The artsy-fartsy surroundings of the Civic District and Bras Basah Bugis will be getting a leg up from the government in the form of $3 million pumped into revitalisation efforts over the next three years.
Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu announced that the funds will be used to ramp up efforts by the National Heritage Board (NHB) and National Arts Council (NAC) in expanding programming and publicity as well as build social and civic connections.
Arts and heritage groups and other stakeholders will be engaged to create places that people want to visit, and feature local artistic content prominently in culturally vibrant places.
“Local arts and culture are important touchstones for what it means to be Singaporean,” said the minister. “In a very visceral way, through what we see, what we touch and what we hear, the arts hold up a mirror, that show us who we are,” she said.
She also highlighted that the ministry’s efforts in supporting the arts actually grew from $26 million in 2011 to nearly $50 million last year.
This would be good news to Arts NMP Kok Heng Leun, who made a pretty powerful speech about the importance of arts in Singapore.
