Artists and arts groups receiving government funding are familiar with the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) imposed by the National Arts Council. What are these KPIs, and are they good measures of the impact of the direct and indirect state investment in the arts? For instance, while KPIs have evolved in recent years to include more qualitative measures such as audience satisfaction, do they go far enough to capture the wider and deeper benefits of the arts, including the intangible and intrinsic, and the personal, social and political? Hence, should more multidimensional assessments be used in addition to those that are economic and instrumental and that are easily measured? What should these be? In addition, how do KPIs and other statistics generated feed into the justifications by the National Arts Council, the Ministry for Community, Culture and Youth and ultimately the Ministry of Finance for government funding of the arts? How do they determine the narratives of the arts among policymakers, artists and the public about the role of the arts and of the meaningful use of tax-payers’ money?
This is the sixth in a series of roundtable discussions jointly organised by the Institute of Policy Studies and Singapore Art Museum about cultural policy in Singapore. To allow for free and frank exchange, this will be a “closed-door” roundtable held under Chatham House Rule.
Please click here to view the programme.
About the IPS-SAM Spotlight on Cultural Policy Series
The IPS-SAM Spotlight on Cultural Policy Series is a space for frank, robust and collegial discussion of the issues and challenges related to arts and cultural policy in Singapore. Each discussion will gather members of the arts and creative community, policymakers, academics and other stakeholders working across different fields, to discuss a specific, timely topic about the arts and cultural policy landscape in Singapore. The goal is to assess current policies and offer recommendations for the future. The Singapore Art Museum (SAM) is the venue sponsor for the 2015–2018 series.
Since 2015, five roundtable discussions have been held, on “The State of Literature Education in Singapore”; “Place Management and Placemaking in Singapore”; “The Development of Community Arts in Singapore”; “The Future of Cultural Leadership in Singapore”; and “Whither Arts Funding: Priorities, Values and Control”.
The seminars in the series are:
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