OVERVIEW  KEY FEATURES  USING THE ROOM  GUIDELINES OF USE  SENSORY KITS  CREATIVE RESIDENCY  ABOUT CALM SPACES

OVERVIEW

ABOUT THE CALM ROOM

The Calm Room is a dedicated space where visitors can rest if they are feeling over-stimulated or overwhelmed by their environment. In this soothing and sensory-friendly space, they can take the time to calm down, regulate their stress responses, and renew their focus.

The room is wheelchair-accessible and features an ambient soundscape, private seating pods, and sensory kits. To support diverse visitor needs, lighting and sound levels can be adjusted. Please approach our friendly Front-of-House staff if you need to do so.

Although this room is open to all, visitors may be asked to leave should someone urgently need to use the room in private. Please click here for more guidelines for using the Calm Room.

As part of the Gallery’s broader commitment to accessibility and inclusion, the Calm Room also provides browsing copies of our Accessibility Guides and resources. This includes the general Gallery Access Guide, exhibition and festival access advisories, and the Gallery Social Story.

LOCATING THE CALM ROOM

The Calm Room is located at Level B1 of the City Hall Wing, in the Spine Hall. Feel free to approach any of our Front-Of-House staff if you need assistance in finding the room.

The Calm Room is open daily from 10am to 7pm. Masks are to be worn at all times inside the Calm Room.The room’s capacity is 7 pax.

ACCESS CONSULTANT

The Gallery collaborated with autistic artist-researcher Dr. Dawn-Joy Leong to ensure authentic representation from neurodivergent communities in the development of the Calm Room. Dr. Leong’s approach to conducive space is based on her key insights and lived experience of the unique autistic senses. As an Access Consultant, Dr. Leong has also offered key insights on building calm spaces, conducted community focus group sessions, and trained staff in inclusive customer service.

KEY FEATURES

Diffused dimmable lights that can be adjusted.
Gentle soundscape with adjustable volume.
Communal seats that can be moved around.

Private pods that invoke a sense of privacy and enclosure. There are two seats available at different heights.

PA system for emergency announcements. Please note that strobe lights will be used as visual cues for deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors.

Induction loop sensors,which will send vibrations to hearing aids for deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors during emergency announcements.

Sensory items are available for loan. These are items that may help calm overstimulating situations.

Accessibility resources, such as our Access Guide, Social Story and Exhibitions and Festivals Access Advisories.

USING THE ROOM

This is what you can do in the Calm Room:

• Rest in any of the private pods or seats
• Move the seats in the communal area around to better suit your needs.
• Enjoy the soundscape. Our Front-of-House staff can help to adjust the volume of the room’s soundscape and degree of lighting, if required.
• Try the short breathing exercise, located on the wall.
• Try the longer guided mindfulness practice, which you can access on your mobile phone by scanning a QR code.
• Learn about the Slow Art Guide, a slow looking and mindfulness audio experience of one artwork in the Gallery.
• Browse our Accessibility Guides and resources.
• Use the sensory kits and items that are available for loan. Approach our Front-Of-House staff if you wish to borrow or return any items.

GUIDELINES OF USE

While the Calm Room is open to all, neurodivergent visitors and those who are in distress are given priority. If you need a more private space to calm down or are with someone who does, please approach our Front-of-House staff for assistance. They will clear the room if necessary. Other visitors may be asked to leave should there be such an urgent need to use the room privately.

• Please take off your shoes and place them in the shoe rack.
• Please set your mobile phones to silent mode.
• Please deposit any large and bulky items at the lockers located near Lift Lobby B, on Level B1.

Engage respectfully with others.

• Approach gently and speak softly.
• Be considerate towards others who wish to use the space.
• Be respectful of other’s privacy. Give others space, and be mindful of everyone’s right to calm down and rest without interruption.
• Understand that calming down and resting can look different for different people—respect other people’s ways of calming down, without judgement.

Engage respectfully with the Calm Room as a shared space.

• Use earphones or headphones when listening to the audio guides or your own music.
• Treat all furniture and items within the room with loving care, so that users after you can enjoy them too.
• Clean up after yourself before leaving, including returning all borrowed items.

