SINGAPORE - A life-size sculpture of a Malayan tiger was unveiled by the National Library Board (NLB) and World Wide Fund for Nature-Singapore (WWF-Singapore) at Choa Chu Kang Public Library (CCKPL) on Monday morning (Aug 15).
The organisations hope that the statue titled Tribal Gold, located at the entrance on Level 4, will raise awareness of the tiger’s critically endangered status and educate people on current environmental issues and wildlife conservation.
The unveiling ceremony was attended by representatives from WWF and NLB, including WWF-Singapore chief executive R. Raghunathan and NLB chief executive Ng Cher Pong.
Created by Temenggong Artists-in-Residence and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts students, the statue was previously part of the WWF-Singapore’s AR-mazing Tiger Trail, a campaign held this year to address the decreasing number of tiger populations. It was later donated to CCKPL.
This is the sixth collaboration between NLB and WWF-Singapore since 2018.
One collaboration ongoing till December is an exhibition on illegal wildlife trade, with accompanying community engagement sessions at selected libraries and games and activities conducted by volunteers.
Future joint activities include having a WWF-Singapore expert teach participants how to reduce their carbon footprint.
Mr Ng said: “Our collaborations with WWF-Singapore over the years have allowed our libraries to offer our patrons a deeper learning and discovery experience in the areas of environmental issues, sustainable living and wildlife conservation.
“Today’s donation by the board of directors and supporters of WWF marks another major milestone towards deepening this partnership. We will continue to work with like-minded partners such as WWF to build a learning marketplace that can support our patrons’ lifelong learning needs.”
To mark the first anniversary of CCKPL's reopening after a revamp, the library will introduce an augmented reality book guide in the coming weeks. The guide includes extracts from six other books on topics such as birds and animals.
Visitors can use their mobile phones to scan a QR code in the book guide to watch images come to life on their phones.
Augmented reality books will be rolled out to the other libraries later and will cover different topics.
On Monday afternoon, a few library patrons and passers-by who noticed the statue took photographs of it.
Ms Karen Luo, 43, who was there with her two children, aged five and eight, said: “This library has made efforts to let visitors know more about sustainability and going green.
“The statue is an interactive way to teach both the young and old about the ongoing issues in wildlife. The statue is a conversation starter, and I believe that awareness on this topic will spread much faster this way.”
