Abstract
‘Arts and Culture Nodes’ is an initiative launched by Singapore’s National Arts Council (NAC) in 2012 to bring quality arts closer to where people live, foster regular arts engagement, enrich public life and build stronger community bonds. The key mechanism employed was not only creating a comprehensive network of partnerships with artists and various neighbourhood institutions, such as community and recreational clubs, libraries and non-profit organisations across the island, but also activating a range of neighbourhood public spaces as more informal arts and culture venues. This chapter first outlines the research conducted in five Singaporean neighbourhoods to investigate spatial, social and participation impacts of the ‘Nodes’ initiative. Guided by the ‘Neighbourhood Arts and Culture Impact Assessment’ (NACIA) framework and the conceptual lenses of placemaking and cultural ecology, this chapter then discusses the roles and capacities of arts and culture initiatives in building sustainable community arts development and resilient local urban communities.
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Notes
- 1.
For instance, the number of participants may depend on type of an arts event and the spatial capacity of an event venue (small-scale vs. large-scale, intimate vs. mass event). While it might somewhat indicate the event’s success, it may not be a fair indicator of an impact, although it may influence the perception of place vibrancy, for example.
- 2.
Due to Singapore’s tropical climate characterised by high air temperature, sun exposure, humidity and rainfall levels (especially during the rainy season in December and January), the protection from such harsh weather conditions is an important factor that affects the use of open public spaces and, therefore, their suitability for as arts and culture venues.
- 3.
The concept of sustainable development, developed in the late 1980s, initially proposed three key pillars of sustainability, namely: economic growth, social inclusion and environmental balance (United Nations General Assembly 1987). Although advocated since the early 2000s, United Cities and Local Governments in 2010 for the first time proposed culture as the fourth pillar of sustainable development, which is now widely accepted.
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to express his appreciation to Beng Kiang Tan, Nina Mascarenhas, Quyen Duong, and Rita Padawangi for their invaluable contribution to this project.
Research project “Arts and Culture Nodes in the Heartlands of Singapore: Exploring Strategies, Spatial Opportunities and Impacts (Phase 2)” (R-294-000-061-490) discussed in this chapter, was conducted at the Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities (CSAC), School of Design and Environment (SDE), National University of Singapore (NUS), in collaboration with and funded by the National Arts Council (NAC), Singapore.
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Trivic, Z. (2020). Bringing Arts Closer to Local Communities: Spatial Opportunities and Impacts on Community Bonding. In: Leong, CH., Malone-Lee, LC. (eds) Building Resilient Neighbourhoods in Singapore. Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7048-9_7
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