Instrumentalist Cultural Policy in Singapore: SIFA as a Case Study

Created on 12th December 2022

Conference: The Asian Undergraduate Research Symposium (AURS9)
Title: Instrumentalist Cultural Policy in Singapore: SIFA as a Case Study
Stream: Visual and Performing Arts
Presentation Type: Virtual Poster Presentation
Authors:
Mruthika Priya Raman, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore

Abstract:

This paper aims to investigate the roles of cultural policies in Singapore and how policies play a part in shaping international performing arts festivals. Focusing on The Report of the Arts and Culture Strategic Review published in January 2012, this paper explores the ways that festivals are used as a tool to promote the state’s objectives of nation-building and global positioning through the case study of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA). The project posits that SIFA was heavily shaped as a result of instrumental goals of cultural policies. In addition to literature, The Report of the Arts and Culture Strategic Review is analysed concurrently with other reports published by NAC over the last decade to track the impact of policy on SIFA. This paper tracks and highlights a pattern of instrumentalism in Singapore policy’s language and how methods of implementation are executed through agencies of authority. The project concludes that SIFA retains minimal independence through its creative direction, though it is mostly moved by the larger goals of policy.