After a number of public pow-wow sessions, the much-awaited Arts and Culture Strategic Review report is finally out. We now have a sense of the government’s vision for the arts all the way to 2025. I’ve leafed through the 113-page document and I must say, it’s quite readable stuff – quotations from Aristotle, snippets of comments from the public taken at the forums, sideboxes showing other places’ own versions of the ACSR, e.g. Dubai or London to contextualise things – even the prelude sounds like you’re reading some feature story (although someone should tell the proofreader that an ellipsis only requires three full stops and not six). But the most important thing, of course, is what it says. It has that kind of liberal tone that the Censorship Review Committee report had. And like the CRC, it points out that it's private sector/community/arts and culture sector-driven, unlike the previous Renaissance City Plan(s). So I guess one should really treat it as a recommendation. The whole “Go community go!” vibe that’s been floating around before is exactly what the ACSR is pushing for. The support for hobbyists, traditional arts, community-centric projects; more public participation, arts and culture seeping even deeper into community centres and schools – it’s all there. A “ground up” approach. And then there’s the rest of it. I’ve highlighted fifteen recommendations that specifically pertain to the different arts sectors.

• A dance centre for “experimentation and innovations grounded in Asian and Southeast Asian ethnic practices”. (Yay, finally, dance gets noticed!)
• More theatre funds to nurture more playwrights (and “better scripts”) and support for incubation work.
• More investment in “home-grown music festivals and concert organisers”.
• A Centre For Contemporary Art (at Gillman Barracks, which has already been announced).
• Turning the Singapore Art Museum into the Museum of Contemporary Art (I’m guessing that’s the reason for the renovation plans we’ve been hearing about).
• More support for private collectors, private collections, philanthropists via public exhibitions, a leg-up for private museums and establishment of a Museum of Private Collections, and expanded tax incentive schemes.
• A new contemporary international art prize for Asia. Hmmm, wonder what’s the relationship to the APB Foundation Signature Art Prize…
• More local literary works (in all languages) in the school curricula. Hear hear.
• A “community-led” Singapore film foundation and a public Singapore film archive.
• A Singapore International Film Festival that features more local films. Erm, until the past couple of years, it’s already been doing that right?
• More funding for national cultural institutions to create a mid-size performance space for Esplanade, revamp the Asian Civilisations Museum, boost the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Singapore Chinese Orchestra, turn the Singapore Conference Hall into a Nanyang Centre For The Arts.
• A professionalisation of the arts by supporting freelancers via professional employers organisations (to handle finance and accounting stuff) and a Freelancers Association (but not union).
• No Censorship Zones to “relax rules and regulations at designated areas and times” ala Speakers Corner.
• A national content database for Singapore arts and culture. (The obsessive compulsive hoarder in me is doing the dance of joy.)
• A review of the “organisational structures” of MICA’s agencies. It’s been two decades since NAC, NHB and NLB were formed. There's a bit in there that says “evolve new operating models”. Hmmm.

(You can download the final report here.)