Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) is an annual arts festival held in Singapore. It is organised by Arts Festival Limited for the National Arts Council. The festival is usually held in mid-year for a stretch of one month and incorporates theatre arts, dance, music and visual arts, etc. Besides local participants, many of the events are by international artists.
It began as Singapore Arts Festival, (Chinese: 新加坡艺术节) organised by the National Arts Council, in 1977, and was a biennial event until 1999. Since 2012 it has been called Singapore International Festival of Arts, run by Arts Festival Limited, and commissioned by the National Arts Council.
The Festival Director is currently Gaurav Kripalani. [1]
The Singapore Arts Festival started in 1977 as a national arts festival to celebrate local arts from the diverse communities in Singapore. It was a biennial event until 1999 when the Festival of Asian Performing Arts and the Festival of Arts were merged as an annual event. [2]
In 2012, an independent company, Arts Festival Limited, was set up by the National Arts Council to take over the organising of the festival and it was renamed Singapore International Festival of Arts. [3] It is commissioned by the National Arts Council. [4]
In addition to international acts, Singaporean productions (some in collaboration with overseas partners) in previous Arts Festivals include ECNAD's Missing In Tall Pillars (2002), [5] Mark Chan's Little Toys (2003), Opiume (2004) and Dreaming of Kuanyin Meeting Madonna (2007).
The Singapore Arts Festival focused on water in 2008, with both the opening and closing shows being performed on water.
The opening show of 2008, Water Fools, was performed by the French group Ilotopie. It was held from 23 to 25 May at Boat Quay. The entire performance was performed in the Singapore River. The closing show, Hydro Sapiens, was performed by The Lunatics from the Netherlands. It was held in Bedok Reservoir from 20 to 22 June.
The 2010s theme, Between You and Me, was all about getting closer to the arts. For the first time, the Festival will actively reach out to everyone through an outreach programme called com.mune. Together with a stellar showcase of international performances, the Festival will truly touch you in ways you never imagined possible.
Singapore Arts Festival 2011 will be held from 13 May to 5 June 2011 and its theme is 'I Want To Remember'. The opening show will be When a Gray Taiwanese Cow Stretched, by Ishinha. About the migration of people from the South Sea islands to South East Asia, Taiwan and Japan, it will be Singapore Arts Festival's largest-ever outdoor performance at the Esplanade Park.
The 2019 edition runs from 16 May to 2 June. [6] [7] The festival director is Gaurav Kripalani. [1]
In response to the Singapore government's measures in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Arts House Limited and the National Arts Council announced the cancellation of the SIFA. [8]
Biennale, Italian for "biennial" or "every other year", is any event that happens every two years. It is most commonly used within the art world to describe large-scale international contemporary art exhibitions. As such the term was popularised by Venice Biennale, which was first held in 1895. The phrase has since been used for other artistic events, such as the "Biennale de Paris", "Kochi-Muziris Biennale", or even as a portmanteau as with Berlinale and Viennale. "Biennale" is therefore used as a general term for other recurrent international events.
The music of Singapore has reflected the diverse influences that have shaped the country. Its various communities have their own distinct musical traditions: the Chinese form the largest ethnic group in Singapore, with Eurasians, Malays, Indians as well as a smaller number of other peoples of different ethnicities. The different people with their traditional forms of music, the various modern musical styles, and the fusion of different forms account for the musical diversity in the country that are distinct from its neighbouring countries.
Kit Chan is a Singaporean singer and actress.
Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay is a performing arts centre located in Downtown Core near the mouth of the Singapore River. Named after the nearby Esplanade Park, it consists of a concert hall which seats about 1,600 and a theatre with a capacity of about 2,000 for the performing arts.
Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT) is a non-profit professional theatre company founded in 1993, and remains at the forefront of the industry in Asia. SRT's mission is to stage performances of high artistic merit, collaborating with the best talents from Singapore and around the world. The current Artistic and Managing Director is Gaurav Kripalani.
The Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) is a biennial event in Singapore organised by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to celebrate the achievements of youths in co-curricular activities (CCAs). Starting in April and culminating in a month-long celebration in July, students in schools across Singapore involved in the performing arts, sports and uniformed group CCAs are engaged in preparations to compete in the SYF. More than 30,000 students participate in the performances and activities in the SYF, as well as events leading up to it.
The National Arts Council of Singapore is a statutory board established on 15 October 1991 to oversee the development of arts in Singapore. It is under the purview of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth. The NAC provides grants, scholarships, awards and platforms for arts practitioners, as well as arts education and programmes for the general public.
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Neila Sathyalingam was a Singaporean classical Indian dancer, choreographer and instructor of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. An alumna of Kalakshetra in Madras under the tutelage of Srimathi Rukmini Devi Arundale, she emigrated with her family to Singapore in 1974. In 1977 she and her husband founded the performance arts company Apsaras Arts, which has staged performances throughout the world. She was the company's artistic director and continued to teach dance.
The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, officially known as the I Summer Youth Olympic Games, was the inaugural edition of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), an international multi-sport and cultural event for youths based on the tradition of the Olympic Games. Held in Singapore from 14 to 26 August 2010, it was the first International Olympic Committee–sanctioned event held in Singapore. The Games featured about 3,600 athletes aged 14–18 from 204 nations, who competed in 201 events in 26 sports. No official medal tables were published, but the most successful nation was China, followed by Russia. Most unique features of the YOG, such as mixed-NOCs teams and the Culture and Education Programme (CEP), made their debut at the 2010 Games.
Kuo Pao Kun was a playwright, theatre director, and arts activist in Singapore who wrote and directed both Mandarin and English plays. He founded three arts and drama centres in Singapore, conducted and organised a number of drama seminars and workshops, and mentored Singaporean and foreign directors and artists. Kuo is acknowledged by both locals and foreigners as the pioneer of Singapore theatre, and was awarded the Cultural Medallion in 1990 for his contributions to Singapore theatre. His plays are characterised for their dramatic and social commentary, use of simple metaphors and multiculturalism themes, and have been staged locally and internationally.
PHUNK is a Singapore-based contemporary art and design collective founded by Alvin Tan, Melvin Chee, Jackson Tan, and William Chan in 1994. They have exhibited and collaborated with artists, designers and fashion brands around the world, producing work across a diverse range of mediums.
Loo Zihan is a gay Singaporean actor, film director, artist and dancer. He was a part-time teacher at School of the Arts, Singapore, National Institute of Education (Singapore) and Nanyang Technological University.
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This article contains some content translated from the existing Japanese Wikipedia article at jp:enra
Meenakshi Srinivasan is an Indian classical dancer and choreographer, and an exponent of the Pandanallur style of Bharatnatyam. She trained under Alarmel Valli and is considered among the most promising soloists of the younger generation of dancers in this traditional style.
Plastique Kinetic Worms (PKW) was a Singapore-based artist-run space and contemporary art collective, co-founded in 1998 by Singaporean artists Vincent Leow and Yvonne Lee. PKW was one of the few artist-run spaces in Singapore when it opened in the late 1990s, with the 1990 closure of the Ulu Sembawang site of Singapore's first artist colony, The Artists Village, and the disbanding of artist-run space and initiative, 5th Passage, after 1994. Originally organised around a collective of 10 artists, PKW's membership would vary, with around 15 to 20 members at various points of its active years.
Ming Wong is a Singaporean contemporary artist who lives and works in Berlin, known for his re-interpretations of iconic films and performances from world cinema in his video installations, often featuring "miscastings" of himself in roles of varied identities.
Ho Tzu Nyen is a Singaporean contemporary artist and filmmaker whose works involve film, video, performance, and immersive multimedia installations. His work brings together fact and myth to mobilise different understandings of Southeast Asia's history, politics, and religion, often premised upon a complex set of references from art history, to theatre, cinema, and philosophy. Ho has shown internationally at major exhibitions such as the Aichi Triennale, Japan (2019), the Sharjah Biennial 14, United Arab Emirates (2019), and the Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2018). In 2011, Ho represented Singapore at the 54th Venice Biennale at the Singapore Pavilion, presenting the work The Cloud of Unknowing.