The purveyor of emerging works of art and design in Asia once touted buzz worthy concepts such as a cigar bar, sculpture garden and cafe within its confines, but the MAD Museum of Art & Design located along Tanglin Road has been forced to close its doors due to bad debt, according to a report by The Straits Times.
A court order was found at the museum’s entrance indicating that its landlord Nouveau Developer is seeking to recover more than $1.7 million in rental owed. A check on MAD’s website and Facebook page, which posted as recently as Mar 11 calling for fans to check out an exhibition, provide no further clue as to why this is happening.
The museum had only moved to its Tanglin home slightly more than two years ago in Nov 2014, upgrading from its Mandarin Gallery space set up in 2009 by founder Jasmine Tay. She could be credited for opening the first art museum dedicated to featuring important but usually inaccessible pieces of contemporary art. MAD was not only for art purists and buyers, but also for those who appreciated the influence of art and design on everyday life.
