“Australian culture is a racist culture.

You can find evidence for this in

the arts and media”. Do Australian cultural institutions and media
reflect the multicultural nature of contemporary society? Discuss.
‘Racist culture’ – what does this phrase imply? What are the attendant implications of this
phrase?

- Against the spirit of ‘diversity’, ‘inclusive’ culture and against the ethos of Underpinning
the concept
‘multiculturalism’ of racism is
- Over representation of one’s culture / the dominance of one culture at the expense the notion of
of peripheral cultures elitism

- Seen through the different priorities given to programming, funding, visibility

- The underlying meaning of ‘contemporary’ society – one which is accommodating,
accepting of diverse needs of its citizens – modern yet able to respect the tradition,
heritages of its culture and society
- What are the cultural institutions that will be the focus of your discussion: who are the
key players involved in the preservation of culture, heritage and – ‘custodian of culture
and heritage’? – NAC, NHB and Mediacorp

Areas:
Policy
- Programming – TV drama on local Channel 5 – Under One Roof, - the main pertaining
family is Tan Ah Tek family is there fair representation of minority people – to these
are they given primary roles or secondary? Consistency of this areas –
representation of the media. racist or
- 1965 – to reflect the period of political history in Singapore – portrayal of otherwise,
minority characters? is reflected
- Funding – what is the basis of funding? Racially proportionate to the racial in these
composition of the diverse communities? Is this a fair assessment? Method areas
of funding?
- Priority given to the form of culture
- Prominence / visibility given to a particular form of culture – performances, exhibition, -
any expression of arts and culture
- Content – story told / the narrative of a country’s history, culture
- Management of these organization – the background / profile of the individual member
of the management – is there cultural/ racial diversity reflected in the composition of
the management
- Advisory panel

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Are they enough community voices / community representation in these organizations?

The theme of tensions/ contradictions

- The gap between the rhetoric / claims and the actual implementation of policy
- Quote TRowse – supported by Bennett

- TB - Museum is one such example of a cultural institution – the evolution of Museum

from being a private domain to what it is today i.e a public museum – political
rationality of museum i.e providing education
- Contradictory roles of many cultural institutions articulated by TB – how much this
evident when one examines the role of NHB, NAC – the role of museum – tensions – one
perspective that views museum or any other cultural institutions, as being elitist and the
claim of providing education for the public and for the TB’s ‘collective good will of the
State’
- The role of museum in terms of ‘regulating the conduct of individuals and populations’ –
the element of control evident in the role of museum
- A public museum – accessible to the public; that the public has a sense of ownership to
what is being featured; in terms of planning, in terms decision made concerning the
programmes ‘instruments of public instruction’- rendering the public/ visitors ‘docile’
and turning them into passive consumers or audience
- the space of representation – what forms of culture is given space
for representation? Visibility? Prominence?
- ‘in practice, of course, the space of representation shaped into
being by the public museum was hijacked by all sorts of particular
social ideologies: it was sexist in the gendered patterns of its
exclusions, racist in its assignation of the aboriginal populations of
conquered territories to the lowest rungs of human evolution,
and bourgeois in the respect that it clearly articulated to
bourgeois rhetorics of progress’. (185-86)
- ‘Multicultural’ – implies the coexistence of various cultural entities in a society
- it supports the notion of an ‘inclusive’ society
- or equal ethnic or cultural representation ? – representation has to proportionate to the
racial demography of the country?
- Identify the key players/ cultural institutions responsible for the promotion of arts/
culture and media – explain their rationale and how their roles have changed or evolved

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 - For the purpose of the essay or discussion, examples from Singapore concerning the
role fo NAC will be put in context
- It is worthwhile to address key terms embedded in the question.

Reflection / Concluding statement

the space of representation associated with the museum rests on a principles of general human
universality which renders it inherently volatile, opening it up to a constant discourse of reform
as hitherto excluded constituencies seek inclusion — and inclusion on equal terms — within
that space.’ (186)
- human universality – to celebrate the diversity of humanity / cultures
- that each culture is unique and deserving of respect and support
- treating culture on equal terms – as opposed to excluding them – in line with the notion
of making Singapore an ‘inclusive’ society

-
4. How would you reinvent arts funding in Australia, drawing from both
taxpayer and private sources? With examples from existing arts
funding make your case for effective change.

Reinventing the existing clearly suggests that the existing system is

inherently flawed

Funding arts and culture – a demonstration of the government’s

commitment towards arts and culture. It is praseworhty that
government allocates funds / devotes funds in these areas

Yet- one needs to examine the approach that govt takes vis a vis arts
and culture

One significant approach that is widely adopted by many govts is the

creative industries approach –

How does this approach impact on the themes of preservation of

heritage/ arts and culture

Before one can discuss the need to reinvent arts funding in Signapore,
perhaps, it is worthwhile to firstly examine the existing system of
funding.

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To begin, it is important to define key terms required by the question.
According to this …, arts is ….

Having discussed or examined the weaknesses in the existing system

Having examined the various perspectives on funding, the question

now lies on how to improve on the existing system.

