects. The museum lists daily hours of 10am to 7pm, with Friday hours extended to 9pm. (nhb.gov.sg) Admission is S$12 for Singaporeans and permanent residents and S$25 for foreign residents and tourists, according to ACM and Time Out Singapore. Time Out’s current listing shows the exhibition still running on Sunday, April 19, 2026. (nhb.gov.sg) (timeout.com) ACM frames the show as a history of how games moved across Asia, changed form across borders, and shaped culture, identity, and community. The museum says the display ranges from mahjong and congkak to go and chess, treating game boards and pieces as both social tools and designed objects. (nhb.gov.sg) (roots.gov.sg) That framing puts the exhibition in two categories at once: decorative arts and everyday life. Roots, a National Heritage Board platform, says the show includes objects made from materials as simple as shells and seeds and as elaborate as ivory, precious metals, teakwood, and rosewood. (roots.gov.sg) The museum also built the show to be used, not just viewed. ACM says “Let’s Play!” includes playable interactives, outdoor installations, collaborations with schools and local game associations, and an on-site Play Kiosk where visitors can borrow traditional and contemporary games. (nhb.gov.sg) Some of the newest features push the subject into digital culture. ACM added “ACMverse: The Great Game” on Roblox as an in-gallery activity, and other coverage of the exhibition says visitors can also challenge robots and try life-size game setups. (nhb.gov.sg) (cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com) The historical span is much older than the touchscreen layer suggests. Roots highlights a six-sided bone die recovered from a 9th-century Tang-era shipwreck in the Java Sea as one example of how games travelled with trade and survived in material form. (roots.gov.sg) The result is a museum show that treats play as evidence: of trade routes, craft traditions, family rituals, and competition. In Singapore on April 19, 2026, that means a visitor can still walk into ACM and see a chess set, a congkak board, or a digital quest as parts of the same story. (nhb.gov.sg) (timeout.com)