Sharper focus on artistic excellence & diversity for Arts Fest: Review Committee

The Singapore Arts Festival should have a sharper focus to promote artistic excellence and diversity in the arts scene, when it returns next year.

Its key purpose should be to inspire diverse audiences with great artistic experiences. 

This is a key recommendation of a committee that's reviewing the annual festival, which is taking a break this year.

The National Arts Council, or NAC, which organises the festival, shared these recommendations today.

The committee pointed out that previous editions of the festival had been tasked to achieve too many objectives, covering tourism, community, artistic, national education and outreach. 

It also suggested that the NAC set up a dedicated company to organise and manage the festival - so that there'll be more operational flexibility and diversity in the programming.
Deputy CEO of the NAC, Yvonne Tham, said the council will work on the committee's recommendations. 

"It will be a festival that will hopefully be even closer to audiences - a diversity of audiences. I do hope they will see the degree of conversation and dialogue this festival has with our local artistic community and the kind of productions that would otherwise not be possible if we didn't have such a festival."