Funding of Arts in Singapore

Arts for business's sake
It's a long way from being one of the world's arts capitals, but Singapore is spending more and more to promote its cultural life, says Arts Minister Lee Yock Suan

Far Eastern Economic Review
September 20, 2001
SINGAPORE


LONG CRITICIZED as a cultural desert, Singapore is cultivating its arts scene. A massive S$600 million (US$344 million) performance arts centre is being built, and more subsidies as well as artistic licence are being doled out to local artists. Cultural tourists are also being drawn to the often avant-garde annual arts festival. Singapore Minister for Information and the Arts Lee Yock Suan spoke to REVIEW Deputy Editor David Plott and Singapore Bureau Chief Trish Saywell about the government's efforts to add cultural ballast to post-industrial Singapore:
WHAT'S YOUR GOAL FOR THE ARTS IN SINGAPORE?
Our aim is to be a global city for the arts . . . We look at the great cities of the world like New York and London. These are places that people want to go to live in, to work, to visit. We hope one day Singapore will be like that for this region . . .
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO DEVELOP THE ARTS?
. . . It's necessary for the quality of life. . . . It's not just entertainment, we're also trying to open up the mind and creativity . . . There is the economic element of it too . . . We feel that for Singapore to be able to attract talent . . . it must not be sterile.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING AT THE EDUCATIONAL LEVEL TO FOCUS YOUNG PEOPLE'S ATTENTION ON THE ARTS?
We are working closely with the schools in what we call the Arts Outreach Programme . . . They could be brought to see an arts performance or the performance could be brought to the school . . .
IS IT POSSIBLE TO TELL YOUNG SINGAPOREANS THEY CAN MAKE A LIVING FROM THE ARTS IN SINGAPORE?
I think you can look at the kind of enrolment they are getting in two schools for the arts: the LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts . . . The government is actually supporting these two schools . . . to the same level per capita per student as it's doing for [students] at the four polytechnics.
THAT'S PART OF THE BROADER ARTS STRATEGY?
It's a signature from the government that, yes, it's an area that we encourage our people to go into . . . We have put a lot of effort into the arts in the past 10 years . . . Under the "Building Singapore as a Renaissance City" initiative, the government is putting in additional funding of S$10 million a year into the arts . . .
THE ISSUE OF WHETHER A PLAY IS POLITICALLY ACCEPTABLE CAN ARISE. WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS?
We feel as politicians we have a responsibility to the larger public to ensure that what the majority feels comfortable with is what they are getting. For example, we don't allow pornography in our mass media . . . On the whole there has been a lot of liberalization. Things have moved gradually at a pace that the public is comfortable with.
WE WERE THINKING LESS OF PORNOGRAPHY THAN OF POLITICAL COMMENTARY.
Even that is getting to be much less of a problem now . . . Last year's arts festival had two plays . . . which were quite critical of the administration . . . Some years back it might have raised eyebrows but now it's perfectly all right. The government accepts that anybody can write to the media and criticize and if they are wrong factually or we disagree with them we will just reply. And now with the Internet . . . it's not possible for us to try and keep tabs on everything and we have no intention of doing that . . .
Recently we had a problem with a Malay play [about marital rape] called Talaq . . . Previously it was in Tamil . .. The second time around they wanted to do it in Malay. The Malay community protested and was very upset . . . we asked them to be careful and not to show it . . . We realize that for arts we do have to allow people to experiment within certain norms of decency. If you want to criticize the government, by all means.
SOME PEOPLE FIND IT DIFFICULT TO EQUATE THE ARTS WITH SINGAPORE BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENT HAS A REPUTATION FOR CONTROL.
That's a legacy of the past--this concept that Singapore is kind of a cultural desert and is strictly controlled . . . Things have really changed.

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