(1888PressRelease)
September 25, 2009 - Singapore – As Singapore enters the final quarter of the year, the National Arts Council’s “Arts for All” programme unveils its mid-autumn inspired events and a new workshop under its Silver Arts Programme.
The National Arts Council’s Arts For All – Community Engagement Plan aims to make arts accessible to all with first-hand arts experiences. It also brings the arts to various segments of the community, from the young to the old.
Dances From The Moon, specially created contemporary dance performance inspired by the legend of Lady Chang-E, the Chinese goddess who flew to the moon.
On 26 and 27 September, Dances From The Moon, will be staged on an open-back truck to tour four neighbourhoods – Sengkang, Tampines North, Nee Soon East and Sembawang. Presented on a mobile stage outdoors, it will provide an unobstructed, unusual and unique perspective from every angle.
As the dancers wow with their agile moves, a narrator will take the audience through this familiar tale, which tells of the Lady Chang-E and her moon companions, Wu Gang and the Jade Rabbit with a modern twist.
Dances From The Moon is choreographed by Arts Fission’s artistic director Angela Liong and scripted by director-playwright Lim Jen Erh. It also features music by composer Philip Tan.
There will be a pre-show visual arts workshop conducted by contemporary artist Benjamin Puah for the residents to create 3-D ”lanterns” using recycled paper materials and art paint.
Come 25 October, Ode to Autumn Moon Festival Community Drumming will witness a gathering of 500 drummers at Marina Barrage from 5 to 7 pm. This is a mass drumming event organised by Kallang Community Club and supported under the Council’s Silver Arts Programme, a one-year-old programme which engages Singapore’s seniors in the arts.
Kallang CC started promoting community drumming as a bonding activity, and has organised weekly drumming circles since a year ago. This is the first time the CC is organising a big-scale mass drumming event and is meant to be a get-together, where participants of the workshops under the Council’s Silver Arts Programme and their families will come together to drum, have fun and bond in rhythm. Drummers from OneHeartBeat Percussion, one of Singapore’s premier percussion bands, will facilitate the session.
A new workshop on Ceramics Appreciation under the Silver Arts Programme will be held over six sessions, from 12 October to 23 November. Each half-day session will involve 30 seniors, who will attend a familiarisation talk, before getting to try their hand at ceramics under the guidance of ceramics instructor Chew Seow Phuang, who has been conducting pottery lessons at Kampong Glam Community Club since 1992. The participants will then go on a tour to the Dragon Kiln Village in Jalan Bahar - home to artists who are keeping Singapore’s pottery heritage alive.
Programme and event details are given in Annex 1, together with contact information and hotline numbers for each of these programmes for participants.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Angela Sim
or
Violet Lee
+65 6284 4727 / 9698 8485
+65 6284 8353
angela ( @ ) roi-strategy dot com
violet ( @ ) roi-strategy dot com
About Arts For All – Community Engagement Plan
The National Arts Council’s Arts For All – Community Engagement Plan aims to grow the reach of the arts by making it accessible to all by providing the public with first-hand arts experiences, including quality indoor and outdoor arts performances, as well as inspirational talks and workshops. It brings the arts to various segments of the community, including older Singaporeans and heartlanders, to enable everyone to enjoy and participate in the arts. Arts for All events are generally free admission and focus on audience engagement, and seek to encourage social bonding and active pursuit of aesthetic interests.
Among its key initiatives are its Arts Community Tours (ACT), which brings the arts to Singaporeans, and the Silver Arts Programme, which provides a fulfilling arts experience for Senior Citizens whilst promoting greater community bonding. Its drumming workshops, facilitated by OneHeartBeat Percussions, have involved some 180 seniors from six community groups since the programme began a year ago.
