Harry Potter Collecting Magic: From Stamps to Wands is a temporary exhibition running from 2nd Nov 2016 to 18th June at the Singapore Philatelic Museum, it is focused on stamps and movie memorabilia related to the Harry Potter universe. The museum is tucked along a side street along Coleman Street just off Hillstreet fire station (near the old Funan mall site), the museum building used to be part of ACS compound and is now home to a variety of mini-exhibitions in the museum which usually runs for the duration of half a year.
This mini exhibition sits on the second floor of the museum. Entry to the museum is free for Singaporeans and PRs. While regular entry cost $8 for adults and $6 for children, entry grants you access to all the museum’s permanent and temporary exhibits. The staircase leading up to the second floor is narrow and quintessentually British. It is lined with silhouettes of various animals of the Harry Potter universe and “animated” portraits reminiscent of the wall-hung portraits and newspapers in the Harry Potter movies too.
In the gallery, stamps, robes and posters hang from the cluttered walls, made to look like a typical small British home. Displays include animated portrait screens featuring students posing in looping animations from our local polytechnics, movie memorabilia from private collections, comprising of limited edition box sets, postcards and even a Lego recreation of Diagon alley. Green screen area where you can picture yourself flying over Quidditch fields.
Viewing all the exhibits will set you back about 20mins, or longer if you are a Potter fan. I found the exhibits, though very well put together and very well-themed seemingly rather unfocused on the expected content displayed. As a philatelic museum, of course you have stamps in one area, but that just offers insufficient content to fill the gallery. As such, the remainder exhibits seems like content simply added to to fill up spaces in the exhibits, feeling rather out of place.
View more photos of the Harry Potter exhibition here.