Arts funding is indeed a complex issue – in inherent with complexities

has within itself intricacies

Arts funding is not as easy as the phrase suggests

What constitutes arts and culture? – define

Why arts/ culture shd be seen an important/ integral part of society? – philosophical

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 System of Arts & Cultural Funding

Government Funding
- Direct or indirect form of funding
- Setting up of statutory board – AC, NAC, NHB
- Cultural argument Private sources
- Economic argument (Creative Industries What are the implications on.
approach) Cunninghum’s article - Does Philanthropy , Corporate organization (Lee
justify the use of tax payers money to turn Foundation, Shaw Foundation, Saatchi)
historical buildings into commercial a) Content/ quality of work
enterprises / outlets
b)funding
Why arts and culture deserve The concept of ‘a‘commercial
- Creative Nation (Paul Keating)
excellence – ‘artistic merit’
-
What are the implications of the creative Government funding of arts and culture – the
industries approach to funding arts and most traditional form of funding
- argue from cultural perspectives – the role or responsibility of the State in upholding or
safeguarding arts and culture – the State’s responsibility to its citizens – an obligation
which the State should perform – with no negotiation
- the cultural arguments :
- however – this system or way of funding carries with it many implications
- what are the conditions? Should there be strings attached? Expectations – ethical?
- Involves the use of tax payers – the issue of public accountability is involved
- There is nothing wrong with using tax payers’ money to fund arts/ cultural projects
- But the issue of arms length and disbursement of funds– how the funding is disbursed –
the approach adopted to funding
- Cultural industries approach – preserve culture enmeshed with economic motivations
- Economic arguments for culture – couched with controversy – commodification of
culture

http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/nac-chairman-on-funding-as-censorship-state-has-to-
balance-diverse-values-when-giving

http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/singapore-poet-calls-on-artists-to-reconsider-
engagement-with-the-state-and-its-arts

What is the existing or current system of funding ? – discuss the complexities and intricacies of
the existing system of funding
Funding for arts and culture in Singapore is handled largely by the NAC/ is the responsibility of
NAC, which plays an integral role in the development of arts and culture scenes in Singapore

The need to reinvent suggest that there are pitfalls or shortcomings with the existing system
- State funding has attendant implications – there are issues / themes
- Arms length and the contravention of this principle

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 - Govt funding involves tax payers’ money – fair to support art work that are
politically controversial? That attempt to challenge the society’s social and
cultural values? Implications
- Quote NAC’s guidelines – of
government
- Should there be any form of guidelines? funding
- Instances of government intervention / state direct intervention – is it
justifiable?
- A contravention of the arms’ length argument/ or principle of arms’ length
- NAC, NHB – lack political power to exercise independence
- Tax payers’ money – implicit in it is the issue of accountability – the money used
has to benefit the society at large
- But how can this be the case for art form or work that is community in representation
and with niche audience
- Is there a need to relook at the existing advisory panel system?
- NHB – an example of tricky it is to define ‘artistic merit/ value’ of a piece of art work

Aside from state funding, another system of funding is the private sources
- To reinvent existing funding system would require a re-assessment or re-examination fo
the existing guidelines
- How does one measure ‘artistic merit’ of a piece of cultural or art work/ form

Perhaps

Govt should learn to have more confidence in the works of the artist or arts practitioners.
Works may be politically ‘adversarial’ to the ruling party but this should be taken with the right
perspective – at the end of day, ultimately, the state shd have the interests of the society at
large.

By being less interventionist/ more armst leght approach – democratic but also it wd speak
well fot ht elarger community

Govt shold not favour – give too much attention to one particualru sector of arts which they
deem as ‘popular’ – Terence Cheong

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 3. “Australian movies and TV drama are worthless since no-one
watches those productions?” Discuss with reference to
government assistance models and the success of locally made
film and TV.

Before one deals with the question proper, it is important

to uncover the assumptions embedded in the question.

The question seems rather sweeping and harsh. Thus, before

one can agree or disagree with the question, it is
worthwhile to examine key terms
What are the factors that determine or influence the
quality of TV or film produced locally.?
One significant factor that one can deny is the funding
issue
Assumptions of the question
- ‘worthless’ - that local tv and films are of inferior quality – too many commercialized
programmes / too much commercial appeal / lack substance
- the existing system of models/ government assistance have failed in producing quality
programmes that would enrich the standards of taste of the public
- what are the problems with the current state of tv and film ?
- content tends to be ‘formulaic’ – poor storyline, predictable plot, the same themes
being rehashed – racial harmony, family, good neighbours
- NE messages – destroys the creative and artistic value a programme should have
- Limited range of themes – while this in keeping with the national ideology or the need
to reflect local Singapore culture, hw, too much of the same type of format – Under One
Roof in the 1990s and Tanglin – essentially, harping on the same themes
- Localy produced programmes with infotainment programmes – We are Singaporeans –
Balik Kampong -
- Reality type of programmes lack spontaneity – MDA being the main regulator –
determined the style of funding and directly or indirectly the content of the film or TV
programme
- What are the priorities given by MDA before they decide to fund a praticluar project?
- how does one define this?
- Nobody watches – Mediacorp releases statistic of ratings – the figures / ratings
conducted by Mediacorp is telling otherwise
- http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/85-of-singapore-
viewers/2241228.html
- SINGAPORE: Almost 85 per cent of local viewers continued to tune in to
free-to-air television channels on an average weekly basis, according

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 to the annual Nielsen Media Index (NMI) Report which surveyed 4,683
people aged 15 years and older, between last July and this June. The
Internet follows closely behind with a reach of about 79.2 per cent.
- MediaCorp's Channel 8 continues to capture the highest weekly
viewership of 57 per cent, with four in 10 adults in Singapore viewing
the channel daily. Viewership grew 0.5 per cent compared to last year
and the findings also showed that more than four in ten full-time
housewives watched its programmes daily.
- English-language Channel 5 reached more than four in 10 viewers
weekly, and among all the free-to-air channels, Channel 5 had the
highest percentage of daily views by those aged 15 to 29 years old.
- As for Channel NewsAsia, it was viewed by more than three in 10
adults weekly. More than four in 10 of its daily viewers were
Professionals, Managers, Executives and Businessmen (PMEBs).

The existing model of funding in singapore

- Joaqim -

The fact that programmes are ‘worthless’ – due to the funding system?
- That the statement is rather sweeping and harsh towards MDA and Mediacorp