Shining the spotlight on cultural policy (original) (raw)
Related papers
The State and the Arts in Singapore: Policies and Institutions, 2018
In 2010, The Arts and Culture Strategic Review (ACSR) was initiated to chart the next phase of cultural development in Singapore. The final report, which was released in 2012, appears to propose a paradigm shift in focus for arts and cultural policy making in Singapore: from the desire to manage the arts and cultural sectors into profitable creative industries to the utilisation of the arts and culture as expedient tools for social cohesion and community building in Singapore. The shift has resulted in government programmes placing (renewed) importance and emphasis in 'community arts' as a cultural activity. This chapter critically examines the early years of this shift towards a socio-cultural focus and it ensuing promotion of 'community arts'. Through an analysis of the rationales, formulation and implementation of the ACSR, this chapter will demonstrate how the ACSR is not an illogical discontinuity from previous cultural policies. Rather, the ACSR is a reaffirmation of the government's deep-rooted desire to harness the arts and culture as ideological tools to socialise the migrant society into a cohesive community. This chapter will also show that the ACSR's invocation of 'community' is a strategic response to the current socio-economic and political realities in Singapore. Finally, this chapter will also highlight some key challenges that the government faces in pursuing a community arts agenda in Singapore.
Capacities and Impacts of Community Arts and Culture Initiatives in Singapore
The Journal of Arts Management, Low, and Society, 2020
With reference to 'Arts and Culture Nodes' strategy initiated in 2012 by the National Arts Council (NAC) in Singapore, this paper outlines the study that investigated the impacts of community arts and culture events on five local housing neighbourhoods and their communities. 'Neighbourhood Arts and Culture Impact Assessment (NACIA)' framework was developed and applied through spatial opportunity analysis (on-site observations and mapping), surveys, focus group discussions and interviews with residents, artists and event organisers. Key findings reveal the capacities of the initiative to generate positive spatial, social and participation impacts and build stronger neighbourhood arts ecology in local Singaporean neighbourhoods.
Re-visioning arts and cultural policy: current impasses and future directions
2007
Professor Wanna has produced around 17 books including two national text books on policy and public management. He has produced a number of research-based studies on budgeting and financial management including: Budgetary Management and Control (1990); Managing Public Expenditure (2000), From Accounting to Accountability (2001) and, most recently, Controlling Public Expenditure (2003). He has just completed a study of state level leadership covering all the state and territory leaders-entitled Yes Premier: Labor leadership in Australia's states and territories-and has edited a book on Westminster Legacies in Asia and the Pacific-Westminster Legacies: Democracy and responsible government in Asia and the Pacific. He was a chief investigator in a major Australian Research Council funded study of the Future of Governance in Australia (1999-2001) involving Griffith and the ANU. His research interests include Australian and comparative politics, public expenditure and budgeting, and government-business relations. He also writes on Australian politics in newspapers such as The Australian, Courier-Mail and The Canberra Times and has been a regular state political commentator on ABC radio and TV. Table of Contents About the Author ix Acknowledgements xi Foreword xiii Abbreviations and Acronyms xvii Chapter 1. The Conceptual ambivalence of art and culture 1 Chapter 2. Historical phases in arts and cultural policy-making in Australia 7 Chapter 3. The convergence of arts and cultural policy Chapter 4. International trends in arts and cultural production and consumption Chapter 5. How can cultural sub-sectors respond? Three indicative case studies Chapter 6. Managing creativity and cultivating culture Bibliography Appendix A. Typology of artforms by characteristics of sector Appendix B. Key moments in Australian arts and cultural policy development Appendix C. Models of cultural policy Appendix D. Definitions of cultural policy Appendix E. The objectives of cultural policy Appendix F. Government expenditure (Commonwealth, state and local) on the arts in Australia ($ million
Dilemmas in Policy Support for the Arts and Cultural Sector
Australian Journal of Public Administration, 2005
This article questions the specific challenges that the management of culture poses for government. 