By Ken Hickson, Managing Editor of The Avenue for CreativeArts
What can be done to foster and encourage access to the arts in Singapore?
In looking at the State of the Arts, we can see vast improvements over the last 30-plus years.
There’s a wide variety of arts practiced and performed. Arts education is thriving, with world class institutions like LaSalle College of the Arts doing more than its share to produce and encourage the practice of art in all its forms.
We cannot measure the State of the Arts just by attendance figures. Look at the productions by small theatre companies. Look at the profusion of local art galleries. Look at the art awards and art competitions which abound. See the foreign shows and value the local productions.
Festivals of an international standard are good at bringing in visitors to Singapore as well as catering to a hungry local population.
See what’s in store at the Singapore Writers Festival for example. Read what Ong Sor Fern had to say in Straits Times recently.
No need for any apologies about the arts in Singapore.
The arts are alive and well.
See this Postscript and more in the latest issue of The Avenue for Creative Arts