Nurturing Gracious and Knowledgeable People

•$178m will be allocated to develop Singapore’s cultural infrastructure and to enhance the artistic capacity of the nation. The key initiatives are:

- Developing the School of the Arts, Singapore to provide a 6-year arts and academic education for artistically talented students aged 13-18 leading to the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IBD) Graduating Qualification at Year 6;

- Providing grants to over 600 local artists and arts groups, and subsidised arts housing for deserving artists and arts groups to develop their works under the Arts Housing Scheme;

- Organising and supporting 160 arts outreach programmes targeted at over 160,000 people;

- Assessing and endorsing 650 quality arts education programmes to reach out to 350,000 students, as well as carrying out arts education initiatives for pre-schools;

- Developing arts businesses through support for enterprise, professional capability and market development;

- Organising major arts events in Singapore such as the Singapore Arts Festival, Singapore Biennale, and Singapore Writers Festival, to promote artistic excellence and develop audiences.

•$85m will be allocated to foster nationhood, identity and creativity, and to develop a more vibrant heritage sector in Singapore. Key initiatives are:

- Enhancing museum curation and heritage outreach programmes in order to increase visitorship and community participation;

- Enriching Singapore’s heritage showcase diversity through a new Heritage Industry Incentive Programme (Hi2P) to support private heritage and museum partners;

- Redeveloping the former Supreme Court and City Hall Building into a National Art Gallery;

- Opening a new Peranakan Museum and contemporary galleries of the Singapore Art Museum to enhance our heritage presentation;

- Promoting the preservation of Singapore's built heritage, and organising outreach programmes to promote public awareness of national monuments;

- Improving the Heritage Conservation Centre to support the housing of the national heritage collection.

•$173m will be allocated to our libraries to support life-long learning among Singaporeans, and to promote a knowledgeable and engaged society, through the provision of:

- A national library that aims to become a one-stop centre for Asian collections and materials;

- A network of 3 regional libraries and 19 community libraries, which serve over 37 million library visitors and approximately 2 million library members;

- Rich on-line information sources and content at National Library Board's digital library which aims to serve 9 million on-line users;

- Rare materials and documents of historic significance which have been digitised for easy accessibility and the promotion of our heritage; and

- Digitised artistic heritage materials for greater accessibility so as to raise awareness of Singapore's many arts and cultural icons.