This is someone we’ll call K, who never knew that anything in a museum could interest him. I took him to the Verner Panton exhibition at the National Museum but didn’t tell him what we were going to see. And walking into a roomful of shiny chairs in yummy pop colours, he burst excitedly (for he always bursts), “Oh! This guy makes furniture! I love furniture!”

Maybe only a handful of people love the sound of a museum. But many more than that surely love furniture. K is the kind who tries out beanbags and rattan chairs, browses hammocks and beds, and is always looking to upgrade our picnic furnishings. “Why didn’t they advertise this exhibit in IKEA to get those shoppers to come here!” he burst. Not a bad idea.

If people don’t know that museums (occasionally) hold what they love, they may always sit with the thought that they only hold the things they decidedly don’t love. Not everybody knows who Verner Panton is or will venture to find out. Exhibition publicity tends to circulate among and reveal things to the already-enlightened. So this museum convert was amazed at how much was interesting, such as this photograph of the Panton chair and how ladies can sit on its backrest and sip cocktails. He tried it and it worked.

From there on we went to all the rest of the galleries. It’s difficult to exhibit things like coolie work and local food. But the National Museum of Singapore makes full use of technology to put the “wow” into the mundane. So while we’re not the kind naturally fascinated by the Singapore Stone or laksa, we were pretty absorbed in our own interactive headsets, and the sights and sounds of a giant laksa being prepared.

I met many more like K at the Toy Festival at the Singapore Art Museum, a clever way to get comic book lovers to meet Comic’s elder brother, Art. The majority were swarming round the figurine vendors and snapping photos of the costumed mascots (who looked very proud of themselves), but there were inevitable trickles into the galleries, unfortunately stopped by guards frantic to get ticketless people out.

The truth is there is not much that differentiates figurine and comic drawing appreciation from fine art appreciation. Is something lacking in museum publicity, that makes people think, “There’s nothing there for me”?