Cover ‘Between Earth and Sky’ (2018) by Alecia Neo (Photo: Alecia Neo)

From providing art therapy to tackling social issues like race, here’s how the local art scene is shaping Singapore society for the better

The past decade has seen art making come to the fore in Singapore as a channel to engender social good. Here, the value of the arts lies as much in the expressive impulses that are unlocked through its creation as the shape and form of the completed product.

In co-creating works with artists and arts organisations, individuals and communities gain a medium through which they can reflect, heal, articulate and converse. The programmes reflect changes in Singapore society, not least of which is an ageing population. Government policies, too, play a part. Since 2010, the government has been promoting arts and culture as a means to aid rehabilitative therapy, wellness and ageing.

Says Laurence Vandenborre, founder and managing director of The Red Pencil (Singapore), of how art can heal: “The art-making process externalises a situation a person may have suppressed and nudges them from their paralysis to regain self-confidence and self-esteem, to feel empowered and in charge of their own life.”

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The Red Pencil provides creative arts therapy—art, music, movement and dance—to children and vulnerable individuals through schools, foster homes and family service centres. Beyond Singapore, The Red Pencil is known for collaborating with global humanitarian organisations to bring creative arts therapies to victims of natural disasters, wars, human trafficking, violence and abuse.

Vandenborre notes that while it’s important to provide people with necessities for survival when a disaster occurs, it is equally important to pay attention to their well-being, particularly that of children, to prevent long-term psychological scars. The group’s motto is: “When we rescue the child, we save the adult.”

The Red Pencil has been in more than 24 countries and helped over 18,000 people. At the time of publication, it is in talks to help displaced Ukrainians and the countries bordering Ukraine.

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In Singapore, independent artist Alecia Neo has been developing socially engaged art since 2011. Her works involve collaborations with individuals and communities, where groups such as migrant workers, the differently abled, and female ritual performers are invited to co-create art that explores the themes of social insecurity and otherness, art engagement, and legacy and ageing respectively.

Her 2018 collaborative project Between Earth and Sky, for example, connected her with full‐time caregivers for a year to translate their care-related movements into personally choreographed performances. The process helped them to synthesise their experiences. Says Neo of the project’s impact: “What the caregivers came to understand was that advocacy is important; not just self-advocacy—the recognition that they have to speak up for themselves—but of systemic issues such as the privacy of individuals, the power dynamics between them and their loved ones, and the gap in healthcare services. They’ve become a lot more invested in policy changes that will support caregivers.”

Between Earth and Sky featured just nine subjects, but Neo believes that small can have a big impact in the ripple effect down the line. In 2020, she amplified the project by extending the idea behind it into an ongoing research platform, Care Index, that collects the care gestures and rituals of an array of people, to serve as an inspiration and a resource.

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Neo is one of the artists who took part in a long-term community engagement project to stimulate discussion on ageing and death. Launched in 2013 by ArtsWok Collaborative, an arts-based community development organisation, and theatre company Drama Box, Both Sides, Now employs a mix of art forms—forum theatre, puppetry performances, short films, participatory art, and artworks co-created by residents and artists—to encourage public dialogue on the difficult issues.

The project has touched more than 25,000 people in various Singapore neighbourhoods and taught the group how to facilitate conversations around sensitive topics. Providing a safe, non-judgemental and benign space is key to initiating sharing. Participants also see artworks created by fellow residents, so they know they are not alone in their issues, and can engage with the topic through a variety of art forms. This year, Both Sides, Now will be staged in Bedok.

“The dialogic, participatory aspect is an engagement strategy in itself,” says Ngiam Su-Lin, ArtsWok Collaborative co-founder and executive director. “It reinforces the idea that you’re not just here to download information, but to create the sort of experience that you’d want to see yourself. You’re not just learning from others in the space, but also teaching others. You’re building a community on site.”

The next sensitive topic the organisation is tackling is race. Ngiam calls it a pilot project, the parameters of which are still being explored with the authorities and the wider community. These include out-of-bounds markers, acceptable vocabularies, and the public’s appetite for such conversations.

“The chance of the project being shut down is always there,” says Ngiam. “But I’d like to think there has been more openness in terms of having difficult conversations. A lot of them have happened online.”

She adds that it is important to have these conversations out in the open. “Our society is becoming more complex. There’s more diversity, different types of influences, and the online space. If we really want to make sense of it, we need to listen more to one another. At the same time, we need to practise public dialogue. Policies are informed by who’s at the table. When the discussions happen behind closed doors, then it depends on who gets invited. When it’s out in the open, it’s egalitarian, it’s democratic and everyone has a voice. That’s where we can imagine the type of future we want together.”

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