Visitorship at Museums

Ms Janice Koh asked the Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) why there has been a drop in visitorship to the Singapore Art Museum since 2009; (b) why there has been a drop in the number of changing exhibitions at the Singapore Art Museum and other national museums since 2009; and (c) whether there should be an increase in the FY13 and future budgetary allocations to our museums, in particular, the Singapore Art Museum.

Mdm Speaker, since 2009, the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) has shifted its focus to Singapore, Southeast Asian and Asian contemporary art, moving away from international "blockbusters", to promote and project content that is relevant to Singapore.

As part of the shift, SAM has also positioned itself as a platform to develop, nurture and champion local artists, working with both established and emerging artists to create new artworks or explore new forms of art practice.

We think this stronger focus on local development and content may have contributed to the decline in visitorship numbers. Nevertheless, I believe it is the right focus for SAM. The museum is working hard to promote greater awareness and interest in regional and local art. Over time, this will help draw more people to the museum, and also ensure that it remains accessible and attractive to Singaporeans.

At the same time, in line with public expectations of quality, the national museums have also been refocusing resources on more significant exhibitions, to enhance visitor experience. Exhibitions at our museums are now presented with stronger curatorial focus, a broader scope, running for a longer duration and accompanied by a broader array of accompanying programmes, such as performances, public lectures, curator tours, artist-led workshops and activities for children. For example, the exhibition "A Life of Practice – Kuo Pao Kun", which is currently running at the National Museum of Singapore, presents Kuo Pao Kun's life through a wide selection of media, and involves concurrently

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running plays and a film screening.

The focus of our national museums on higher quality, broader engagement and more original content will require strong support from the Government. My Ministry will work closely with NHB to ensure that an appropriate level of funding is provided to our national museums. Through this, we hope to further our museums' role in promoting Singapore's artistic and cultural heritage, and to develop them as national symbols that our people can be proud of, with rich offerings that all can enjoy.

Thank you, Mdm Speaker, and I thank the Acting Minister for his reply. It is great that SAM is trying to be a little more focused in terms of its theme on Southeast Asian and Asian art. However, I still feel that the broader Singaporean public that does not have easy access to high quality international artworks should still continue to have some kind of access, and that helps raise our cultural literacy and appreciation for the arts in general. I know it is a lot more expensive to bring in the "blockbusters", but I hope that the Ministry will consider other museums who can take over this role. These "blockbusters" bring a large number of Singaporeans who may not ordinarily go into the museum to see world-quality art.

My second question is regarding marketing and publicity. We can see from the numbers that both SAM and the National Museum had a drop in changing exhibits in the last two years. However, the National Museum had an increase of about 10% visitorship whereas SAM had a decrease of about 15%. It could have been that a few "blockbuster" exhibitions at the National Museum still managed to attract a high number of visitors despite the fact that they had fewer exhibitions. It also has to do with the quality of exhibitions, as well as the outreach and marketing efforts. So, I would like to ask the Ministry to ensure that SAM, as well as the smaller museums, have enough of a budget to reach out to a wider number of Singaporeans.

Lastly, with regard to the Singapore Biennale, which will give us an opportunity to feature world-class art from Southeast Asia, the region and Singapore, to ensure that we put in enough thought into marketing and publicity so that we reach out to new audiences and people who do not normally go into a museum.

I would like to thank the Member for all her very constructive and useful suggestions. I share all her points because, indeed, I think we need to do more to reach out to Singaporeans and to make quality art

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accessible to them. It is not just through the museums. We had the Singapore Art Week recently, which was a very good show, and offerings of art exhibitions at the Art Stage, Gillman Barracks, SAM, amongst others. And we had a good turn-out. But we can still do more in terms of getting people to come to these exhibitions, reaching out to school kids, students, community groups to organise tours in these various platforms, in which people can enjoy and appreciate art. We hope to do more of that, not just for SAM but the broader platforms or other museums, as the Member has suggested, other art exhibitions that could be done at the Gillman Barracks, at the Art Stage, or at the other Art Fests in Singapore.

The overall scene, I think, is becoming more vibrant, and so there will, indeed, be more opportunities for Singaporeans to enjoy and appreciate art in Singapore. So, the point is well taken that we need to do a lot more outreach, not just about marketing and publicity, but outreach to Singaporeans to make art accessible to them. That is something we hope to do in the Ministry, and working with our partner agencies as well.

The same thing would go for the Biennale that the Member mentioned. It is something that we hope will not just be an event that people feel is far and away, aloof and distant, and that it is only for a particular group of people, but one which all Singaporeans can feel is something they can enjoy.

On the point about quality of exhibitions and making the balance between local/regional art and international "blockbusters", the museums are mindful of this. They do want to have more focused exhibitions, providing platforms for local and regional artists. I think it is commendable that they are doing that. We do need to promote that space a lot more but they cannot just do it exclusively. They will need to find a balance between the kinds of exhibitions that they have – some will be international "blockbusters", and there will still be a continuation of these exhibitions – whether at SAM or the National Museum. But, overall, we do also want to have a strong focus on developing local and regional artists, and also strengthening the cultural and heritage connections that the museums can provide for Singaporeans.