Showing 1-24 of 24 results
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Ancient Cloth Museum
If you're interested in fashion, you should enjoy a poke around this museum, with its well- annotated collection of royal cloth and royals wearing cloth (Queen Sirikit looks a bit groovy in the old B&W photos).
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Art Centre
Shows Chula professors as well as major names in the Thai and international modern art scene; permanent exhibits include Thai art retrospectives.
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Bangkok Doll Factory & Museum
New and antique dolls dressed in national costumes are displayed for appreciation, while the gift shop sells onsite factory-made dolls, a unique industry that helped preserve Thai traditional costumes in miniature. The museum is difficult to find; the best approach is from Th Sri Ayuthaya heading east.
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Bangkok University Art Gallery (Bug)
This spacious new compound is located at what is currently the country's most cutting-edge art school. Recent exhibitions have encompassed a variety of media by some of the country's top names, as well as the work of internationally recognised artists.
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Bangkokian Museum
This collection of three wooden houses illustrates an often-overlooked period of Bangkok's history, the 1950s and '60s. The main building was built in 1937 as a home for the Surawadee family. This building and the large wooden one to the right, which was added as a boarding house to help cover costs, are filled with the detritus of family life and offer a fascinating window into the period. The third building, was built in 1929 as a surgery for a British doctor.
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Children's Discovery Museum
Through hands-on activities, learning is well disguised as fun at this museum opposite Chatuchak Weekend Market. Kids can stand inside a bubble, see how an engine works, or role-play as a firefighter. Most activities are geared to primary-school-aged children. There is also a toddlers' playground at the back of the main building.
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Forensic Medicine Museum
Pickled body parts, ingenious murder weapons and other crime-scene evidence are on display at this medical museum, intended to educate rather than nauseate. Among the grisly displays is the preserved cadaver of Si Ouey, one of Thailand's most prolific and notorious serial killers who murdered - then ate - more than 30 children in the 1950s. Despite being well and truly dead (he was executed), his name is still used to scare misbehaving children into submission.
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Gallery Ver
Owned by Rirkrit Tiravanija, Thailand's most internationally recognised artist, this gallery on the Thonburi side of the river hosts a rotating display of typically edgy, installation-type conceptual art. The easiest way to reach Ver is to take the cross-river ferry from Tha Si Phraya. The gallery is directly behind the pier on the Thonburi side.
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Kathmandu Photo Gallery
Bangkok's only gallery truly dedicated to photography is housed in an attractively restored Sino-Portuguese shophouse. The owner, photographer Manit Sriwanichpoom, wanted Kathmandu to resemble photographers' shops of old where customers could flip through photographs for sale. Manit's own work is on display on the ground floor, and the small but airy upstairs gallery plays host to changing exhibitions by local and international artists and photographers.
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King Prajadhipok Museum
A visit to a royal museum might sound like a royal bore, but this collection uses modern techniques to relate the rather dramatic life of King Prajadhipok (Rama VII; r 1925-35) and neatly documents Thailand's transition from absolute to constitutional monarchy. As you wander among the exhibits in the neocolonial-style former administrative building, you'll learn that Prajadhipok did not expect to become king.
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Lettuce Farm Palace
Wonder as you wander the six traditional wooden houses filled with Thai art and knick-knacks, including pottery from Bronze-Age Ban Chiang, masks from the khon dance-drama and traditional musical instruments. The most famous exhibit is the Lacquer Pavilion, decorated with intricate gold-leaf and black-lacquer Jataka (stories of the Buddha) and Ramakian murals.
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Museum Of Forensic Medicine
Seriously, do not come to this museum with a full stomach. On display are preserved body parts that have been crushed, shot, stabbed and raped, with grisly before-and-after photos, as well as the entire remains of a notorious Thai murderer.
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National Gallery
Based in the old mint building, this government-funded museum has a very subdued collection of traditional and contemporary art. The general opinion is that this is not the best pedestal for Thailand's artistic traditions, but it is rarely crowded and comfortably air-conditioned. Pieces by Rama VI and Rama IX appeal to royalists.
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National Museum
Thailand's National Museum is the largest museum in Southeast Asia and covers a broad range of subjects, from historical surveys to religious sculpture displays. The buildings were originally constructed in 1782 as the palace of Rama I's viceroy, Prince Wang Na. Rama V turned it into a museum in 1884.
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Queen's Gallery
This royal-funded museum presents five floors of rotating exhibitions of modern and traditionally influenced art. The building is sleek and contemporary and the artists hail from the upper echelons of the conservative Thai art world. The attached shop is filled with fine arts books and gifts.
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Rama Ix Royal Park
Opened in 1987 to commemorate King Bhumibol's 60th birthday, this green area, about 15km SE of central Bangkok, it's 81 hectares with a water park and botanic garden. Since its opening, the garden has become a significant horticultural research centre. A museum with an exhibition about the king's life sits at the park's centre. There are resident lizards, tortoises & birds. A flower & plant sale is held here in December. From Th Sukhumvit it's about 7km along Soi 103, after it bends left.
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Royal Barges National Museum
Every foreign country has its famous religious monuments and museums, but how many have their own fleet of royal boats on display? As a former riverine culture, Thailand still maintains the royal barges, once used daily by the royal family for outings and events and now used only for grand ceremonies.
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Royal Thai Elephant Museum
Thais consider albinism auspicious, so all white elephants are considered royal property (Rama IX keeps one at his palace). Dusit Palace had two stables for keeping white elephants and this museum remembers these lucky creatures with displays explaining the ranks of elephants and their important role in Thai society.
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Siam Society & Ban Kamthieng
Ban Kamthieng is an excellent merging of pretty architecture with museum learning. Built in the Lanna style, this 1844 house shows how a northern Thai family lived, complete with thorough explanations of Lanna beliefs, rituals and ceremonies. This is one of Bangkok's best house museums with well-signed displays, video installations and clear descriptions of rituals. Plus you never have to share space with others.
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Silpakorn Art Gallery
Corrado Feroci, an Italian artist, is credited for importing modern art to the kingdom. He fell in love with Thailand, adopted a Thai name and founded this fine-arts school. The ongoing artistic creations are displayed at the campus gallery, housed in a scenic minor palace.
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Tang Gallery
Bangkok's primary venue for modern artists from China has edged its way to become among the city's top contemporary galleries. Check the posters in the lobby of the Galleria to see what's on.
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Thailand Creative & Design Center
An edu-tainment museum and resource centre, the TCDC spotlights modern design from famous fashion houses to image-branding products. Past exhibits have included a history of the Finnish company Marimekko as well as a retrospective of cool gadgets. The intention of the centre is to foster and inspire Thailand's fledgling industry of industrial design.
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Wang Suan Phakkat
Everyone loves Jim Thompson's house, but few have even heard of Wang Suan Phakkat (Lettuce Farm Palace), another noteworthy traditional Thai house museum. Once the residence of Princess Chumbon of Nakhon Sawan, the museum is a collection of five traditional wooden Thai houses linked by elevated walkways containing varied displays of art, antiques and furnishings. The landscaped grounds are a peaceful oasis complete with ducks, swans and a semi-enclosed, Japanese-style garden.
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Whitespace
An active design studio, Whitespace also includes a small non-commercial gallery that features a diverse array of exhibitions by emerging artists.
Showing 1-24 of 24 results
