The Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society (SIFAS) is a non-profit cultural organisation, dedicated to the preservation and transmission of Indian culture through the arts. Its motto is “kala samskriti lakshanam”, meaning “art characterises civilisation”. SIFAS provides ...

World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) Singapore was an arts event that made its debut in 1998 at the Festival of Arts. The first WOMAD to be held in Southeast Asia, the event ran for 10 years in Singapore before it was put on hold in 2007.

The Arts Housing Scheme is a project under the National Arts Council (NAC). It was introduced in 1985 by the former Ministry of Community Development to support local artists and arts activities. Recognising the scarcity and high cost of land in Singapore, the ...

Orkestra Melayu Singapura (OMS), Singapore’s first Malay orchestra, was set up by the People’s Association (PA) in September 1991. Formed to preserve and promote Malay music in Singapore, OMS is the only orchestra in Singapore to combine modern and traditional ...

Drama festival was first launched in August 1978 as part of goverment initiatives to invigorate the local arts scene.

Teater Ekamatra was founded by playwright, dramatist and director Lut Ali and his wife Rubie Lazim in 1988 to develop contemporary experimental Malay theatre that fuses traditional Southeast Asian theatre styles with contemporary techniques. This was a departure ...

The Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay is an arts centre built on reclaimed land in the Marina Bay area. It features a 1,600-seat concert hall, a 2,000-seat theatre and other smaller performing arts venues. The Esplanade also contains art installation spaces, a library, ...

Established in 1949, The Singapore Art Society (SAS) is considered the first multicultural art society in Singapore. The society aims to foster the practice and appreciation of art in Singapore. SAS organises regular art exhibitions and overseas painting tours. ...

Bound by Queen Street, Bras Basah Road and Waterloo Street, the former building of the boys’ school, St Joseph’s Institution (SJI), was completed in 1867. The school premises comprised a cluster of blocks built between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, featuring ...

Chen Jen Hao (b. 1908, Fuzhou, Fujian, China–d. 28 October 1976, Singapore) was a pioneer artist and art educator. Best known for his Chinese calligraphy, Chen was also one of the early art teachers at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), and helped to lay ...

Brother Joseph McNally (b. 10 August 1923, County Mayo, Ireland–d. 27 August 2002, Ballintubber, County Mayo, Ireland), was a brother from the Catholic La Salle Christian Brotherhood who dedicated 37 years of his life to teaching in Singapore and Malaysia. He later ...

Formal art and music education programmes in Singapore were established by the British colonial government in the 1920s and ’30s respectively. Private Chinese-medium schools also offered art education through courses run by professional artists. After Singapore ...

Wee Beng Chong (黄明宗; Huang Mingzong) (b. 22 November 1938, Singapore–), a renowned artist, was one of the first recipients of the Cultural Medallion when it was established in 1979. Among the most versatile artists in Singapore, Wee has done sculpture, Chinese ...

Goh Poh Seng (b. 1936, Kuala Lumpur, Malaya–d.10 January 2010, Vancouver, Canada) was a physician, poet, laureate, award-winning writer and entrepreneur. He played an active role in the arts scene of post-independence Singapore. Goh was a pioneer of local English ...

Tan Teng Kee (b. 1937, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia–) is a sculptor and painter, specialising in abstract works depicting space, flow and movement. He is regarded as a pioneer in the history of metal sculpture in Singapore, and was one of the first in the country ...

The National Arts Council (NAC) was established as a statutory board on 17 August 1991 to spearhead the development of the literary, performing and visual arts in Singapore.1 The council’s mission is to help nurture the arts and make it an integral part of the ...

The Arts Theatre of Singapore (新加坡艺术剧场) is a Chinese-language theatre company whose beginnings can be traced to 1955 when it was established as the Singapore Amateur Players (SAP). In 1995, the SAP registered itself as a non-profit organisation, switched its focus ...

The Cultural Medallion honours individuals who have achieved excellence in the fields of literary arts, performing arts, visual arts and film, and contributed to Singapore’s cultural environment. The award is conferred by the president of Singapore and administered ...

Chen Wen Hsi (b. 9 September 1906, Guangdong, China–d. 17 December 1991, Singapore) was one of Singapore’s pioneer artists. A prolific painter who worked in a range of styles, Chen won acclaim for combining Western art with Chinese brush strokes in his paintings. ...

Diana Chua Be Ie (b. 3 November 1963, Singapore–) is an art educator and artist whose focus was in printmaking. Her works are usually social commentaries about modern life. An outstanding female artist of the 1980s and 1990s, she made headlines together with other ...