Encountering Art in the City
October 11, 2023
Dr Lilian Chee, Associate Professor & Valerie Lim, Research Assistant | 9-min read
1 Sept 2023 — As a place of encounters, focus of communication and information, the urban becomes what it always was: place of desire, permanent disequilibrium, seat of the dissolution of normalities and constraints, the moment of play and of the unpredictable[1].
– Henri Lefebvre
Art is symbolic and emotive capital. The encounters with art in public spaces influence social, cultural, political, and economic perceptions of such spaces. These encounters may be accidental, distracted or purposeful, thus, vastly differentiated from a scripted gallery setting. When art is placed in, and/or made for, the public sphere, the understanding and intentionality of art—from both the artist’s and the commissioning body’s perspectives—can be challenging. Hence, the understanding(s) of such artwork—its meaning(s), development, and intentions behind its commissioning and siting—are often various and divergent. When an artwork becomes inseparable from the urban imagination and mythmaking of its site, that artwork comes into its own. Art as a practice borne of urban public space captures the traces of our humanity.
The term ‘public art’ refers to the creation of sculptures and murals for public spaces such as urban squares, parks, plazas, and transport nodes amongst others, through art patronage enabled by municipal, state, and occasionally, private funding. In this sense, public art is linked to the history of architecture and urban planning as well as to the antiquated traditions of commemorative sculpture and mural painting associated with urban beautification. In the United States, ‘public art’ came into being in the 1960s with a largely state-sponsored view of the way art could balance out the ‘social costs of capitalism’.[2] The genesis of public art in the American context ensured that the cultural good that art could potentially deliver, was made to the largest possible public, and optimally experienced within the realms of everyday existence.
However, the conception, development, materialisation and roles of art in the Singaporean public sphere tend to divert from public art’s rambunctious tussle between artist, public(s), site(s) and commissioning bodies. While one does not demur that art in Singapore’s public spaces still has a way to go before approximating the contentious politics of ‘public art,’ it is not to say that the artworks should not also be critically evaluated.
Can art in public space raise awareness of the widespread ‘instrumentalised economisation of urban space’?[3] Can art raise the differences in the city’s publics, as well as their varied forms of access and rights to public spaces? Or, to rephrase a question previously asked of Singapore’s publicly sited art: Can we expect anything out of the art located in this city?[4]
Through recent research, it was obvious how discourse about art outside Singapore’s gallery spaces was sparse, if not, rare.[5] This situation prompts immediate questions: Was there not much to be said of how the artworks have impacted the public spaces in which they were located? Or, was it a problem of an interdisciplinary no-man’s-land—neither art nor urbanism but a slightly awkward double act such that one could not say something about the art without saying something about the city, and reciprocally so? Thinking about a city through its art is critical. Art creates the dimensional spaces of lively urban encounters. Being able to galvanise art as cultural capital is key to building a thriving world city.
“Revolutionising the Arts”: The Master of Arts (Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship) Programme
At the same time, the recent pandemic has revealed the shortcomings of traditional approaches to art, especially in the absence of well-designed digital interfaces. Globally, the Arts, Culture, and Heritage (ACH) industries suffered severe blows given widespread event cancellations, venue closures, and financial hardships. As the sector grappled to sustain businesses, prospective and current practitioners had to rethink how cultural economies might remain robust and even thrive in an evolving and volatile landscape.
Recognising the need to adapt to this paradigm shift, the National University of Singapore (NUS) launched a ground-breaking Master’s Degree programme: the Master of Arts (Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship) (MA ACE).
The programme seeks to equip students with future-ready and niche skillsets to pursue a career in the ACH industries. The MA ACE offers a robust education opportunity to study, experience, and manage the profound impact of art in public spaces. It extends requisite skills and knowledge to engage diverse publics, and diverse types of art in diverse public spheres. Graduands are empowered to contribute to the critical discourse of art in shaping global cities.
Emerging artists and cultural enthusiasts will be exposed to revolutionary entrepreneurial theories from faculty as well as current leaders in the arts and creative sectors. The definition of ‘art’ will be vastly expanded to embrace proliferating platforms including social media and non-fungible tokens. Graduands will learn techniques to navigate the complexities of the modern arts landscape.
The interdisciplinary programme integrates subjects on arts and culture with entrepreneurship and management. It will cover key topics on emerging Industry 4.0 technologies and digital expertise, providing a broad-based education central to Singapore’s rapidly evolving Cultural and Creative Industry (CCI).
From the NUS Museum to the NUS Cultural Research Centre, prospective students will benefit from a wealth of art resources, faculty expertise, and immersive firsthand experience. The NUS campus and the NUS Museum are home to iconic artworks of historical and contemporary cultural significance, including those by artists Ng Eng Teng, Jimmy Ong, Lim Mu Hue, Choo Keng Kwan, and Delia Prvacki.
NUS’s pioneering Master of Arts in Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship develops the triadic relationship central to artistic and cultural endeavour. Bringing together the components of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship, the programme prioritises a transformational education for any student who seeks future alliance with a vibrant and supportive artistic and cultural community.
For more information please visit: https://scale.nus.edu.sg/programmes/graduate/ma-arts-and-cultural-entrepreneurship.
References
[1] Henri Lefebvre, Writings on Cities, trans. Eleanor Kofman and Elizabeth Lebas (London: Blackwell, 1996), 129.
[2] Grant H. Kester, The One and the Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art in a Global Context (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011), 187.
[3] Elizabeth M. Grierson, Transformations: Art and the City (Bristol: Intellect, 2017), 1.
[4] Peter Schoppert, ‘More Trouble Than It Is Worth: What Can We Expect from Public Art in Singapore?’ (paper presented at the conference Our Modernities: Positioning Asian Art Now, Singapore, March 3, 2004).
[5] Lilian Chee, ‘Introduction: Art in/and Public Space,’ in Lilian Chee (ed.), Art in Public Spaces, Singapore (Singapore: Urban Redevelopment Authority and REDAS, 2022), 8-29.