MORE ARTS, BETTER PLACE ?

Singapore will be turning more towards the arts as the Republic moves towards becoming a vibrant global city, according to Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew. "I think you will find that, going forward, the arts and culture will increasingly have to play a much larger role and, therefore, we also need to see how we can bring about more investments from different groups including those from the Government," he said in a media briefing recently. The comments come at the heels of an interim report submitted recently by the Arts and Culture Strategic Review (ACSR) steering committee tasked with charting Singapore's cultural development until 2025. According to Mr Lui, the interim report, which was not released to the press, identified a number of main points. These include broader opportunities for audiences and arts practitioners, a wider definition of arts and culture, a more "de-centralised approach" to bringing arts to the people in terms of venues, the need to strengthen infrastructure and content creation and to raise and build "peaks of excellence".