Annex 1
PROGRAMME DETAILS
ARTS COMMUNITY TOUR: DANCES FROM THE MOON
26 September (Sat) Hotline 27 September (Sun) Hotline
7.30 – 8.00pm
(Sengkang CC)
Field beside Compass Point (Sengkang MRT Station) 6312 5400
6.30 – 7.00pm
(Nee Soon East CC)
Nee Soon East Sports Park, opposite Blk 243, Yishun Ave 9
6257 0446
9.30 – 10.00pm
(Tampines North CC)
Blk 494B, Tampines Ave 9,
in front of the Fitness Corner @ Tampines North Zone 6 RC 6783 2900
9.00 – 9.30pm (Sembawang CC)
Woodlands Crescent Park, near North Oaks Condo
6758 4183
SILVER ARTS PROGRAMME: ODE TO AUTUMN MOON FESTIVAL COMMUNITY DRUMMING
Date: 25 October 2009
Time: 5.00pm – 7.00pm
Venue: Marina Barrage
Organiser: Kallang Community Club
Hotline: 6298 4582
SILVER ARTS PROGRAMME: CERAMICS APPRECIATION @ KAMPONG GLAM CC
Hotline: 6295 0741
Date Location Time Programme Participating CC / VWO
12 October 09
Kampong Glam CC
(385 Beach Road) 9.30 to 11.30am
Introduction to ceramics, terms and equipment; Appreciation talk & hands on workshop Taman Jurong CC
11.30 to 12.30pm Lunch
12.30 to 1.00pm Travel to Dragon Kiln
1.00pm to 2.00pm Dragon Kiln tour
2.00pm to 2.30pm Travel back to respective CCs
19 October 09 As above As above As above Punggol Park CC
26 October 09 As above As above As above Kim Seng CC
2 November 09 As above As above As above Kampong Glam CC
9 November 09 As above As above As above King George's Avenue Seniors Activity Centre
23 November 09 As above As above As above Lam Soon CC
Annex 2
Biographies and Organisation Information
Ms Angela Liong, Artistic Director, The Arts Fission Company
Angela has created most of the company’s repertories and shaped the distinctive dance profile of Arts Fission since the company’s inception in 1994. She often draws inspiration from literary classics and cultural sources for her dance works. She likes to borrow forms and methodology from other disciplines to experiment with the craft of dance-making. She shapes dance imagery and movement dynamics into unique choreographic structures that engage with human expressions.
Referred by the Arts Magazine (issue Mar-Apr 1999) as “Singapore’s shaman of dance,” Angela has created many performances for unconventional public spaces in order to solicit place memory from the urban public through dance experience. A significant body of her dance works deal with human sensibility in the fast changing social landscape of the new urban centres in Southeast Asia.
Angela is one of the pioneers of professional dance development in Singapore. She set up the first dance diploma program at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1989, and implemented, in 1998, the first Singapore dance degree program (BA) at LASALLE-SIA College of The Arts while she was the dean of School of the Performing Arts (1996-1999). Graduates from her professional programmes are either dancing professionally, have set up their own dance companies, or have gone on to further their dance studies abroad. She has helped to nurture a whole generation of dance professionals who are making significant contributions to the development of dance in Singapore.
Angela has served as arts education consultant and arts resource panelist in the National Arts Council and other government arts education and cultural related committees in Singapore since 1984.
About The Arts Fission Company
Arts Fission was founded by Choreographer Angela Liong and Artist Chandrasekaran. It was formally incorporated in 1994 and obtained charitable status in 2001. The company has presented close to 30 full-length productions locally and internationally.
Many of Arts Fission’s professional works are critical response to the new Asian urban environment with concerns to the emerging contemporary Asian identity. Artistically it aims to reinvent vernacular gestures and movements into a new genre of Asian dance theatre.
Arts Fission is also known to be the first dance company in Singapore to stage site-specific performance in public places since 1996. The most notable past site work was in December 2000 with the seminal production of "Urban Sanctuary," a soaring performance presented atop the 35th rooftop of the Centennial Tower located on the Singapore waterfront.
Arts Fission achieved an artistic milestone in August 2003 as the first Singapore dance company to open the Laokoon Festival with "Shadowhouses" at the Kampnagel Hamburg (the biggest arts centre in Europe), Germany.
The company also actively engages in arts education programs and outreach events for schools and other cultural organisations and aims to enhance the quality and vibrancy of urban life.
Ben Puah
An internationally acclaimed artist, Ben Puah is a leading figure in a new breed of contemporary Asian artists who's made a huge impact with his energy and vision.
Ben Puah was born in Singapore in 1976. He studied at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and LASALLE College of the Arts. He received his BFA with Distinction from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2000.
A self-confessed artist of ‘crazy artworks’, Ben creates shocking and powerful works that refuse to fit into the mainstream. Apart from his critically acclaimed paintings, he also managed to produce overwhelming installations, curated wonderful exhibitions, working with schools on his Colours of Life community projects, produced high profile commissioned portrait works and the list goes on, needless to say Ben is one passionate, motivated man. He started the ‘Post Surreal Monopolyism’ art movement in 1999.
Art is very important to Ben because it is a way of expressing oneself and an abstraction of how he feel about life. His works are like in the state of phantasmagoria where there is a mix of real and imagined elements. At the psychological level, he seemed to suffer from paranoid personality disorder and have a negative view about the world, and is quietly frantic at the same time. This resulted in the penetration of unsettled emotions where his art seems temperamental with an erratic behavior that tells the honest truth to his audience.
