Cover Arts NMP Usha Chandradas, pictured at the Lasalle College of the Arts
Arts NMP Usha Chandradas, pictured at the Lasalle College of the Arts
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The nominated member of parliament, who is also co-founder of Plural Art Mag, says the key to growing the arts scene in Singapore is supply and demand
While some may consider going to the theatre, galleries or museums as a few of the more interesting activities to do after work, Usha Chandradas would go one step further. Instead of simply being a consumer of the arts, she would take short courses, from Asian art histories to fashion illustration, at the Lasalle College of the Arts. The institution, a leader in contemporary arts and design education, marks its 40th anniversary this year.
“I didn’t know about art history, or what it was, which is looking at society and the world through the lens of artists in the community, and trying to understand society through art made during a certain period,” she says. “It was appealing to me because I like history.” She was still in legal practice then, first as a tax lawyer with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore and later in private practice.
When it came time to think about the next step in her 12-year career, Chandradas decided that she enjoyed studying and enrolled into the Master of Arts in Asian Art Histories programme at Lasalle, first on a part-time basis, before leaving her job to focus on her independent research on Balinese arts and art collective Sanggar Dewata Indonesia. “It was a lot more work than I had initially thought, but it was really fulfilling,” she says.
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Above Usha Chandradas
Usha Chandradas
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At Lasalle, she met fellow students Pauline Gan and Luke Chua. “We didn’t come from professional art backgrounds. The master’s programme was our main entry point into the art world. People we knew would ask, ‘What are you doing?’ We’d tell them about the shows that we were going for, or the art fairs we were travelling to around the region,” she shares.
“The feedback that we got just from our own friend circles was, ‘There are so many interesting things happening in the arts scene, how come I don’t know about them? Next time you go, why don’t you tell me?’ That was when we started our blog, which was Plural Art Mag in its early days,” says Chandradas, who is a co-founder of the online art magazine platform.
Upon graduation, Chua went back to his day job, “and Pauline [also a former lawyer] and I just thought, we now have a following with the blog, so maybe we should try and take it a step further”, Chandradas tells us. “Frankly, and I’ll speak from my own experience, it wasn’t easy finding a job in the arts as the opportunities weren’t forthcoming.”
This remains as one of the significant challenges facing the arts community today. “It’s the sustainability of careers in the arts,” Chandradas says. “I think a lot of people in the arts experience this anxiety, whether you’re a new graduate or more mature. A lot of the arts community are freelancers and that’s not easy in a place like Singapore where [the cost of living is expensive].”
Last July, Chandradas was appointed an arts nominated member of parliament (NMP). “I was approached by some members of the community to put my name forward [for consideration]—and I did,” she shares. “One of the main things I’ve been speaking about in parliament is the idea of a creative economy—and what it really means and how we can grow it, not just in terms of jobs but creating demand for the jobs.”
In her first adjournment motion—where a member is given 20 minutes to speak on an issue before the relevant ministry replies—last November, Chandradas spoke about “some of the ways that we can make things better on the supply side of the creative economy”—and proposed a possible goods and services tax (GST) exemption on high-value art sales. “It helps drive local demand—and this is important in growing the creative economy. With the arts, you need to have a vibrant local scene doing interesting things, so that people are interested in collecting, and for overseas collectors to [want to] come here,” she posits.
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“But why should we give the rich [assuming that they are the ones collecting art] this free pass? I don’t disagree with this conceptually, but we need to remember that people who work in the arts are not all billionaires either,” Chandradas points out. “Working artists, handlers, technicians, anybody who works in the space, they would benefit too from a more vibrant industry. I can see how it wouldn’t go down well especially since the government just announced the GST hike. But I thought it was important to bring up.”
On the demand side of the creative economy, Chandradas suggested ways to improve arts education in Singapore, from the use of the arts in teaching school subjects to the labelling of public artworks, in another adjournment motion this August. “There are many aspects of the creative economy that we can look at—and all are plugged into what it means to be a working artist and creative, and what we can do to create a better environment,” she expounds.
Furthermore, Chandradas highlights, “There needs to be better private support for the arts. That’s where we’re at now in our stage of development in Singapore. I think private patrons and collectors have a huge role to play because there’s a limit to what the government can do. That’s what we need in the next step of our evolution of the arts.”
Aside from her work in the arts, Chandradas is the course coordinator of the International Tax and Trade Law programme at Nanyang Technological University’s Nanyang Business School. She is an active volunteer with Pro Bono SG and a council member of the Singapore Red Cross. She is also on the board of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore.
One thing that she is clear about her arts NMP role: “You’re not the minister; you’re not going to be in a position to make policy. You can talk about putting issues forward, but you also need to be realistic about what you can and cannot do,” Chandradas says. “As a platform, it gives you the opportunity to speak about issues and question decisions that have been made; it’s interesting to me when the press picks up on certain aspects [of the discussion] and if people write to the forum pages or comment on social media to express their reactions. Even if it’s a bad reaction, at least you know what people think about it—and that’s what I think one aspect of my contribution is.”
Credits
Photography: Frenchescar Lim
Hair: Benedict Choo
Make-Up: Benedict Choo
Location: Lasalle College of the Arts
As Senior Editor of Tatler Singapore, Hashirin champions and refines the storytelling across platforms—curating and crafting compelling profiles, cover stories and features that spotlight visionaries shaping culture, business and impact. Driven by curiosity, she draws inspiration from the artists, changemakers and trailblazers she encounters through her work. Beyond the pages of Tatler, she is an avid supporter of local theatre and delights in seeking out art in every city she visits.
