The arts as a value-creating ecology in Singapore

• Main Author: HOE, Su Fern
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2024
• Subjects: Singapore cultural policy; cultural value; contemporary art; creative city; Asian Studies; Demography, Population, and Ecology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3967; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/5225/viewcontent/HSF_The_Arts_as_a_Value_Creating_Ecology_in_Singapore_2024.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This chapter aims to provide a deeper understanding of the evolving state of politics and practices of the arts ecology in Singapore from 2012 to 2023. This period was selected primarily because Singapore’s most recent cultural policy – the Arts and Culture Strategic Review – was officially released in 2012, and has since introduced changes and shifts that have yet to be adequately documented and analysed. However, this chapter is not intended to be comprehensive in nature.This chapter has two key objectives. First, it will critically interrogate the nature, extent and implications of the Singapore government’s efforts in utilising the arts as a pragmatic and expedient resource to become a globally-competitive creative city. While the Singapore government has long relied on developing hard infrastructure such as museums and performing arts centres as a means to become a globally-competitive city-state, this chapter will demonstrate how there has been a marked shift from a more vertical, developmental and regulatory approach to a more localised, inclusive, horizontal and stimulating modus operandi since 2012. Secondly, this chapter will consider some of the key points of tensions and discontinuities arising from Singapore’s pursuit to become a global creative city, in order to highlight how formal governance structures are linked to, and complemented by non-government actors, informal sites and everyday practices. Together, they contribute to the cultural dynamism and sustainability of the arts sector. Importantly, this approach provides a more nuanced, holistic and extensive understanding of the linkages and interdependencies amongst the various actors, elements and subsystems that comprise the arts in Singapore. Ultimately, this chapter argues for the significance of understanding the arts in Singapore as a “value-creating ecology” that is relationally interdependent.