THE ASIAN CENTURY - SINGAPORE LIGHTENS UP

Since a decade ago, Singapore has made plans to re-brand itself as a Renaissance City of arts and culture. There were strong economic imperatives for this. Besides building the infrastructure and the venues, there was also a plan to incubate the Renaissance Singaporean. Apart from supporting local industry, there is now more attention to arts education, especially with SOTA. But, the question is, with more artists being produced in Singapore, is there an industry that can support them all? Local artists say that many become arts administrators while others drop out because the sacrifice of financial uncertainty is daunting. Singapore has made great strides in engineering a transforming Singapore into a global city for the arts. While retention of talent and freedom of expression are still issues, local practitioners are finding ways to navigate the boundaries.