• Eating and drinking
• Social gatherings
• Napping
• Conversations, discussions, and meetings
• Working and studying
• Playing
• Leaving children unattended
• Taking phone calls
• Photography and videography
• Disrespectful language
• Emergency services or professional counselling and assistance

SENSORY KITS

The Calm Room contains a collection of sensory items that may help calm you down when you’re feeling overwhelmed. These items, such as fidget toys and weighted blankets, support users with sensory needs by allowing them to control their sensory experience.

If you would like to borrow a sensory kit or other sensory items, please approach our Front-of-House staff. Sensory kits and items are to be used only within the Calm Room, and should be returned before leaving.

Click here for the full list of items.

CREATIVE RESIDENCY

The Calm Room Creative Residency installation was on display from 10 May 2023 to 30 Apr 2024.

About the Calm Room Creative Residency

The Calm Room Creative Residency is a two-year residency programme that invites a Singapore-based artist to meaningfully activate the Calm Room space and connect with relevant underserved communities.

As a multimodal programme that combines community research, physical installations, and public programmes, the residency aims to build capacity for artists to work and co-create with underserved (particularly neurodivergent) communities, while also establishing connections between the Calm Room and the Gallery’s curatorial focus in modern Southeast Asian art.

Currently in Residence

Jevon Chandra (b. 1991) is a transdisciplinary artist and designer. Through time- and context-bound installations and interventions, his works explore the push and pull between sentiments of doubt and belief as present in acts of love, hope, and faith. He is currently an active member of Singapore-based socially engaged art collective Brack. While working in collaborative projects, he works towards the aim of developing his practice as a long-term endeavour that values decency, honesty, and patience.

Ways of Not Seeing: Aphantasia and its Affiliations

Ways of Not Seeing: Aphantasia and its Affiliations is the artist’s overarching research for this Creative Residency. The title bears a nod to John Berger’s landmark book Ways of Seeing but diverts attention away from what is visible towards what is invisible. In sum and as guide, the overarching project aims to give due attention to the manifold ways of not seeing—congenital, neurological, metaphorical—to uncover both the perils and potentials of being (un)burdened with imageries, alongside the very real impossibilities of conjuring any image at all.

As part of his residency, the artist was commissioned to create an installation within the Calm Room. Titled Picturing A Candle, the work takes aphantasia, a condition colloquially described as a blindness of the mind’s eye, as a point of departure. The artist considers what “visualising” and “recalling” is like when faculties to conjure mental imagery—and relatedly, memory—are impaired. Click here to read more about the installation.

ABOUT CALM SPACES

Calm and sensory-friendly spaces benefit a wide range of neurodivergent and neurotypical persons. Many people have experienced being overwhelmed by an intense physical environment, or by anxiety and other emotions. The Calm Room offers a space for gentle respite, as well as providing solace, relief, and recalibration for all.

Calm rooms are also important for autistic persons and persons with sensory processing issues who may need a safe space to rest in if they experience sensory overload. Autism is often associated with hypersensitivity to sensory input, and autistic persons experience everything much more intensely. Lights, sound, movement, smells and crowds can become overwhelming and even frightening.

Sensory overload happens when a neurodivergent brain receives more information through the senses than it can process. This can result in a feeling of extreme discomfort. Sensory overload can be triggered by a single event (like a sudden loud noise), or even build up over time. Although sensory overload can look different from person to person, some common behaviours in a person who is overwhelmed include increased movement (such as jumping or breaking things), talking faster or louder, having difficulty communicating or responding, anxiety, and stimming.

Calm spaces also benefit persons with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or with dementia. A person with ADHD can regain focus in a calm room. Persons with dementia are limited in their ability to access activities with multi-sensory stimulation and are susceptible to sundowning or other forms of confusion. If an episode occurs, having a safe space to calm down in is crucial.

SUPPORT US

The Community and Access team works to build meaningful and engaging relationships with diverse communities in Singapore. We believe in the power of effecting societal change through art, and your donations help ensure that everyone has the opportunity to engage with our art. Whether you are an individual, corporate or foundation, you can make a difference. Find out more by emailing supportus@nationalgallery.sg.