Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) is an annual arts festival held in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. It is organised b
Arts House Limited
for the National Arts Council. The festival is usually held in mid-year for a stretch of one month and incorporates

theatre arts Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communic ...

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

and

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

, etc. Besides local participants, many of the events are by international artists. It began as Singapore Arts Festival, (

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

: 新加坡艺术节) organised by the National Arts Council, in 1977, and was a biennial event until 1999. Since 2012 it has been called Singapore International Festival of Arts, run by Arts Festival Limited, and commissioned by the National Arts Council. The Festival Director is currently Chong Tze Chien.

History

The Singapore Arts Festival started in 1977 as a national arts festival to celebrate local arts from the diverse communities in Singapore. It was a biennial event until 1999 when the Festival of Asian Performing Arts and the Festival of Arts were merged as an annual event. In 2012, an independent company, Arts Festival Limited, was set up by the National Arts Council to take over the organising of the festival and it was renamed Singapore International Festival of Arts. It is commissioned by the National Arts Council.

Festival Directors

* 1982, 1984: Anthony Steele * 1986, 1988: Robert Liew * 1990: Tisa Ho (Ng) * 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999: Liew Chin Choy * 2000–2009: Goh Ching Lee * 2010–2012: Low Kee Hong * 2014–2017: Ong Keng Sen * 2018–2021: Gaurav Kripalani * 2022–2025: Natalie Hennedige * 2026–2028: Chong Tze Chien

Local Commissions

In addition to international acts, Singaporean productions (some in collaboration with overseas partners) in previous Arts Festivals include

ECNAD ECNAD (the reverse spelling of 'dance') is a contemporary dance company founded in 1996 in Singapore with a multi-disciplinary approach. History It was formerly known as Dance Dimension Project. ECNAD (https://web.archive.org/web/20190413062251/ ...

's Missing In Tall Pillars (2002),

Mark Chan Mark Chan (born 1958) is a Singaporean composer, recording artist, singer, instrumentalist, poet, and painter. He studied fine arts at the Edinburgh College of Art

's Little Toys (2003), Opiume (2004) and Dreaming of Kuanyin Meeting Madonna (2007).

Editions

2008

The Singapore Arts Festival focused on water in 2008, with both the opening and closing shows being performed on water. The opening show of 2008, Water Fools, was performed by the French group Ilotopie. It was held from 23 to 25 May at

Boat Quay Boat Quay is a historical quay in Singapore which is situated upstream from the mouth of the Singapore River on its southern bank. It spans from the shophouses near UOB Plaza, stretching along one bank of the Singapore River, all the way till El ...

. The entire performance was performed in the

Singapore River The Singapore River is a river that flows parallel to Alexandra Road and feeds into the Marina Reservoir in the southern part of Singapore. The immediate upper drainage basin, watershed of the Singapore River is known as the Singapore River Plann ...

. The closing show, Hydro Sapiens, was performed by

The Lunatics ''The Lunatics'' () is a 1986 Hong Kong drama film written and directed by Yee Tung-Shing in his directorial debut. Plot A mentally ill man named Doggie causes a disturbance while playing at a fish market when the police think that he has take ...

from the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. It was held in

Bedok Reservoir Bedok Reservoir (, , ) is a reservoir (water), reservoir in the eastern part of Singapore, to the north of Bedok. The reservoir has a surface area of 880,000 m2, and a capacity of 12.8 million m3. The mean depth of the reservoir is 9 m, with a max ...

from 20 to 22 June.

2010

The 2010s theme, Between You and Me, was all about getting closer to the arts. For the first time, the Festival will actively reach out to everyone through an outreach programme called com.mune. Together with a stellar showcase of international performances, the Festival will truly touch you in ways you never imagined possible.

2011

Singapore Arts Festival 2011 was held from 13 May to 5 June 2011 and its theme was 'I Want To Remember'. The opening show was When a Gray Taiwanese Cow Stretched, by Ishinha. About the migration of people from the South Sea islands to South East Asia, Taiwan and Japan, it was Singapore Arts Festival's largest-ever outdoor performance at the

Esplanade Park Esplanade Park is a park located at the Esplanade area within the Downtown Core district of Singapore. History Built in 1943 when Singapore was ruled by Japan, the Esplanade Park is one of the oldest parks in Singapore. The park was redevelope ...

2019

The 2019 edition runs from 16 May to 2 June. The festival director is Gaurav Kripalani.

2020

In response to the Singapore government's measures in light of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Arts House Limited and the National Arts Council announced the cancellation of the SIFA.

2021

The 2021 edition defined a working model for arts festivals amidst a pandemic – a landmark achievement capping Festival Director Gaurav Kripalani’s final term. Held from 14 May to 20 June, the Festival marked a milestone as one of the largest arts festivals in the world to be staged since the outbreak of the global pandemic in 2020.

2022

SIFA 2022 marked the start of Natalie Hennedige's three-year tenure as Festival Director, till 2024. Held from 20 May to 5 June with the title The Anatomy of Performance – Ritual, the 2022 festival featured new commissioned works by a mix of local and international artists. The SIFA 2022 journey was also extended through the new virtual venue
Life Profusion

References

External links

*
Music You Can See: Singapore Arts Fest 2007
{{coord missing, Singapore Recurring events established in 1977 1977 establishments in Singapore Arts in Singapore Festivals in Singapore