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124 Panel 3of his key role in creating a valuable platform for SEAContemporary Art outside of Asia. The research forthe API is one strand of the globalizing pace at whichSEA contemporary art grew into importance. Theother two critical strands that allowed forcontemporary art in Southeast Asia to grow are thesustained collecting practices of other public andgovernment backed institutions within Asia andAustralia, together with the large-scale exhibitions thatencouraged the practice within the region. Suchsustained practices underline an economic capitalwilling to encourage cultural and social expression todevelop. Despite the slowdown in funding, in Japanfor example, there continues to be a certain public willto continue supporting cultural practice.Overview of Practices in Public Contemporary ArtCollectionsThe idea of the museum can be traced back totradition of the cabinet of curiosities (wunderkammerand/or the kunstkammer [art cabinet]) which becamehighly popular during the height of colonial conquestswhen voyages into the East brought back “wonders”otherwise only imagined by European travelers. Whilethe heritage is not a direct line, as Douglas Crimpemphasizes, “This late Renaissance type of collectiondid not evolve into the modern museum. Rather it wasdispersed; its sole relation to present-day collections isthat certain of its “rarities” eventually found their wayinto our museums (or museum departments) … insome cases our museums of art”. 8 Wherein its initialand continuing definition has been a repository ofobjects, collections are the core of museums andinevitably their strength, specially for thoseinstitutions who work within traditional frameworks. 9In a UNESCO public discussion on 21 st -centurymuseums, Jean-Louise Deotte essays in hispresentation that museums are devices by whichcertain aspects of culture are made heterogenous.Having had past experience working for the other 2institutions, 10 it was mostly through interviews,watching FAAM staff work on exhibitions display andspending time in the storage that allowed me to gain abetter understanding of the collection and themuseum’s development. My research looks at threemain public and government –backed institutions thatseek to produce a coherent collection within theframework of regionality.There is the Singapore Art Museum, the onlyinstitution of its kind in Southeast Asia that focuses itscollection on Southeast Asian art; the Queensland ArtGallery/Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia,the institution that established its name by its activepresence within the region in the mid-1990s; and theFukuoka Asian Art Museum whose early interest inAsian Art and the discourse and problems that wentwith it, broke ground for SEA contemporary artacquisitions.However, while my research was limited to Japan andThailand, thus mainly focusing on the Fukuoka AsianArt Museum (as well as the Asia Society activities, viaThai curator Apinan Poshynanda), there is a need tomention the following institutions as they arenecessary for the discourse in SEA narrative making viatheir museum’s collecting and exhibitionary activities.It must be noted however that each institution uses theidea (and word) Asia in a variety of contexts andconsiderations. But all are government initiated andcontinue their work and their programs throughpublic funding. This research does not include privatecollections whose funding come from privatesources. 11Kuroda Raiji notes that for FAAM geographicalgrouping was their “objective” way forward, collectingeverything from Mongolia to Pakistan to Taiwan, thePhilippines and Singapore. Singapore, on the otherhand, limits itself to the ASEAN group of nations—however, there has been interest in works fromCambodia and Laos. The QAG/GOMA in Australia,which straddles Asia and Europe, collects work rangingfrom international art to Pacific Islander art, withoutany particular category for SEA art.1. The Singapore Art MuseumSAM opened in 1996 with the objective of becoming amuseum aimed at preserving and presenting the arthistories and contemporary art practices of Singaporeand Southeast Asia. It set its goal when their openingexhibition looked at the region’s practice acrossgenerational artistic practice. This was by no meansdefinitive or prescriptive. In fact, its title “Modernityand Beyond”, offered a conscious effort at suggesting apossible discursive framework with enough problems(this being the term “modernism”) to invite and raiseboth comment and discussion, but leaving theexhibition open to the unfolding of regional andnational histories.Fifteen years on, the Singapore Art Museum has goneon to craft a more efficient and ambitious collectionsobjective. From the SAM website, it reads:The Work of the 2010/2011 API Fellows