SINGAPORE
Official Country Name REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE
Languages MANDARIN CHINESE, ENGLISH, MALAY, TAMIL
Population 5,995,991
Median Age 34.9
GDP Per Capita US $94,100
Source: CIA World Factbook
Total Value of Art Exported (UN Comtrade Database 2018) US $ 332,839,535
Arts Funding (Arts and Heritage, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth) US $213,788,000
Art Programs (University Level) 3
Student Enrollment 1,607
Source: Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth; Ministry of Education; AAP non-official
Museums Exhibiting Contemporary Art 8
Contemporary Art Galleries (Commercial) 71
Contemporary Art Spaces (Nonprofit) 28
Art Foundations (NGO + Private) 11
Source: AAP (non-official)
Acknowledgments: Cheong Kah Kit, Magdalena Magiera, Renée Staal, Teng Yen Hui, Woon Tien Wei
Singapore’s economy was collateral damage to the United States-China trade war, as the wealthy island city-state reported a 15.8 percent decrease in exports to China, its biggest trading partner. The nation’s economic growth rate followed suit, dropping to 0.6 percent—the weakest since 2009. Along with troubling economic signs, Singapore continues to grapple with freedom of expression issues. The debate surfaced in September when an academic course, originally titled “Dissent and Resistance in Singapore,” proposed by the playwright Alfian Sa’at for Yale-National University Singapore, was canceled after the education minister deemed him anti-Singaporean. The arts community rallied in Alfian’s defense on social media.
The government plays a oversees two of Singapore’s most instrumental arts agencies, the and the . The NHB is the parent body of various institutions connected to heritage and the visual arts, including prominent state-run museums, while the NAC remains the largest grant-awarding body for the arts, and commissions both the Singapore Biennale and the national pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The Singapore Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale (5/11–11/24) was Song-Ming Ang’s “Music for Everyone: Variations on a Theme,” the artist’s response to a series of concerts organized by the Ministry of Culture in the 1970s. With remakes of the original concert posters, and a video of a cacophonic recorder performance by schoolchildren, Ang demonstrated how music, and art, can go beyond conventional education and be freely created.
