Publication Type

Book Chapter

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

3-2018

Abstract

The absence of official platforms and institutions such as museums and visual arts spaces; while the artistic amateur scene was flourishing, there were no museums or national galleries where collections of the best local and regional artworks could be found, appreciated and studied by artists and citizens. This cultural desert was the result of the government’s attention to bread and butter issues. How, then, did Singapore transform from “cultural desert” of yesteryear to a city with 51 museums and 118 art galleries in 2013, as well as an arts scene that saw more than 3.2 million visitors to the national museums in the same year (Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, 2014)? This chapter will focus on institutions for the visual arts such as museums, namely, the Asian Civilisations Museum the Singapore Art Museum, and the National Gallery Singapore. It will discuss these institutions as infrastructural projects and examine their broader ideological and political agenda such as positioning the city-state as a node between the greater Chinese and Indian civilisations, as well as to underline its status as a regional hub for the arts.

Keywords

Arts hub, Singapore, cultural desert, arts scene

Discipline

Arts and Humanities | Arts Management | Asian Studies | Public Policy

Research Areas

Humanities

Publication

The state and the arts in Singapore: Policies and institutions

Editor

Terence Chong

First Page

241

Last Page

265

ISBN

9789813236905

Identifier

10.1142/9789813236899_0012

Publisher

World Scientific

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1142/9789813236899_0012

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