Assistance to Arts Groups to Cope with Rising Rental and Maintenance Cost

Mr Kok Heng Leun asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth what help is given to arts groups to cope with rising rental and maintenance cost of arts housing spaces.

The National Arts Council (NAC) recognises the need to keep rental and maintenance costs for arts spaces affordable. NAC currently offers two schemes to assist artists and arts groups: (a) the Arts Housing Scheme (AHS) and (b) the Framework for Arts Spaces (FFAS). Through both schemes, NAC provides substantial subsidies to defray rental costs. In addition to rental costs, tenants pay subsidised sinking funds or service charges for maintenance which depend on the type of arts housing they occupy.

Rental for arts housing is set by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) under Civic and Community Institution (C&CI) rates, and is significantly lower by as much as 60% of commercial market rates. NAC provides a further 90% and 80% rental subvention under AHS and FFAS respectively, so that tenants are only required to pay 10% and 20% of these reduced rental rates respectively.

For arts housing spaces with an appointed place manager to oversee facility management, tenants pay a service charge that is also kept lower by 60% compared to market rates, through cost-effective measures like bulk tenders, and NAC or the place manager absorbing any remaining costs.

Arts groups occupying AHS spaces also contribute to a sinking fund for cyclical works for the building they occupy. Their contributions range from $0.06 to $0.08 psf, and this rate has remained unchanged for many years. This has helped to cushion arts groups against rising costs. NAC has also provided substantial top-ups when these contributions were insufficient to upkeep the properties.

Aside from housing support, NAC takes a holistic approach to enable arts groups to build capabilities and better support their operations. NAC also needs to work within the overall arts space allocation assigned by the Urban Redevelopment Authority to ensure that there are fair opportunity and access for the increasing number of arts groups and artists requiring space. Over the past three years, the open calls for available spaces at Goodman Arts Centre and Aliwal Arts Centre have seen demand exceeding supply by three times. NAC has, therefore, augmented efforts to free up spaces by working with arts groups and community partners, such as the People's Association, to explore alternative spaces and venues, such as the recent offering of housing spaces to three arts organisations at Our Tampines Hub.