Thriving arts scene helps cast aside Lion City's staid image

In a two-storey office-cum-studio in the heart of a small arts community in Singapore, a group of young dancers practises traditional Malay dances. They are members of the Sri Warisan Som Said Performing Arts company, founded by award-winning dancer Som Said, who has provided regular lessons for students of Malay origin in schools as part of the city state's multicultural policy.

Within walking distance of Som Said's arts house is the office of W!ld Rice, one of Singapore's leading professional theatre companies, where staff are busy preparing for the OCBC Singapore Theatre Festival - a biennial event dedicated to the development and staging of new Singapore plays - which runs from tomorrow until August 24.

Inside the durian-shaped Esplanade, dubbed the Theatre on the Bay, which sits on Marina Bay, local and foreign visitors shop and dine, and attend a variety of paid and free performances.

The developments of the civic-cum-tourist district around the Esplanade and the Little India Arts Housing Belt, where Sri Warisan is located, testify to the profound changes in the city's arts scene over the past decade.

Reflecting on the Lion City's efforts to develop arts and creativity in late 1990s, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lee Boon Yang said the massive arts construction project had been greeted with doubt. 'Singapore is known as a fast-paced society with a hectic urban lifestyle,' he said. 'People [thought they wouldn't] have time to enjoy arts. When we embarked on the Esplanade, people wondered whether ... it would become a white elephant.

'Now, people go there to listen to music and attend exhibits. They got attracted and cultivated an interest. It stimulated demand for the arts. Today, nobody questions whether Singapore needs the Esplanade. It's accepted as an icon of Singapore.'