Welcome to the Museum Volunteers

Our goal as Museum Volunteers (MV) is to promote public awareness of museums, and to build an appreciation and understanding of the history and cultures of Malaysia. We are a non-profit, non-political and non-religious group open to all who undertake the training programme and graduate as a docent (museum guide.)  We are hosted by the Museums Department  in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The MV Executive Committee Members for 2012 are

• President                   Karen Loh
• Vice President            Laurence Maille
• Secretary                  Stuart Wakefield
• Treasurer                  Kon Cze Yan
• Training                    Angela Naylor – Textile Muzium
• Training         Cindy Bell –Muzium Negara (weekday)
• Training         Jo Thesiger – Muzium Negara (weekday)
• Training         Susan Haveman – Muzium Negara (weekday)
• Training          Kon Cze Yan – Muzium Negara (Weekend)
• Publicity           Lorien Holland & Chris Lee
• Schools             Cay Maru & Karen Loh
• Library             Chrissy Lioe &  Zahara Shahriman
• French Liaison        Elisabeth Clouzeau
• Japanese Liaison    Ayako Ohno
• Focus  Session        Kokkie Pauuw

MV has three projects for its volunteers:

GUIDING – Volunteers provide free tours at the Muzium Negara and Muzium Textil.

SCHOOLS PROGRAM – Volunteers will organize special tours for school children.

RESEARCH – Volunteers will find and organize material to help the guides and school programme volunteers.

EVENTS – Volunteers will organize special tours and visits

We provide free guided tours in English, French, Japanese, Malay and Chinese.

Guided tours in Dutch, German, Danish, Spanish, Russian and Polish are also available upon request.

We provide custom tailored tours for Embassies and Companies.

Our History

In October 2006, a small group gathered at Malaysia’s Muzium Negara (National Museum) with the idea of starting a volunteer organization that would guide visitors through the various galleries, plus perform in-depth research on various artifacts found on display and in storage. After all, Bangkok, Jakarta and Singapore have large museum volunteer groups, Kuala Lumpur should not be any different.

The Museum Volunteers Malaysia was officially launched on 19 April 2007 at the Muzium Negara in Kuala Lumpur by the late  Director General of the Department of Museums Malaysia, Dato ‘Dr Adi Haji Taha. The first volunteers group comprised of 20 foreign and Malaysian ladies.
The first meeting of the group was held at the Muzium Negara in October 2006 and attended by the Deputy Director of the Museum, Ms Janet Tee Siew Mooi, Ms Marie Christine Tseng (former Chairperson of the Indonesian Heritage Society), Ms Angela Naylor, Datin Sabrinah Morad and a small group of women interested in museums. They set up and attended the first training course which included lectures on Malaysian culture, heritage and history and selected readings of related materials. There were also guiding workshops in the museum galleries run by trained volunteers from the Jakarta and Singapore Museum Volunteers groups. The first 15 MVM Guides graduated in April 2007.

Gradually, the MVM became more organized. The first President was Chrissie Lioe (2008-2011). In 2010, the Museums Department formally incorporated the MVM into its organization and set up a secretariat to assist the group. The name changed slightly to Museum Volunteers (MV) and the training programme also expanded to include the Textiles Museum. In 2011, Karen Loh became the second president of the Museum Volunteers.