Ben is a versatile artist, not limiting himself only to painting in his artistic endeavors. Some of his more popular artistic works are sculptures and other objects, and he is also noted for his contributions to performance art and photography, among other areas.
Ben has exhibited his works in Singapore, Australia, Japan, USA, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Brazil, London, Malaysia and China. His artwork is in the public and private collections in Singapore Art Museum, numerous local and international locations. Ben has lectured at many schools and art institutions.
Mr Syed Ibrahim B.H.M., HeartBeat Programme Director
Syed Ibrahim B.H.M. has been teaching, conducting and performing in the percussion field for 30 years. Being a versatile percussionist himself, he has also been actively involved in all aspects of music making.
Syed began his musical training in the early days of the Singapore School Band Movement in 1965 in the Hua Yi Primary School Band. Being an innovative person he quickly surpassed the basic requirements of percussionist in those days and begun experimenting and studying all the various percussion instruments. One can see his particular style and penchant for innovation in his various arrangements and compositions. Never satisfied with how a particular work sounds, Syed will always take the necessary steps to re-score a work to sound to date. To this end Syed has even taken Orchestral and Symphonic works and arranged them for Percussion Band.
Syed has been instrumental in the establishment of many school’s Percussion Band which have achieved Gold Medals at the Singapore Youth Festivals since 1984. A well-rounded educator, he has been formally trained in Experiential Learning Processes, as well as the facilitation art of Community Drum Circle (Hawaii) and HealthRHYTHM Programme (Texas).
In addition to his work as an educator and facilitator, he served as a REMO Artist Endorsee for 1 year, where he was given the support to promote Community Drum Circles in Singapore. In recognition of his dedication to his craft, Syed has been awarded the Spirit of Enterprise (Singapore) Award and recently received the Citation Of Excellence in recognition of outstanding contribution to Percussion Education by the Percussive Arts Society (USA) at the recent National Percussion Band Festival at Indianapolis, the United States of America.
Syted is the Band and Programme Director of the HeartBeat Percussion Band since its formation in 1989. Under his baton, the Band has developed tremendously - clinching awards in music competitions and participating in prestigious overseas festivals.
About OneHeartBeat Percussions
OneHeartBeat started as a percussion band, formed in 1989. As one of the premier percussion bands in Singapore, the group actively promotes percussion music performance and education through participation in a whole range of local and overseas events and festivals.
OneHeartBeat is a well-known pioneer in bringing percussion music to the Schools under the National Arts Council – Arts Education Programme Scheme. Starting off with educational performances (Arts Exposure), the Band also offers workshop programmes (Arts Experience), to give students hands-on sessions with different types of percussion instruments, to exploring their inner creativity and pick up life skills such as team work, respect and arts appreciation.
OneHeartBeat Percussions is involved in several local performances such as the Singapore Arts Festivals, Chingay Parades, National Day Parades and various national and corporate events. On the international stage, OneHeartBeat has also represented Singapore in prestigious arts/music festivals such as Festival of World Culture (Ireland), Seoul World Drum Festival (Korea) and International Folklore Festival (Egypt).
Mr Chew Seow Phuang, Ceramics Instructor, Kampong Glam Community Club
Mr Chew Seow Phuang has been conducting pottery lessons since 1992 in Kampong Glam Community Centre (now known as Kampong Glam Community Club). Mr Chew was one of the pioneers who set up the Ceramic Art Club in 1994. An Interior Designer by profession, he switched to teaching Ceramics as it was his passion to spread this art to others who share the same attraction to pottery.
Mr Chew graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1982. He studied painting under Mr Leo Hee Tong and received pottery training from Sam Mui Kuang Pottery (Dragon Kiln) in 1989. He also attended the Art Enrichment Programme in Contemporary Sculpture at LaSalle-SIA.
Mr Chew has held and participated in many exhibitions and was awarded the Academic Outstanding Award in the Zhongshan Invited Contemporary Ceramic Art Exhibition and was appointed the Adjudicator for the Zhongshan Invited Contemporary Ceramic Art Exhibition 2008 Outstanding Artwork Awards in Year 2008.
He is an Associate Member of the Institute of Professional Designers (UK), The Potter’s Society of Australia, Associate Member of The Craft Potters Association (UK), Member of The Potters Council of the American Ceramic Society and Member of Singapore Art Society.
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