Stamford Arts Centre to be new centre for traditional arts (Amended)

Singapore

THE Stamford Arts Centre will undergo a S$7 million refurbishment so it can take in new arts groups and retail tenants in 2018.

The centre in Waterloo Street will be kitted out with lifts and linkways between its three buildings to improve accessibility; it will also have, for example, a multi-purpose hall and living space for artists to promote collaboration.

The S$7 million tab comes on top of the S$25 million set aside for the traditional arts in Budget 2015.

Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) Baey Yam Keng, who was at the launch of the redevelopment on Tuesday, said: "This is a continuous effort by the NAC (National Arts Council) and MCCY to improve our cultural instutitions infrastructurally, to cater for the growth of the industry."

The works will be completed in the middle of next year.

The NAC will put out an open call for interested tenants in June. Between eight and 10 arts tenants are expected to be housed in the building, which previously hosted 8 arts groups.

As the Stamford Arts Centre is a conservation building, much of its facade will be preserved, even as modern amenities are added.

Alvin Foo, partner at Multiply Architects, the appointed architects for the project, said that while part of the building will be allocated to retail and food and beverage outlets, these tenants will take up no more than 20 per cent of the building, in line with conservation-status guidelines.

Meanwhile, Arts House Limited (AHL) will manage the building after its facelift and coordinate the interaction among its tenants and other users of the facility.

AHL chief executive Sarah Martin said: "We have over 100 traditional groups in Singapore, and they are all in different stages of development and different stages of history. We would like to be an intermediary for them, so this becomes a centre for them to come to us to develop work.

"We want this to be a welcoming place for people who are curious about the traditional arts."

Dedric Wong, general manager and assistant conductor of Ding Yi Music Company, said his company hopes to secure a space in the redeveloped facility.

Its accessible location will help the company attract audiences, and its proximity to the area's arts schools (such as the Lasalle College of the Arts and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts) opens up the possibility of working with arts students as employees or interns, he said.