NAC cuts Wild Rice funding
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 11:41PM Want proof that Singapore is not going to be an international arts hub anytime soon?
THE National Arts Council (NAC) has cut the annual grant given to local theatre company Wild Rice. It will get $170,000 this year, down from $190,000 the year before.
It is the lowest annual grant that the company has received from the council. Artistic director Ivan Heng says the council told him funding was cut because its productions promoted alternative lifestyles, were critical of government policies and satirised political leaders.
A society that refuses to be critical of itself will never have a thriving arts scene. If the government is so confident that it is right all the time, then they shouldn't be afraid to have their policies and ministers criticised, scrutinised, and satirised.
This says a lot about the PAP government; it is far more important to be seen and perceived as good than to actually be that way. It's obvious which one is the harder, and right, thing to do.
Ivan Heng, National Arts Council, Wild Rice, visual arts in Government, Politics, Singapore, censorship
Reader Comments (6)
This is sad really. PAP has no sense of humour. None of it whatsoever.
I wanted to reply that they could perhaps stage it independently - until I realised that they needed a permit & licenses for a lot of stuf; which a government grand/fund eases.
I'm at lost to understand this attitude. :(
Actually a govt grant / funding does not (contrary to popular perception) make it easier to get licences or permits.
This is because the funding and the permits are usually handled by separate government organisations with different objectives.
This is not necessarily a bad thing -- imagine if MHA handled arts funding for example :p
But it does mean that officers handling funding are sometimes caught in the middle between certain fundees and pressure from other govt organisations.
@Readymade: That is true; different ministries and agencies in the mix can make it worse. I was not too peeved about the funding cut (though it is significant), but more about the reasons they gave for the cut.
big brother is watching this!
I think Mah Bow Tan's spiked hair is more stylo than Goh Chok Tong's.