Speech by Mr Lui Tuck Yew at the inaugural SOTA Arts In Education Forum
SPEECH BY MR LUI TUCK YEW, ACTING MINISTER FOR INFORMATION, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS, AT THE OPENING CEREMONY FOR THE INAUGURAL SCHOOL OF THE ARTS (SOTA) ARTS IN EDUCATION FORUM (AEF) AT SOTA CAMPUS, WEDNESDAY 7 APRIL 2010, 9.20AM, AT LEVEL 6 LECTURE THEATRE, 1 ZUBIR SAID DRIVE
Mr Lee Tzu Yang,
Chairman, Singapore Arts School Limited Board
Mrs Rebecca Chew,
Principal, School of the Arts
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning. I would like to welcome everyone, especially our guests from overseas, for joining us today at SOTA’s inaugural Arts in Education Forum (AEF). We are indeed privileged to welcome to the AEF, arts educators, practitioners and thought leaders, who will share their expertise and best practices. Your presence at the AEF, with the firm support from the Singapore National Commission for UNESCO, reflects the integral role that the arts play in our lives. I trust that the dialogue and exchanges with the panellists, and the many conversations that will take place over the next days on the important topic of arts in education, will benefit all our participants as we learn from one another.
2 Since its inception in 2008, the model of education provided in SOTA has been warmly welcomed and embraced by parents, students, the arts and education communities, and friends here and abroad.
3 Today, we celebrate and recognise the importance of how the arts and creativity can and will impact students’ thinking and capabilities. The unique proposition to use creative ways of looking at common space issues offers us new opportunities to express, discover and experiment with traditional ways of seeing and learning.
4 The arts can contribute to education in a number of ways. It helps to develop thinking skills; using the arts to develop certain faculties that will help in the learning process, such as critical thinking and spatial intelligence. It deepens our sensitivities and refines our proclivities. It enhances the teaching of academic subjects; the arts is an useful tool in teaching and in helping students to accelerate their learning. Drawing, for instance, can help in visualising math concepts, and theatre can help dramatise events of history and aid understanding. The Harvard Medical School provides a fine example of this. The School makes it mandatory for medical students to take a module in Visual Arts, so as to develop better observation skills for symptoms in patients. Arts in education can also enhance Social Emotional Learning, through using arts activities to teach life skills, such as teamwork, communication, leadership and confidence building.
5 Arts education is of growing importance to Singapore. Within the curriculum of the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) school system, students are offered both exposure to and training in performing, visual and literary arts through many ways. For instance, the arts have traditionally featured strongly in Co-Curricular Activities (CCAs) through students’ participation in bands, choirs, orchestras, dance and drama groups and art clubs. Some selected schools also offer the Art Elective Programme (AEP) and the Music Elective Programme (MEP), introduced by MOE in the 1980s, to provide in-depth art and music development for academically able and artistically and musically inclined students.
6 MICA decided to set up a specialised arts school - SOTA - at the pre-tertiary level to provide young people talented in the arts an avenue to develop their academic and artistic potential to the fullest. Higher education opportunities in the arts or arts-related disciplines, such as those in theatre, music and design, are offered in our tertiary institutions, and SOTA provides a dedicated development path at the pre-tertiary level for those who have interest and show early talent in the arts. SOTA provides a learning environment where their artistic and academic potential can be best realised. Graduates from the school would possess a strong foundation in the arts, and would be better positioned to pursue higher education in the arts or arts-related fields, or apply their artistic and creative capabilities in related fields, or even those in other disciplines.
7 Those who are interested in pursuing a career in the arts could also apply to our private arts institutions such as NAFA and LaSalle, media and design courses at our polytechnics as well as arts and related programmes in the local universities (NUS and NTU). There are also applied arts programmes offered by foreign institutions in Singapore like DigiPen and short courses in Sotheby’s Institute of Arts and Tisch School of The Arts Asia. Sotheby’s in Singapore also offers postgraduate programmes in Art Business and Contemporary Art, while Tisch Asia offers postgraduate programmes in Dramatic Writing, Film, Animation & Digital Arts, and Producing.
8 Increasingly, in Singapore’s drive to be a distinctive global city, the creative industries will play a more significant role in an innovation-driven economy. Arts education will contribute to a growing pool of talents in the arts, design, media and many other disciplines. They will be able to contribute much to our society and economy and, at the same time, add to the overall development of a diverse and vibrant arts and education landscape.
9 Just last month, MOE announced plans to implement a new framework to underpin the holistic education that our schools provide to better prepare our students to thrive in this fast-changing and highly-connected world. As part of this effort, MOE will strengthen the quality of Physical, Art and Music education as these subjects enable students to develop life-ready competencies like creativity, innovation, cross-cultural understanding and resilience. MOE will place greater emphasis on these competencies through the academic curriculum and CCAs. At the same time, MOE will build teacher capacity to deliver these 21st century competencies through the provision of pedagogical exemplars, training and professional sharing.
10 In the same vein, the AEF thus holds many new possibilities for academic discourse and promotes active learning, research, teaching, concepts to enhance the professional capacities of our community. It is decidedly fitting for SOTA to commit to share its knowledge and skills through the AEF as a catalyst to bring together a community of practice and innovation in the areas of arts education, and to seed new thinking in pedagogy, research and practice.
11 I am confident that AEF will bring forth new thoughts and contribute to Arts Education for future generations of Singaporeans.
