Arts in Your Neighbourhood

Event Introduction

§  Why – objectives of Arts in Your Neighbourhood

The purpose of Art in Your Neighbourhood is to showcase each artist’s perception of home. It is also for Singaporeans to embrace arts and culture, by appreciating and participating in the different forms of art activities. Thus, the neighbourhood of Woodlands will be showcasing 5 artworks to give a new perspective and learn more about the resident’s surroundings through art. The objectives include to making arts accessible for all. Where everyone can grow their interest in arts and gain more appreciation for arts. The initiative also encourages the communities to support artists as well as for artists to gain support from their communities

§  Who -  target market

The target market is neighbourhood residents who are families that consist of adults, kids, teenagers and the elderly. The target market also includes arts enthusiast and other arts communities.

§  Where –Woodlands as the anchor neighbourhood

The event is focused on their tagline which is Placing Home where Woodlands has been chosen to be the focused neighbourhood for a public art project that explores ideas of home and movement. As Woodlands have been an essential town in connecting Singapore to Johor Bahru. Hence, 5 unique public artworks will be showcased in Woodlands neighbourhood to encourage everyone to take note of our surroundings with a renewed perception and question about the world in which we live. Thus, the programms are taking place or inspired by Woodlands.

§  What –types of art forms

The type of art forms presents are

Sculptures/ public artworks, such a Nhawfal Juma’at’s mirrored columns at Woodlands Waterfront Park another example will be Eko Prawoto’s exploring the sculptural possibilities of bamboo through his art-making workshop.

Theater, there were many performances taking place throughout the 18 days such as the Awang Batil where they explore Malay folklore such as Pandir, Pak Kaduk, and Lebai Malang where audiences are thought values through choral singing and exaggerated characters. Another would be Ram, Sita and Badang, The Strong Man. Which is about a love story expressed through Bharatanatyam which is classical Indian dance together with traditional Indian music. Thus, theater is a combination of various art forms such as music, dance, props to showcase a story.

A contemporary dance which a dance form which is a performance called Dimensions of Dialogue where contemporary dancers capture different moods in dialogues such as happiness, sadness, and anger through dance.

2.     Stakeholders and the Arts Industry

Arts and the Community 

Role of Government in Arts Community Programmes

 AYN Marketing

Orchestra, by Studio Ghibli where they perform soundtrack arrangements by various Japanese movies. Where various instruments such as brass, strings, and others come together to play the music that has been presented in the movies.

Other performances such as Rubbish Prince which is about a giant puppet made out of recycled items. The puppet is then used to put out a performance to showcase the importance of recycling in the community.

2.1  Stakeholder's diagram

2.2  elaborate on your diagram with specific examples from AYN. 

In terms of AYN People are the artists who have put the event together. Which includes the dancers, musicians, artists who have created the sculpture, installations and other artworks. It also includes the art enthusiast who is interested in different forms of arts and likes to show their support.

The General Public consists of residents in the neighbourhood. Which consists of the kids, elderly, adults who form a family. The general public also includes the students who study about arts or events.
Private, includes venue owners who provide venues for the installations or performance to be held. Such as Our Tampines Hub, Asia Square, and Mapletree. It also includes Grab the transportation company that provided discounts for attendees who are visiting various AYN venues. Theatre companies like Act 3 whose artists put up the play Ram, Sita and Badang for the attendees with pros, music, and dance. The dance companies whose artist showcased contemporary dance piece called Dimensions of Dialogue. Media Rights Agencies such as The A List who protect the artist’s works and have their interest in mind as well as market the event.

Public, the National Arts Council (NAC) who actually planned and supported the programmes. They also helped to market it to the general public. Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth (MCCY) partnered with NAC to plan and support the event. The Public Art Trust is part of NAC their purpose is to make urban spaces a part of art by doing so bringing art closer to Singaporeans. This helps to achieve new public art spaces where residents live, work and play. Other government ministries and agencies are agencies like SingaporeCares (SGCares) which promotes a caring society with kindness to make Singapore a caring and inclusive nation for all. Also, other agencies and government ministries such as Ang Mo Town Council, Housing & Development Board, National Parks Board, NTUC FoodFare, People’s Association, Sembawang Town Council, SportsSG and Woodlands Constituency Office. These are the association who were part of the event that provided support in the various towns.

The importance of art events such as AYN to the community. By bringing AYN to the community it does not only encourage the public to participate in more community programmes. By exposing arts event to the community arts becomes more attainable to the people. It will not be perceived as something that only high brow people can take part in but something that can be accessible by everyone. By being exposed to arts the people in the community can begin to appreciate arts, increase creative thinking through learning more about arts. This will then encourage the residents to continue to support emerging artists in their community. By inspiring the community about arts, the support that the community shows towards artists will build a more compassionate society where talents are being supported. Arts has also proven to help the elderly increase their quality of life. By increasing their mental and spiritual well-being as well as cognitive functions and the sense of social support. Which has led to a decrease in the use of antidepressants pills amongst the elderly in the community.