2 Unlike some 'public good' policy domains, such as prisons, defence or infrastructure, or benefit provisions such as unemployment, disability or health measures, the complex area of cultural policy cannot be justified in instrumental terms as an essential-or unavoidablepolicy of government. Nonetheless, the cultural lobby is an effective and indefatigable pressure on government. The area of culture is just one small component of the public agenda that governments are obliged to support. Given other pressing portfolios, why do governments continue to take an interest in culture? Moreover, recent government policies seem to be setting up problems for the future such that governments will find it hard if not impossible to extricate themselves from a problematic relationship. So, what is the hold that culture has over governments? Traditionally, the answer seemed to be a combination of boosterism and cultural capital. Governments liked to bask in the reflected glory of cultural success believing that it contributed to their legitimacy and cultural competence. The glow of elite culture was seen to rub off onto political incumbents and their regimes. But in an age of pressures on government to justify public expenditure and meet accountability regimes, cultural support continues to appear on the funding agenda and governments continue to become embroiled in debates about competing support formulae. This relates to both the nature of 'culture' and broader definitions under the banner of 'cultural policy' as well as the nature of the sector which is, at once, elitist, institutionalized, commercial, highly specialist, niche and industry-all premised on intangible nature of 'creativity'. Paradoxically, contrary to other trends in public policy, arts and cultural funding has reverted to forms of patronage as the centrepiece of broadly defined policies of access, equity and self-sufficiency. How has this policy portfolio managed to buck the trends of other domains of government attention? This article attempts to open some new ways of examining the question. 3
The Ambiguities of the Singapore's National Arts Council Arts Education Programmes - (NAC-AEP)
The National Arts Council – Arts Education Programme (NAC-AEP) was established in 1993 to broaden students’ minds and deepen their artistic sensibilities; to improve their overall quality of life; to contribute to a more culturally vibrant and gracious society. Assessment of more than 800 arts education programmes are conducted by a panel of arts and education experts, principals and officials from the Ministry of Education and the National Arts Council. Endorsed programmes cover the Literary, Performing and Visual Arts and are categorised into three types - Arts Exposure, Arts Experience and Arts Excursion. This paper identifies three key ambiguities within the NAC-AEP that are preventing the programme from attaining success. First and foremost, the values and importance of the arts to the society are not clearly presented to the students through the programmes. Secondly, the current meager assessment system of the NAC-AEP is highly administrative and requires extensive form-filling, which may not be necessary. Finally, the mentality of the students involved in the NAC-AEP is not taken into serious consideration. Many activities are contrary to the interests and preferences of the students. Moreover, the NAC-AEP has also failed to catch up with the evolution of the digital media in its planning and content.
Arts Management Quarterly No 127: Culture and Urban Development
2017
Arts and culture are facilitators in fields such as social cohesion, education, or well-being. But to implement these effects into urban development road maps, the patterns and demands of local cultural infrastructures first have to be specified. Such basic work is the perfect starting point for arts professionals and artists to become part of comprehensive urban planning processes. This issue of Arts Management Quarterly sheds light on the impact that arts and culture can have on urban development.
Contextualized Practices in Arts Education: An International Dialogue on Singapore, 2013
The chapter synthesizes relevant literature on arts education in Singapore and discusses its evolving context in the city-state. It locates the position of the arts in the history of Singapore before and after its independence, during and after its brief merger with Malaysia, and from its early years as a fledgling city-state to its current position as an affluent nation in the Southeast Asian region. On the one hand, it takes into account the evolving cultural policy crafted and enacted by a strong state and which has had significant impact on the local arts and culture. On the other, it rearticulates perspectives on Singapore arts and culture from the local artists and the academic community by highlighting what may be regarded as alternative expressions to the statist account of the Singapore arts landscape. Tensions and contradictions that interlace the development of Singapore arts and culture and that offer constraints, challenges, and potential opportunities for arts teaching and learning are also brought to the fore. A commentary on these tensions and contradictions is then provided (Chapter 2). The commentary expresses the confluences that arise from these tensions as well as some possibilities for the learning context.
The Ambiguities of Singapore's National Arts Council - Arts Education Programme (NAC-AEP)
2015
The National Arts Council – Arts Education Programme (NAC-AEP) was established in 1993 to broaden students’ minds and deepen their artistic sensibilities, so as to contribute to a more culturally vibrant and gracious society. Assessment of more than 800 arts education programmes are conducted by a panel of arts and education experts, principals and officials from the Ministry of Education and the National Arts Council. Endorsed programmes cover the Literary, Performing and Visual Arts and are categorised into three types - Arts Exposure, Arts Experience and Arts Excursion. This paper identifies three key ambiguities within the NAC-AEP that are preventing the programme from attaining success. First and foremost, the values and importance of the arts to the society are not clearly presented to the students through the programmes. Secondly, the current meager assessment system of the NAC-AEP is highly administrative and requires extensive formfilling, which may not be necessary. Finall...