12 I wish all an inspiring thought-provoking three days. Thank you.
http://app.mica.gov.sg/Default.aspx?tabid=36&ctl=Details&mid=539&ItemID=1135
SPEECH BY MR LUI TUCK YEW, ACTING MINISTER FOR INFORMATION, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS, AT THE OPENING CEREMONY FOR THE INAUGURAL SCHOOL OF THE ARTS (SOTA) ARTS IN EDUCATION FORUM (AEF) AT SOTA CAMPUS, WEDNESDAY 7 APRIL 2010, 9.20AM, AT LEVEL 6 LECTURE THEATRE, 1 ZUBIR SAID DRIVE
Mr Lee Tzu Yang,
Chairman, Singapore Arts School Limited Board
Mrs Rebecca Chew,
Principal, School of the Arts
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning. I would like to welcome everyone, especially our guests from overseas, for joining us today at SOTA’s inaugural Arts in Education Forum (AEF). We are indeed privileged to welcome to the AEF, arts educators, practitioners and thought leaders, who will share their expertise and best practices. Your presence at the AEF, with the firm support from the Singapore National Commission for UNESCO, reflects the integral role that the arts play in our lives. I trust that the dialogue and exchanges with the panellists, and the many conversations that will take place over the next days on the important topic of arts in education, will benefit all our participants as we learn from one another.
2 Since its inception in 2008, the model of education provided in SOTA has been warmly welcomed and embraced by parents, students, the arts and education communities, and friends here and abroad.
3 Today, we celebrate and recognise the importance of how the arts and creativity can and will impact students’ thinking and capabilities. The unique proposition to use creative ways of looking at common space issues offers us new opportunities to express, discover and experiment with traditional ways of seeing and learning.
4 The arts can contribute to education in a number of ways. It helps to develop thinking skills; using the arts to develop certain faculties that will help in the learning process, such as critical thinking and spatial intelligence. It deepens our sensitivities and refines our proclivities. It enhances the teaching of academic subjects; the arts is an useful tool in teaching and in helping students to accelerate their learning. Drawing, for instance, can help in visualising math concepts, and theatre can help dramatise events of history and aid understanding. The Harvard Medical School provides a fine example of this. The School makes it mandatory for medical students to take a module in Visual Arts, so as to develop better observation skills for symptoms in patients. Arts in education can also enhance Social Emotional Learning, through using arts activities to teach life skills, such as teamwork, communication, leadership and confidence building.
5 Arts education is of growing importance to Singapore. Within the curriculum of the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) school system, students are offered both exposure to and training in performing, visual and literary arts through many ways. For instance, the arts have traditionally featured strongly in Co-Curricular Activities (CCAs) through students’ participation in bands, choirs, orchestras, dance and drama groups and art clubs. Some selected schools also offer the Art Elective Programme (AEP) and the Music Elective Programme (MEP), introduced by MOE in the 1980s, to provide in-depth art and music development for academically able and artistically and musically inclined students.
6 MICA decided to set up a specialised arts school - SOTA - at the pre-tertiary level to provide young people talented in the arts an avenue to develop their academic and artistic potential to the fullest. Higher education opportunities in the arts or arts-related disciplines, such as those in theatre, music and design, are offered in our tertiary institutions, and SOTA provides a dedicated development path at the pre-tertiary level for those who have interest and show early talent in the arts. SOTA provides a learning environment where their artistic and academic potential can be best realised. Graduates from the school would possess a strong foundation in the arts, and would be better positioned to pursue higher education in the arts or arts-related fields, or apply their artistic and creative capabilities in related fields, or even those in other disciplines.
7 Those who are interested in pursuing a career in the arts could also apply to our private arts institutions such as NAFA and LaSalle, media and design courses at our polytechnics as well as arts and related programmes in the local universities (NUS and NTU). There are also applied arts programmes offered by foreign institutions in Singapore like DigiPen and short courses in Sotheby’s Institute of Arts and Tisch School of The Arts Asia. Sotheby’s in Singapore also offers postgraduate programmes in Art Business and Contemporary Art, while Tisch Asia offers postgraduate programmes in Dramatic Writing, Film, Animation & Digital Arts, and Producing.
8 Increasingly, in Singapore’s drive to be a distinctive global city, the creative industries will play a more significant role in an innovation-driven economy. Arts education will contribute to a growing pool of talents in the arts, design, media and many other disciplines. They will be able to contribute much to our society and economy and, at the same time, add to the overall development of a diverse and vibrant arts and education landscape.
9 Just last month, MOE announced plans to implement a new framework to underpin the holistic education that our schools provide to better prepare our students to thrive in this fast-changing and highly-connected world. As part of this effort, MOE will strengthen the quality of Physical, Art and Music education as these subjects enable students to develop life-ready competencies like creativity, innovation, cross-cultural understanding and resilience. MOE will place greater emphasis on these competencies through the academic curriculum and CCAs. At the same time, MOE will build teacher capacity to deliver these 21st century competencies through the provision of pedagogical exemplars, training and professional sharing.
10 In the same vein, the AEF thus holds many new possibilities for academic discourse and promotes active learning, research, teaching, concepts to enhance the professional capacities of our community. It is decidedly fitting for SOTA to commit to share its knowledge and skills through the AEF as a catalyst to bring together a community of practice and innovation in the areas of arts education, and to seed new thinking in pedagogy, research and practice.
11 I am confident that AEF will bring forth new thoughts and contribute to Arts Education for future generations of Singaporeans.
12 I wish all an inspiring thought-provoking three days. Thank you.
http://app.mica.gov.sg/Default.aspx?tabid=36&ctl=Details&mid=539&ItemID=1135
