Review of Arts Festival

Mdm Speaker, the key recommendation of the Singapore Arts Festival Review Committee was for the National Arts Council (NAC) to set up an independent company to allow the artistic community to take the lead in organising the Singapore Arts Festival. Members would have read recently that the NAC had announced, in line with the recommendation, the formation of a new company, the Arts Festival Limited, to organise the Singapore Arts Festival. The company will be led by Ms Lee Chor Lin as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Mr Ong Keng Sen as the Festival Director. Mr Ong will be responsible for the artistic direction of the first four editions of the Singapore Arts Festival.

We are still in the process of appointing the full Board of Directors of this new company. The Board will have responsibility and oversight of the company. This will give the company and its Festival Director the autonomy to determine the artistic vision, identity and programming of the Festival.

With regard to what we can expect from the first Arts Festival in 2014, I think we have to be realistic because arts festivals of this scale typically require two to three years to develop, commission and prepare. But I am confident that, with time, the Singapore Arts Festival will achieve the vision set out by the Review Committee, which is to inspire diverse audiences through great artistic experiences.

Mdm Speaker, I thank the Acting Minister. Arts festivals are often in a unique position to offer opportunities to artists whose passion is to inspire and stimulate us and to commission and support work that is genuinely creative. In a Festival context, we should not just be thinking about the market and what audiences want. To stimulate the creative muscle in our society, we should also need to expose audiences to the new, and we can do this by supporting artists in the creative process and then support the results of that creative process by getting it to the public.

In this respect, giving the Festival its independence and artistic autonomy in terms of programming and commissioning is a critical step towards its success. The Government should therefore support those things which have, as yet, no market but show excellent potential. In this respect, my question is: how is the Government going to ensure that the Festival will be given its artistic autonomy while at the same time funding it sufficiently so that it does not become completely subject to the demands of the market?

Well, I do not think the two are in contradiction. The funding will be provided and the company will then have to decide how best to use the funding to achieve the objectives it sets out to achieve, both to attract audiences for the Festival as well as to achieve the objectives that the Member has highlighted, which is to commission new works, inspire and support artists, get creative pieces put out, and then raise the artistic standards and quality of the performances.

That is what we expect from the company, both from the Board as well as from the Management and the Artistic Director. So, the way we expect the company to operate, including the Festival Director, is to take the funds that are provided by the Government but not just rely solely on Government funding. We would like them to also raise funds from other sponsors and then, with that funding, do the best possible Arts Festival that they can to raise artistic standards and inspire new audiences.

I would to ask the Acting Minister: in the past, when NAC was organising the Arts Festival, it also had to raise sponsorship to cover the costs. Now that it will be operated by an independent company, what is the difference between the Government's commitment in terms of financial contribution and liability of the NAC vs now, the independent company?

The financial commitment would largely remain the same. In terms of funding, the Government remains committed to funding the Arts Festival as it had done in the past. Of course, in the past, NAC would also raise funds from sponsors. Similarly, in the new arrangement, we would expect the company to raise funds from sponsors as well. In terms of the Government's commitment of funding, in the past, it was to NAC; now, it is to the new company. But that funding level will remain unchanged. And we would hope that besides Government funding, the new company would also be able to do more to raise funds from other sources, which NAC had done as well. Hopefully, with the new company, with new management, they can also do more to raise funds from other sources.