SMU-C42 Arts & Culture Matters Series

This session introduces the connectivity between culture-making and placemaking and the components necessary for these processes to take place. It talks about how culture is an underutilised asset in urban planning and development and why it needs to be seriously considered in planning and policy initiatives that aim for liveability, equitability and viability.

Placemaking initiatives are often overtly concerned with physical and economic rejuvenation resulting in the use of well-worn strategies such as adaptive reuse of buildings, niche retail, public art or landscaping. What is often missing is the social dimension of placemaking.

This session examines some case studies which illustrate “how” and “why” creative entrepreneurs, professionals and communities can and should be drawn into the placemaking process. It also looks at the role of intermediaries who bring together the various parties and their agendas, and the role of creative professionals in facilitating design and programming that celebrate and cultivate the values of a place by involving communities themselves in creative placemaking.

Pillai is an independent researcher and consultant in the field of cultural sustainability. Her specialisation is in the area of cultural mapping, community-engagement and arts and culture education. Her work entails research and programming community-engaged projects in partnership/ consultation with community, local agencies, artists and professionals.

Pillai has authored three books and numerous articles on arts and culture education and sustainability. She also contributes as expert resource person in regional organisations such as UNESCO Bangkok, APCIEU Korea, and GETTY Foundation.

In recent years, the “Laboratory” has gained increased popularity both in the humanities and social sciences as well as in the museum field. It stands for a devotion to the openness of knowledge production, to the notion of the experiment, and to reflexivity towards the architectures and apparatuses of knowledge. What is the specific potential of such laboratory spaces for the museum? How do they relate to the ways the larger institutions display art, culture, and science? What are the limitations in an institutional setting that is traditionally geared towards conservation, and therefore by definition somewhat at odds with the notion of the lab?

This session will begin with a presentation of some insights from the German context. In particular, the presentation will discuss the Humboldt Forum in Berlin, which is due to open in late 2019 and is currently also the largest and the most contested cultural project in the planning within Germany. The Forum has over time become a discursive knot for debates about colonial provenance of ‘non-European’ collections in European institutions, about city-planning and cultural place-making, as well as about the possibilities of alternative modes of museum representation.

This presentation will address two attempts to intervene in the established practice of displaying collections, which are both connected to the larger project: the Humboldt Lab Dahlem (2013-2015), which was an experimental test run for the Forum carried out to explore new ways of engaging with collections and to introduce new formats of display; and the Humboldt Laboratory, which will be the exhibition space of Berlin’s Humboldt University in the future Humboldt Forum.

Singapore's multiracial policy gives official recognition to the existence of four main races. This 'equal treatment' of each race, however, does not address the unequal resources and means of representation that each ethnic community possesses. Mechanisms that seem to ensure the platforming of ethnic minority voices  – such as the Group Representation Constituency scheme and the Elected Presidency – are sometimes criticised for their tendency to disenfranchise yet another minority: the political opposition. 

What are the ways in which the sphere of arts and culture can contribute to resisting majoritarianism – one often articulated as pragmatism? Is equal or proportional  representation a form of tokenism? If there is no female minority artist featured in the National Gallery Singapore, is that an issue with the community or with the institution? Is cross-cultural casting an interference into an artist's vision and the world represented in the work? Are race and gender the only frameworks for diversity?

Using case illustrations such as Erika Tan's work on Halimah Binte Abdullah, The Theatre Practice's Four Horse Road production, the literary anthology Who Are You My Country? and Access Path Productions' And Suddenly I Disappear, this session will address whether different notions of diversity exist and whether they can be reconciled. It asks 'what do we do?' as its starting point instead of its concluding note. 

What is arts leadership and what does it entail? How different are arts leaders from other leaders? Why does arts leadership even matter? How crucial is arts leadership to the future of societies in the twenty-first century?

This session examines the value of arts leadership in developing platforms for difference within the Singapore context. Looking at three Singapore theatre artists – Kuo Pao Kun, Ong Keng Sen and Kok Heng Leun – whose experimental, interdisciplinary and intercultural frameworks have advanced how difference is felt and understood, this session considers how their choices reflect a dramaturgy of leadership that prioritises imaginative provocation and collaborative decision-making.

This session argues that when these artists engage critically with their location, they make choices for change that significantly alter the arts landscape and prod towards more inclusive modes of engagement. Identifying key skills in the process, this session will also raise questions about what is needed for more artists to engage with leadership as part of their artistry.

The aim of this session is to explore the notion of the ‘creative hub’. Globally, creative hubs have become a popular instrument for used by many (usually public) organisations for displaying support for arts and cultural activity.

Professor Pratt specialises in the analysis of the cultural industries globally. He has published over 100 items: books, chapters and articles. He has also worked as a consultant or advisor for national and urban cultural and creative industry policy makers globally, and specifically reports for the EU, Council of Europe, UNESCO, UNCTAD, and WIPO, and the British Council.

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