Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre to boost efforts in promoting Chinese Singaporean culture with local arts, cultural and academic groups

 

 To boost efforts in promoting Chinese Singaporean culture and strengthen the local arts and cultural ecosystem, the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre announced two open calls today. One will support programming proposals by local arts and cultural groups for events held at the Centre, and the other will encourage researchers and relevant organisations to submit publication proposals on Chinese Singaporean culture.

Mr Low Sze Wee, Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre says: “The Centre is always looking for ways to strengthen our rich Chinese Singaporean cultural scene. We hope that the open call for programming proposals will serve as a channel to initiate innovative ideas and collaborations. The documentation and dissemination of research on Chinese Singaporean culture is also very critical. In 2018, we started our Research Grant scheme, and received an encouraging response from local researchers. Hence, we decided to complement the former with a Publications Grant scheme to ensure that such research can be made more accessible to the public.”

Singapore-based artists, organisations and community partners are invited to submit programming proposals which are aligned to the Centre’s programming direction. The programmes should help to achieve one the following aims:

• relevance to everyday life
• multi-cultural in nature
• multi-disciplinary in nature
• make creative use of the Centre’s spaces
• attract youth participation and engagement

Programmes may be presented in any formats such as exhibitions, guided tours, workshops, talks, conferences, performances, demonstrations, film screenings or educational courses. Programming proposals may be submitted throughout the year. Applicants of shortlisted projects will be invited for preliminary discussions with the Centre’s Programmes team. The quantum of project funding will be finalised, based on mutual understanding of the project’s scale and technical specifications.

Past programming collaborations supported by the Centre include theatrical production First Fleet by Nine Years Theatre, which imaginatively transformed the Centre’s auditorium stage into a black box theatre set-up. Similarly, local contemporary dance company Frontier Danceland ventured beyond the conventional to present their production Dancer’s Locker at the Centre’s Roof Garden. Other recent collaborations include a school outreach partnership with Sin Feng Xiang Sheng Society, and a crosstalk series titled Haha Teahouse which provides a platform for young crosstalk performers to showcase their talents.

To better support the research efforts by institutes of higher learning (IHLs), think-tanks, researchers and academics, the Centre will introduce a Publications Grant scheme to promote and disseminate research on Chinese Singaporean culture to a wider audience. The Grant complements the Centre’s existing Chinese Arts and Culture Research Grant (CACRG) scheme which was introduced in 2018 to strengthen local arts and cultural resources and research capabilities.

The open call for publication proposals, conducted twice a year in February and August, will support publications in the research areas of Chinese visual arts, Chinese performing arts, Chinese culture, and Chinese Singaporean identity. Proposals will be evaluated based on the research impact, feasibility of research objectives and methodology, capacity and commitment, as well as the dissemination of research findings.

For details on the Open Call for Programming Ideas, visit their website here, while for details on the Publication Grant, visit their website here.