Artists from three projects under the Singapore International Foundation’s (SIF’s) Arts for Good initiative talk about intercultural exchanges, mutual sharing and appreciation, and their personal takeaways.
BY SASHA GONZALES
PHOTOS EDWIN KOO, SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION
Participants of SIFʼs train-the-trainer programme had the opportunity to be exposed to various art therapy approaches.
ased on the belief that arts and culture can foster inclusive communities, enable livelihoods and promote sustainable urban living, the SIF’s Arts for Good initiative aims to inspire and encourage positive social change both in Singapore and overseas by facilitating collaborations between Singaporean artists and their international counterparts.
We take a look at three of the projects completed under the Arts for Good umbrella thus far: an Arts Therapy International Humanitarian Mission, Twin Cities – Singapore Exchange, and Art Of Sustainability.
Arts Therapy International Humanitarian Mission
From February to November 2016, the SIF partnered Red Pencil International (RPI) and Jiyan Foundation in conducting a three-step, train-the-trainer programme for 20 psychotherapists working with Syrian refugee children at Qushtapa Camp in Erbil, Kurdistan.
This equipped participants with art therapy knowledge and skills, which were incorporated into their psychotherapy approaches.
Edwin Koo, a Singaporean photographer, joined the RPI team in June 2016 and documented the experience. He says that the mission – which involved him photographing displaced Kurdish children – opened his eyes to war’s severity, and the invisible and oft-ignored human costs of political and military conflict. He says the experience taught him to view the children as more than just subjects in a photographic project, and motivated him to bring a little joy to their lives.
An art therapy session for Kurdish children at Qushtapa Camp.
“On my second day at the camp, I decided to take a pause from ‘taking’ photos to ‘making’ photos,” he says. “Even though I spoke no Kurdish, I wanted the children to know they are important.” He started shooting portraits of them, and printed the best images on little Instax prints, which he gifted to them. The children were delighted.
“I would like to make visible the efforts to counter the invisible cost of war and violence, by paying homage to the people who suffer, and to those who seek to alleviate the suffering,” Koo says. “One of the only ways to confront the cost of war is to come face to face with these children.”
Twin Cities – Singapore Exchange
This ArtsWok Collaborative cross-cultural study exchange from Sept 19 to 24, 2016, explored how the arts can be harnessed to create positive social change. Co-supported by the SIF and other Singaporean artists and creative producers, a team travelled to Minnesota in the United States to meet various American community leaders to exchange ideas and insights. The Singaporean artists were exposed to the idea of “The Third Place”. Used by photographer Wing Young Huie to describe his studio/gallery space along Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, this term also refers to the spaces occupied by diverse groups of people.
Such spaces host encounters, interactions, and the forming of relationships, and so embody and represent those individuals’ philosophies and community-building work.
“ It deepened my interest in observing and documenting cultural sustainability and the preservation and evolution of identity within our organic cities. ”
Kenneth Lee, Singaporean artist
Created by 11 artists, this mural in Minneapolis is a call for compassion from the police; young people in the community who wish to apprentice at Juxtaposition Arts go through a rigorous training programme.
Singaporean Han Xuemei, a Drama Box resident artist, says her experience in Minnesota and interactions with Americans inspired her to search for or construct a similar “third place” in Singapore. While there, she visited various spaces, including Wing’s photography studio, the Chicago Fire Arts Center – a non-profit arts organisation that provides classes to people with an interest in fire arts (art forms produced using sparks, heat, and flames) – and Northern Warehouse Artists’ Co-operative.
It inspired Han to imagine one in Singapore. “In a world where lives are increasingly shaped by ‘forces beyond us’ (governments, corporations, terrorists, etc), and where nearly every aspect of life is slowly becoming dehumanising, it is important to create spaces where we can reconnect with the capacities of being human – to fully exercise our right to make choices, imagine and create,” she explains.
Minnesota has a long and complex history (it was the site of several conflicts). This, coupled with its current political progressiveness, got Singaporean artist Alecia Neo to ask herself how art could play a part in reshaping the world today.
“I wondered: In a time where differences are politicised and made dangerous, in what ways can we generate possibilities and imagine creative responses and solutions to complex realities?” She adds: “This trip didn’t provide any easy answers, but it offered us some glimpses into what it might take to ‘recreate imbalance’ in society, to necessarily shed light on fresh or hidden narratives on uncomfortable and inconvenient realities.”
“Our Chinese colleagues brought to the table their mastery of technique over their individual art forms, from years spent practising their craft,” she explains. “What we had to offer was exposure to community art, which we learnt is uncommon in China, and the added value there is in working with different communities; in so doing, we create awareness of and appreciation for art and societal issues.”