Renaissance City Plan III Public Report Unveils Details of Singapore's Arts and Cultural Master Plan for 2008 - 2015

In February this year, Dr Lee Boon Yang, the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA), launched the third phase of the Renaissance City Plan – Singapore’s arts and cultural master plan for 2008 to 2015. Dr Lee announced that MICA would allocate $115 million over the next five years, or about $23 million a year, towards the three key areas of Distinctive Content, Dynamic Ecosystem and Engaged Community. MICA, the National Arts Council (NAC), and the National Heritage Board (NHB) have now jointly released a Renaissance City Plan III Public Report (RCP III), which incoporates the RCP III Arts Development Plan and the RCP III Heritage Development Plan, to provide further details to stakeholders and the public, of the Government’s plans for Singapore’s arts and cultural development.

Distinctive Content

Content is at the core of arts and culture. As Singapore endeavours to become a global city, it will need to generate content that reflects its unique identity and context in Southeast Asia and the region. To achieve this objective, RCP III will introduce new Content Creation Funds to encourage greater Asian content creation in Singapore or by Singapore. In November this year, NAC launched a $3.5 million “Arts Creation Fund” to support the creation and incubation of new works over the next five years. In early 2009, NAC will launch its “Artist Residency Scheme” to support foreign artists’ residencies in Singapore as well as Singaporean artists’ residencies abroad. The Scheme aims to position Singapore as a cultural centre and gateway for Asian arts, bringing arts professionals from Singapore, Asia and beyond together to exchange ideas and create collaborative works.

Dynamic Ecosystem

To extract maximum value from content, there is a need to develop a total ecosystem of businesses, talent and specialised supporting services. RCP III will introduce industry seed funding schemes to support the development of local arts businesses. NHB’s “Heritage Industry Incentive Programme” (HI2P), launched in September 2008, will invest $8 million over the next five years to develop the emerging heritage sector. The programme will provide seed funding support for businesses, private museums and other private players in the heritage industry.

Engaged Community

Engagement also means a willingness to give to arts and culture. In 2008, significant contributions were provided to arts and culture. These include a $12 million donation by Ngee Ann Kongsi to the School of the Arts, Singapore, as well as the donation of $66 million worth of art by renowned artist Wu Guanzhong to the Singapore Art Museum. Beyond such significant donations, MICA aims to encourage greater giving in all forms and sizes - whether in terms of funds, in-kind support, or time - to the arts and culture sector, especially in light of the current economic climate, and more importantly, to cultivate a spirit of giving amongst Singaporeans.