Essay: Arts And Culture In Singapore - Strategies, Policies, And Impacts.

Cultural strategies and economic policies

Question :

Discuss about the Mass Communication ?

This paper archives few strategies that are pertaining to the arts and culture in Singapore in the post independence time. It has provided some of the cultural strategies that were taken in the early years after the independence concentrating on the binding of arts and culture for the purpose of building the nation all together. It was followed by the consequent identification that the arts and culture has the potential of attracting the international tourists. The paper also focuses on the cultural economic policies that have been taken in the early 2000s which have recognized the economic value of the heritage, arts, design and media. It identifies the role of arts and culture beyond their exportation value and how they can attract the international participants in the country. The primary focus of the paper is the cultural and social policy direction that emphasizes on the value of arts and culture in the everyday life of Singapore.

Chang, Sharon, and Renuka Mahadevan. "Fad, fetish or fixture: contingent valuation of performing and visual arts festivals in Singapore." International journal of cultural policy 20, no. 3 (2014): 318-340.

The article examines how much importance culture gets in Singapore which is a recently developed economy and the population appreciate the practice of arts but not much culturally aware. The paper triggers to have an analytical framework that merges the social and the inherent benefits or the practice of arts and culture, also it tries to explore whether the arts festivals are just a costly fetish by the government or it is a naturally developing fixture. It discusses the cultural strategies and the government funding. The paper has showed the empirical evidence that backs the fact that these arts festivals are not a trend but a fixture in the long run; however the visual arts festivals are not the same. Evidences from both the arts festivals are analyzed to indicate the fact that there are not sufficient determinants that can pay for the events.

Lee, Terence. "‘Inculcating’creativity: culture as public pedagogy in Singapore." Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 35, no. 5 (2014): 718-732.

This paper discusses the long term rely on the innate public pedagogical qualities of the culture named as the official culture and the media politics and the attitude of the general population towards arts and culture. The primary purpose of the paper is to make the population realize how they can become creative and economically productive at the same time while they can adhere to the socio political norms of the society. It begins with the discussion of a debate that took place in 2012 with a Singapore street artist who was popular as the ‘Sticker Lady’. She was arrested in charge of vandalising the public properties with the stickers which were politically incorrect and had provocative phrases. This gave rise to the debate whether Singapore is ready to hold the technologically advanced and creative tendencies. It also argues that when the government authorities are aware of the need of welcoming an open society, it was difficult to concede the aspects of control. The paper indicates that how significant is the application of cultural policies in Singapore that can make progress to the culture of creativity.

Development of creative higher education in Singapore

Comunian, Roberta, and Can-Seng Ooi. "Global aspirations and local talent: the development of creative higher education in Singapore." International Journal of Cultural Policy 22, no. 1 (2016): 58-79.

This article tries to explore the development of higher education and the shifting of policies in Singapore in the last decade within the landscape of globalized artistic economy and the global policy transfer. The paper has used the qualitative interviews with the major players in the policy making and the higher educational institutions. It aims to explain the factors behind the investment in the creative higher education. The paper has argued that function of higher education can play a major part in developing a creative economy while the population is trying to overcome the issues with the vulnerability of having creative careers.

Ramos, Suzanna J., and Gerard J. Puccio. "Cross-cultural studies of implicit theories of creativity: A comparative analysis between the United States and the main ethnic groups in Singapore." Creativity Research Journal 26, no. 2 (2014): 223-228.

This particular article has explored the amount of influence on the theories of creativity among the general population from both the United States and Singapore and in the ethnic groups of Singapore. The innovative and the adaptive styles of creativity are examined in the paper with the conceptions of creativity. The lay persons from both the country were asked to rate the level of creativity for the descriptors of both the theories. The collected statistical information has indicated that there is an implied idea that the higher creativity is linked with the innovative styles of creativity.

Pernice, Raffaele. "Arts, Culture and the Making of Global Cities: Creating New Urban Landscapes in Asia." The Town Planning Review 87, no. 3 (2016): 366.

The book outlines to explain the urban and cultural strategies which are the effectual tools that promote the globalization in the big cities in the East Asia. This book is an outcome of the intensive investigation and research on the impacts of globalization and the effect of arts and culture in it. As the title of the book indicates that the major focus of this study was the urban transformation with the reflective impact of cultural projects, arts and the creative industries have on the development of the modern metropolitan cities. The focus was on the Chinese heritage and the countries with Chinese speaking population such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Cho, Im Sik, Quyen Duong, and Ivan Nasution. "Role of research in community arts: Developing an evaluation framework in Singapore." Community Development 47, no. 5 (2016): 683-699.

