Measures to Further Strengthen Local Arts and Cultural Companies

Ms Janice Koh asked the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts apart from the Community Engagement Masterplan, Arts and Culture Education Masterplan and Capability Development Roadmap (a) what new initiatives from the Arts and Culture Strategic Review's recommendations are being implemented to build artistically excellent arts and cultural companies and to spur the growth of the different art forms beyond its current state; and (b) how much additional funds have been or will be set aside for these new initiatives over the next five years.

Assoc Prof Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: Over the years, the Government has channelled substantial resources towards raising artistic excellence, including grants to support our arts groups and incubate new content; scholarships to groom our talents; initiatives to strengthen our distinctive local content; efforts to internationalise Singapore works; and pinnacle showcase platforms such as the Singapore Biennale. In FY2012, the National Arts Council (NAC) will be committing more than $40 million towards these areas.

However, the Government recognises and believes that more can still be done to bring higher quality arts and culture offerings to a larger audience. The Arts and Culture Strategic Review (ACSR) was launched in 2010 with this objective in mind, and seeks to build upon the past efforts of both Government and practitioners to make the next leap in our cultural development, both in terms of engaging more Singaporeans with arts and culture, and also to raise the levels of excellence in the sector.

The three masterplans announced at MICA's COS 2012 – the Community Engagement Masterplan, the Arts and Culture Education Masterplan and the Capability Development Roadmap – represent the first phase of the Government's response to the report of the ACSR. The Government has chosen to focus on these programmes as they go beyond directly supporting practitioners as we have done in the past, to address key strategic areas of broadening the demand for arts and culture, deepening audience appreciation, and raising the quality of our talents and professionals. These new priority areas will become important building blocks in our development towards greater artistic excellence.

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The Capability Development Roadmap supplements on-going efforts to raise our artistic excellence by helping to build a pipeline of quality talents and supporting professionals essential to the future development of arts and culture groups in Singapore.

As part of the Roadmap, NAC will be collaborating with industry partners to strengthen the capacities of our arts companies by providing continuing education and training (CET) programmes to hone the skills of practitioners and plug existing gaps among supporting professions. These CET programmes include:

(a) The Inter-cultural Theatre Institute (ITI)'s Professional Diploma in Intercultural Theatre (Acting), which nurtures practitioners' skills in Asian cross-cultural theatre;

(b) The National Institute of Education International (NIEI)'s Specialist Diploma in Arts Education, which enables arts instructors to teach the arts more effectively to students and practitioners;

(c) The Esplanade Co Ltd (TECL)'s programmes in technical theatre, venue management and production management, which are capabilities that are currently in demand; and

(d) Collaboration between WDA and local arts organisations for an arts management training programme leading to a Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) Diploma in Arts Management.

Under the Roadmap, NAC will also be implementing a new Mentorship and Apprenticeship Framework to support the transfer of skills from more experienced practitioners and cultural leaders to younger artists. The framework will build on existing platforms to allow for a more industry-led model, through expanding existing mentorship initiatives, and incorporating industry attachments in training programmes.

In addition, NAC will raise its scholarship support to plug current gaps in the arts and culture landscape, including scholarships for young artists, cultural policy-makers, arts managers, arts educators, and talent with the potential to be leaders of major arts and culture organisations. These scholars will benefit from education and training at the best institutions.

However, our efforts in building artistic excellence must be supported by robust audience development for the arts and culture ecosystem to be sustainable in the long term. A broad base of discerning audiences will provide strong demand and drive greater improvements in the quality of our arts and culture offerings.

The Community Engagement Masterplan and the Arts and Culture Education Masterplan therefore aim to bring arts and culture to even more Singaporeans, and to enhance their abilities to appreciate quality works. For example, initiatives such as the Arts and Culture 101 programmes will develop better appreciation and understanding among audiences, while enhanced resources for arts instruction in schools will cultivate our next generation of arts supporters and perhaps even practitioners. This will help spur our arts groups to reach greater heights of excellence, as they seek to engage the larger and more sophisticated audiences and enthusiasts of tomorrow.

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The Government will continue to review the other recommendations made by the ACSR – many of which are longer term in nature – and remains committed to channelling additional resources to further the development of Singapore's arts and culture landscape as new programmes are developed to support the growing ecosystem. Nonetheless, as noted by the ACSR, the mindsets and roles of the community, our arts and culture practitioners, and the Government will also have to evolve, for our next phase of cultural development to be driven from the ground up. We therefore urge our arts practitioners and arts groups to take advantage of the various programmes and resources being made available to enhance their capabilities, and to build a larger, more discerning audience in partnership with the Government, which will help form the new foundation for greater artistic excellence.