Singapore's national museum for Southeast Asian art is heading into a changing of the guard. Chief curator Patrick Flores and assistant chief executive Chris Lee will both depart National Gallery Singapore in December, according to a report in The Straits Times cited by ArtReview. Their exits land in the same month that chief executive Eugene Tan leaves the institution, a move Tan announced in September.

The museum has already named Tan's successor: Chng Hak-Peng will take over as chief executive. What has not yet been settled is who will fill the two other senior posts. No details have been announced about replacements for the chief curator or assistant chief executive roles, leaving two of the gallery's most influential positions open as the year closes.

The timing matters because the gallery, which opened in 2015 in Singapore's former Supreme Court and City Hall buildings, has spent a decade building its standing as a custodian of Southeast Asian modern art, holding the world's largest public collection in that field. Flores, who took the chief curator role in 2024 after serving as deputy director for curatorial and research, has been central to shaping its exhibition programme, while Lee has worked on bringing the museum's work into neighbourhoods beyond its walls.

A simultaneous departure of three senior leaders is unusual for a major national museum, and the coming appointments will signal how Singapore wants the institution to evolve in its second decade. For now, the gallery faces a December handover with its top team substantially remade, and watchers will be looking to see whether the new leadership continues the current direction or charts a different course.