SINGAPORE - British housewife Tina Nixon has been guiding museum visitors for close to 30 years. But this Saturday (July 9), for the first time, she will guide an exhibition she had a hand in curating.

Ms Nixon, 58, is one of four docents who co-curated National Gallery Singapore's Wu Guanzhong: Travelling With The Master.

It is the first time the museum has involved docents - volunteer guides who have an interest, though not necessarily professional training, in art - in curating an exhibition.

The showcase features 47 artworks by Wu from the National Collection and rare archival materials alongside the docent curators' personal stories and recollections.

Says Dr Eugene Tan, director of National Gallery Singapore: "As an inclusive and welcoming museum for all, the gallery continues to explore new formats to allow us to present diverse perspectives.

"Docents are integral to the museum experience and it was natural to invite them to participate in our inaugural co-created exhibition."

Ms Nixon, who has guided exhibitions around the world, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to the Royal Academy of Arts in London, says: "We could just give people headsets and let them listen to the official version of a tour. But as docents, we do more than that - we give them a sense of what we feel, encouraging people to interpret and think for themselves."

Wu was a pioneer Chinese artist who has been featured in multiple exhibitions at the gallery, including Learning From The Master last year (2021) and Expressions Of Pen & Palette in 2018.

The upcoming presentation will be the sixth edition of an ongoing series dedicated to studying the Chinese painter's life and works.

It takes visitors through a journey in four sections, titled Daydreaming, Exploring, Beyond The Horizon and Rhapsodies. For each section, one of the four docents shares her knowledge and thoughts on the works, some of which are accompanied by a postcard with the docent's personal story, written in both English and Chinese.

Docent Queenie Chow, 61, a freelance Chinese-language teacher, says of the postcards: "When we first wrote them, we tried very hard to sound professional and institutional. And then the feedback we received was, 'That's not your voice. We want docents' voices.'"

Paintings such as A Tibetan Buddha Wall (1961) from the section Exploring led Ms Chow to recall her own experiences travelling in Tibet.

"At around 5,000m above ground, the high altitude made us feel very awful in our chests. I was in the train with my lips all purple, indicating a lack of oxygen."

She believes other visitors with similar experiences may find resonance or solace in Wu's paintings, and hopes to prompt them to draw parallels between their lives and the painter's difficult, tireless search for artistic inspiration across China.

Wu's relentless passion for art drew docent Stella Rong, 47, to paintings like Green Sorghum (1995).

Ms Rong, who moved to Singapore from China in 2005 and now works in the finance sector, says: "Wu was sent to a village for hard labour during the Cultural Revolution, where he was not allowed to paint. But his creativity and passion in painting continued to flourish."

Likewise, Ms Gertrude Tan, a full-time lecturer at a tertiary institution, says she is inspired not just by Wu's art, but also his spirit.

"When you look at his entire life, you can see that this man went through a lot of hardships. But he's still very passionate about his art," says the 51-year-old, who has been a docent for almost 20 years.

She relates this to their curatorial process, recounting difficulties such as coming up with a suitable overarching narrative during the six months it took them to develop this show. "Like Wu Guanzhong, you have to try, get rejected and try again."

Ms Nixon says: "We want first-timers who've never come across the works to feel that they can resonate with them, because you don't have to be an arts expert to enjoy his work.

"Ultimately, art is not about having anything be right or wrong. It's about having an opinion."

Book it/Wu Guanzhong: Travelling With The Master

Where: National Gallery Singapore, Level 4 City Hall Wing, 1 St Andrews Road
When: July 9 to Oct 30, 10am to 7pm
Admission: General admission ticket ($20), free for Singaporeans and permanent residents
Info: National Gallery Singapore's event website