The focus of the paper is the development community arts in Singapore and how it has evolved gradually since the independence with the top down approach of the programs which were initiated by the government for including the ground up initiatives. The shift in the approach was advocated by embracing the general population not only as the audience but also as the creators through the policies that were community focused and the programs which were aimed in making the practices of arts and culture accessible. In the fast changing scenario this particular article tries to understand the relation between the practice and research of culture while examining a collaborative project between the National University of Singapore and the National Arts Council of Singapore. It was aimed to creative a evaluation framework to evaluate the culture and arts focused community spaces in Singapore. The outcomes from this study had shown that the research can change not only the collaboration among various stakeholders in the process but also promotes the future ground up engagement in the arts community by authorizing the arts and culture practitioners.

Influence of theories of creativity in Singapore vs the US

Tan, Jeffery. "Cultural Policy in Singapore Government Funding and the Management of Artistic Dissent."  14, no. 1 (2014): 21-39.

This paper has attempted to explicate the relationship between the government funding and the management of the cultural and artistic dissent in Singapore through a prism that was offered by the expansion of English language theatre. The paper opens with the brief history of the formulation and implementation of the funding policy of government over the past decade and how it was influenced by the social, cultural, political and economic imperatives of the government. Examining the case of Singapore the essay attempts to indicate that the cultural policy of the government can serve as the ideological tool to the advancement of the governance.

Freeman, Bradley C., Andrew J. Duffy, and Xiaoge Xu. "Machiavelli Meets Michelangelo: Newspaper Coverage of the Arts in Singapore." SAGE Open 6, no. 2 (2016): 2158244016645147.

This particular examines the newspaper coverage of the Arts in Singapore. The paper considers the functions of the newspapers of Singapore in the documentation and the development of the growing arts scenario of Singapore. It also samples two constructed weeks continued for ten long years (1999-2008) and the analysis of the contents is utilized to examine the coverage of arts in the Lianhe Zaobao and Sraits Times. The study lays its groundwork from Janssen’s study of coverage of arts in Dutch newspapers in 1999. In that study the hierarchical attention paid to the forms of arts over years was reported along with the quality of the contents. The situation is Singapore represents where newspapers and arts are not deteriorating rather both benefit from an important supervision by the government.

Oi, Kay Kok Chung. "Art Education as Exhibition: Reconceptualizing Cultural History in Singapore through an Art Response to Ah Ku and Karayuki-san Prostitution." Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education (Online) 32 (2015): 207.

This essay triggers to discuss the author’s own understanding of the education of art in relation to her displayed artworks that had developed based on the research of specific historical features in Singapore. The essay also relied on the referred artworks of a book written by James Francis Warren. The author has translated the content of the book in a series of her painting that have been used as the art education tool in educating the viewers about the history of Ah Ku and Karayuki- san.

Reference List:

Chang, Sharon, and Renuka Mahadevan. "Fad, fetish or fixture: contingent valuation of performing and visual arts festivals in Singapore." International journal of cultural policy 20, no. 3 (2014): 318-340.

Cho, Im Sik, Quyen Duong, and Ivan Nasution. "Role of research in community arts: Developing an evaluation framework in Singapore." Community Development 47, no. 5 (2016): 683-699.

Comunian, Roberta, and Can-Seng Ooi. "Global aspirations and local talent: the development of creative higher education in Singapore." International Journal of Cultural Policy 22, no. 1 (2016): 58-79.

Freeman, Bradley C., Andrew J. Duffy, and Xiaoge Xu. "Machiavelli Meets Michelangelo: Newspaper Coverage of the Arts in Singapore." SAGE Open 6, no. 2 (2016): 2158244016645147.

Kong, L., (2012) “Ambitions of a Global City: Arts, Culture and Creative Economy in “Post-Crisis” Singapore”, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 18, no.3: 279-294.

Oi, Kay Kok Chung. "Art Education as Exhibition: Reconceptualizing Cultural History in Singapore through an Art Response to Ah Ku and Karayuki-san Prostitution." Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education (Online) 32 (2015): 207.

Pernice, Raffaele. "Arts, Culture and the Making of Global Cities: Creating New Urban Landscapes in Asia." The Town Planning Review 87, no. 3 (2016): 366.

Ramos, Suzanna J., and Gerard J. Puccio. "Cross-cultural studies of implicit theories of creativity: A comparative analysis between the United States and the main ethnic groups in Singapore." Creativity Research Journal 26, no. 2 (2014): 223-228.

Tan, Jeffery. "Cultural Policy in Singapore Government Funding and the Management of Artistic Dissent."  14, no. 1 (2014): 21-39.