Every Spring, Milan transforms into a global design hub as designers, patrons and visitors from across the world gather for Milan Design Week. In a few weeks, all eyes will turn to the Venice Architecture Biennale opening on 10 May highlighting the continued prominence art festivals have in bringing people and ideas together.
Locally, a slew of creative programming occupies our calendar: from Singapore Art Week, Singapore Design Week and a trio of Light Festivals organised by government institutions, to discipline-focused events such as the Singapore International Film Festival and Singapore Art Book Fair often organised from the ground up by practitioners. Reflecting a burgeoning interest in the creative arts, arts and craft fairs have become almost weekly occurrences across the island.
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At WY-TO, we believe that the development of creativity in the city requires efforts across scales covering both top-down and ground-up approaches to develop a thriving creative ecosystem. This can include the establishment and development of arts nodes for the learning and making of the arts and design, to innovative programming. In addition, public spaces can serve as white canvases for creatives to project their vision upon, as well as foster creativity and inspire everyday people to take ownership and use these very spaces to express themselves, calling to mind the playability of cities. A well-rounded host of strategies are thus crucial in supporting the creativity of people towards greater well-being.
One might then ask: How do arts nodes and public spaces support creativity?
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The programming of arts nodes and public spaces encourage people to engage with the arts. This could be intentional, such as organising a trip to the theatre, or an incidental encounter with street buskers or a sculpture in public. The latter is a key objective of Singapore Art Museum's newest public art initiative 'The Everyday Museum'. Artworks are commission to be displayed in public spaces beyond the museum context, meeting a wider range of people who might not be inclined to visit the museums outright.
Thus, it can be seen that arts nodes and programming are also often educational in nature. Beyond expanding an appreciation of the arts, this can also extend to formal arts education spaces cultivating the next generation of artists, designers and makers, as well as encouraging learning in other areas through the arts. Believing in this, at WY-TO we have had the opportunity to design multiple editions of the Gallery Children’s Biennale, collaborating with visual artists to design exhibits for children to engage with the arts. For the Keppel Centre for Art Education, spaces designed for children aged 4-12 seek to not only expand their knowledge of art and artmaking, and also to support the development of motor skills and spatial recognition, based along the child’s stage of development. Through these projects, we have learned alongside with collaborators on the potential of creative fields to support the learning and development of children, which we continue to develop in further projects.
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Through arts nodes and programming, thriving creative cities can emerge – where audiences can appreciate and support the continued production of the arts. From which, cities can enjoy the immeasurable benefits the arts bring to society and well-being, an non-exclusive list which includes a burgeoning arts economy and the production of a unique national identity at the macro scale, to offering spaces for self-expression for individuals.
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Well-designed arts spaces and programming can support the learning, making and development of the arts for All in Singapore.
