I REFER to the letter last Saturday, 'Nurture arts audience from young'. We share Mr David Gabriel's views that the development of both hardware and software is critical to the sustainability of Singapore as a Global City for Arts and Culture. Indeed, that is the aim of the recently launched Renaissance City Plan III Public Report, which is Singapore's arts and culture master plan.

One of the report's focal areas is to develop an engaged community, and one way we have done so is through schools. The National Arts Council's Arts Education Programme (AEP) has, over the years, helped to enhance arts appreciation among students. The AEP adopts a comprehensive approach, focusing on three types of programmes, namely exposure, experience and excursion programmes. Every year, some 300,000 students participate in the AEP. Our figures show that 60 per cent of students were exposed to AEP programmes in almost all schools in Singapore in 2007. This is a key foundation to develop interest and passion for the arts among young citizens and grow the base and sophistication of the arts audience in Singapore.

At the community level, initiatives under the National Arts Council's Arts For All Community Engagement Plan allow us to broaden engagement in the arts by reaching out to various segments of the population, like youth and senior citizens, and deepen the community's engagement by encouraging them to move from being audiences to becoming participants and creators. Singapore Cultural Statistics 2003 to 2007 points to a growing, engaged audience among the various community groups over the years.

An arts ecosystem is incomplete without a strong audience base and, like Mr Gabriel, we believe arts and culture have a central role to play in taking Singapore to the next phase of development. We invite every Singaporean to participate actively and be engaged in the arts and culture.

Julia Hang (Mrs)
Director, Corporate Communications
Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts

This article was first published in The Straits Times on 10 Jan, 2009.