The importance of community to AYN with community interaction artists are able to build rapport with their artworks. They are also able to get more recognition and exposure through the community. With support from the community, more artists will be encouraged and motivated to showcase their talents and give back to the community through interaction. It will also increase the motivation for new artists to pursue their talents due to their support. All these factors will ultimately contribute to their financial outcomes. It also creates a sense of pride for Singaporeans when an artist represents us to other countries. Through word-of-mouth, the AYN event will also gain a more firm reputation amongst the communities and Singaporeans in general. By value adding to Singaporeans, more events such as AYN can be carried out more in Singapore which will ultimately create more enthusiasm towards arts in Singapore.

How NAC develops arts in Singapore

NAC recognizes the future generation of artists and tries to nurture them through NAC Capability Development nativities such as career guidance and professional development programmes. By doing so they aid in the evolution of the arts scene in Singapore. NAC recognizes that continuous learning and development advances an artist’s practice as well as equip artists with skills for critical thinking. The NAC together with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) carried out workshops for artists in terms of intellectual property. There were various complimentary intellectual property (IP) workshops for artists who focus on different the art forms. So that the artists can gain more insights on copyright with the help of legal experts.

How NAC supports arts in Singapore

NAC provides sustainable funding infrastructure to support the arts community in Singapore. Such as the present and participation grant as well as the research grant. They help new or existing arts organizations, producing or presenting art and/or encouraging participation in the arts, Training, research & development as well as marketing and audience development locally and/or internationally. NAC also gives young artists awards. This award is represented as Singapore's highest award for young artists, any artists aged 35 years and below whose artistic attainments and commitment have eminence amongst their peers. It encourages the younger generation of artists to continue chasing excellence in the arts and to inspire others. The Young Artist Award has been presented to 149 recipients.

NAC’s support in terms of AYN they help to promote the event on their website. They also carry out a few concerts in the park all over Singapore for everyone to enjoy. The concerts feature local artists, activities for families and individuals to take part in. The fringe activities are to value-add to their experience when they attend the concert. The concerts are being organized to showcase local talents and provide them a platform to perform. 

5.1      Examine attendee ‘motivation factors’ in relation to AYN.

AYN motivation factors are the free public programmes like Fun with Bamboo which is an art-making workshop where participants explore sculptural possibilities through bamboo. Another workshop will be using cement paint, to create texture and lines. Lastly, there is another sculpture-making using wood which inspires attendee’s creativity. These workshops create a more personalized experience as attendees to bring their works home as well as take pictures of them. By doing so they are able to create memories and have a sense of accomplishment from gaining a new skill. The 3 workshops using different raw materials that cannot easily sourced value adds to the workshop. The attendees will be able to get inspired and continue to participate in other workshops as well. Another motivating factor would be neighborhood-inspired programmes. The purpose of the event is to use arts to learn about various town’s history. This not only adds value for the attendees by helping them learn about their towns it also increases engagement with the attendees as it relates with them personally.

5.2          Present two social media promotion strategies used by AYN

One of the social media promotion strategies used was for attendees to hashtag Arts in your Neighbourhood. The hashtag has garnered other 1,698 posts where attendees share about their experiences at the event. This acts like a memory deposit where everyone who hashtags the event is able to look at each other’s experience. When people look up the hashtags it will draw them to go and visit the other installations. The hashtag was printed on AYN signs to let attendees know that they can add their pictures and hashtag it. This adds them to the user experience of the event where attendees get to engage with and create their own personalized pictures. Another social media promotion is through Facebook they have printed their Facebook page details on their signage and promotional items like fans and tote bags. This is to make sure that attendees are aware of their social media platforms and also to increase awareness to others while surfing the internet. There also videos, photos and updates about the programme being posted on the Facebook page frequently this is to keep attendees engage constantly. By adding new content continually, it will increase interest in the event as it makes it look interesting and something that cannot be missed. Hence, social media is a great marketing technique where it reaches people of all ages. There is less cost involved in marketing their event. There is a strong sense of the word of mouth where people just have to share posts which will gain more recognition and publicity for the event. In my opinion, the event had gained more popularity via social media during and after the event rather than before the event. When attendees post about the event, they not only connect with people with similar passion it also creates a sense of curiosity for non-arts enthusiasts to visit the event. Due to the number of hashtags the event had garnered, I think that the event has been successful in using social media to promote their event.