February 2012 - Keppel Corporation

EditorialGrowing identity with the artsBy 2025, the Arts and Culture Strategic ReviewCommittee commissioned by our governmentenvisions Singapore to be ‘a nation of culturedand gracious people, at home with our heritage,proud of our Singaporean identity’.We are at the threshold of a cultural transformation.As a leading financial capital in Asia, Singapore isnow a thriving centre of trade and a confluenceof talents and ideas. As we achieve progress inthe midst of myriad global forces and influences,it has become deeply important that we nurturean innate understanding of what it means to beSingaporean.The Review Committee reiterated that artsand culture will secure our identity amidst themultiplicity of global influences, even as we remainopen to the world.Arts and culture are deemed as important means offorging collective memories and shared experiencesthat bind families, friends, communities andpeoples. It also emphasised the crucial role ofbusinesses and corporations in helping to fosterconducive environments in which the arts industrycan thrive.Keppel has long understood the universal languageof the arts and their impact on the human spirit.For more than three decades now, Keppel has beena friend of the Arts.As early as 1977 when the Singapore Arts Festivalwas founded as a national showcase for local arts,Keppel was amongst the first to step forward withsupport. Through the years, we have supportedand grown with many local and diverse artsgroups from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra(SSO) to the Singapore Dance Theatre (SDT) andthe Singapore Lyric Theatre from their pioneeringdays. We also provided encouragement to culturaladvocates such as the late Kuo Pao Kun, a culturalmedallion recipient, when he first began to writeEnglish plays.Our chords are also extended overseas for thearts. We provide platforms to showcase localtalents beyond our shores while we bring theirforeign counterparts to Singapore, facilitatingcollaborations between local and internationalplayers. With Keppel’s help, SDT went on a Chinatour while SSO, accompanied by renownedcellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Gil Shaham, wowedaudiences in New York. Conversely, Singaporeanshad been treated to performances by internationalgroups sponsored by Keppel such as the SiberianCossack dancers, the Houston Symphony Orchestraand even by celebrated individuals such asconductor maestro Lorin Maazel.In 2008, to cultivate audiences for the arts as wellas to make the arts more accessible and affordable,Keppel collaborated with the National Arts Councilto establish Keppel Nights, Singapore’s firstsustainable ticket subsidy scheme. Since its launch,Keppel Nights has supported 158 shows. Wewent on to sharpen our focus on promoting moreinclusive engagement and arts appreciation andextended outreach to a broader base of audience.Museum and cultural programmes were added tothe 2010 Keppel Nights programme.Our unstinting support for the arts has beenlauded as exemplary. Keppel was recognised bythe National Arts Council as Distinguished Patronof the Arts in September 2011, which commendsorganisations that received Patron of the ArtsAward on the fifth consecutive occasion.We have found growing the arts in our cityrewarding. Singapore has yet to become an artscapital in Asia, but it is a journey that Keppel ishappy to come alongside, knowing that we arestrengthening what it is to be Singaporean.Keppelite I February 2012