Initiatives and Resources for Community Engagement Masterplan

Launched in April 2012, the Community Engagement Masterplan aims to bring the arts and culture closer to many more Singaporeans. We want to encourage Singaporeans to pursue their interests in the arts and culture, enrich their quality of life and strengthen their sense of heritage, and also their connection with the community. This is a long-term programme that requires strong support and participation from the community.

As at 31 December 2012, an estimated $19 million has been expended under the Masterplan. Around 50% of these funds have gone towards establishing networks of staff and volunteers to engage residents and to work with them to tailor programmes of interest to the local community. These networks also disseminate information on activities, resources and facilities

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that are available, thereby enhancing interest in arts and culture in the community.

Another 40% of the Community Engagement Masterplan funding has been used to support new programmes. The programmes funded under the Masterplan include the creation of 84 community arts and culture clubs, and various community interest groups in art forms, such as pottery, theatre, singing and even the ukulele.

Other programmes supported under the Masterplan include the over 450 Arts and Culture 101 programmes held at NLB's public libraries, and other targeted programmes for youths, seniors and working adults, which aim to increase appreciation for arts and culture.

Many of these programmes have involved professional arts practitioners, creating new platforms for professional artists to engage the community. To date, more than 140 artists and arts groups have participated in various platforms as performers, instructors and mentors.

For example, NAC had a Silver Arts Platform which supported the literary publication Ceriph in their first community project "10 X 10". Basically, they paired 10 young writers with 10 senior citizens to collaborate on creative writing projects. NAC's "Let's Connect" networking sessions are another example, providing opportunities for community organisations and arts practitioners to collaborate.

The remaining 10% of funding has gone towards the development and upgrading of facilities under the Community Engagement Masterplan. These include a number of new and enhanced heritage trails and the recently opened community museum at Taman Jurong. These developments have served as touchpoints to engage volunteers and other enthusiasts. Our Museum @ Taman Jurong alone involved the participation of more than 200 residents in the lead-up to its launch in January this year.

Besides the more broad-based programmes rolled out in this initial phase, funding under the Community Engagement Masterplan will also support programmes to deepen engagement among new audiences. Through the various initiatives under the Community Engagement Masterplan, MCCY's agencies and partners will also encourage community enthusiasts to work with professional arts practitioners so as to help raise the quality of arts and culture

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programming at the community level.

To gauge the Masterplan's success, we monitor a range of indicators that are both quantitative and qualitative in nature. The quantitative measures include the number of programmes that are supported and the number of Singaporeans the programmes have reached out to. Some of the qualitative indicators include Singaporeans' perception of arts and culture, which are captured in NAC's biennial National Population Survey on the Arts. We also monitor the percentages of Singaporeans who agree that arts and culture have contributed towards a better quality of life, a greater sense of belonging, and a better understanding of people of different backgrounds and cultures.

In addition to these indicators, our implementation agencies, such as NAC, NHB, PA and NLB, also have separate quantitative and qualitative indicators for their respective initiatives under the Masterplan. For example, NLB tracks whether there is a change in a person's interest in arts and culture after he has attended the NLB's Arts and Culture 101 programme; NAC tracks the impact of arts and culture on the well-being of beneficiaries for its programmes in the social sector.

Collectively, all of these efforts contribute towards the long-term outcomes set out in our Arts and Culture Strategic Review (ACSR). One of the outcomes that is envisaged in the Arts and Culture Strategic Review is that by 2025, we hope that at least four out of every five Singaporeans will attend at least one arts and culture event, and at least half of all Singaporeans will participate actively in the arts.

As the lead agency for the Community Engagement Masterplan, MCCY will monitor and account for our overall progress to ensure that the investment in the Community Engagement Masterplan translates to real benefits for Singaporeans. This includes the continual review and refinement of all programmes and initiatives to ensure that the efforts of the agencies that are part of the Masterplan collectively contribute to our desired outcomes.

Mdm Speaker, I thank the Acting Minister for his reply. I have two supplementary questions. I am really glad to hear that the agencies implementing the Masterplan initiatives are developing their own basket of quantitative and qualitative success indicators. I think a biennial survey might be a little too general and does not necessarily just capture the impact of the community initiatives. I am wondering if those outcomes will be made public. My second question is related to manpower, and

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whether or not the cultural officers that have been deployed or are hired to work at the CC level have been given the requisite training, as well as the exposure to the arts.

I thank the Member for the supplementary questions. The first question, on whether the indicators at the agency-level can be published, we would do so to the extent possible. We do want to make sure that each agency tracks the programmes that it is initiating and it is implementing, and be accountable for these programmes. When we do a review of the overall effort, then we will see whether there is scope to fine-tune our programmes at that stage. So, the indicators are, indeed, helpful for that purpose and, to the extent possible, we would encourage the agencies to put out these indicators.

The second question, on manpower and training, it is something that we would like to do. We are doing this, and I think we can do better. We have had a group of staff and volunteers, as I mentioned in my reply earlier, who are deployed within the community. That is manpower that is needed in order to help link up the community with arts groups, arts professionals, to help understand better what the community needs are. I appreciate the point that these officers also need to be trained in arts at some level, so that they understand not only the needs of the community, but also have a good understanding of what is happening in the arts space, who are the professionals in the arts, sectors that they can link up with. We have done some of that kind of exposure and training, but I think we can do more. And we will continue to do so.