Between 18 January and 29 February 2008, the SMU campus was abuzz with a series of performances and exhibitions for the SMU Arts Festival. Themed non|sense, the events made tongue-in-cheek, yet critical explorations into the interaction between the arts and the complex dimensions of human senses. The Arts Festival brought together 45 artists and eight Singaporean arts groups to present 20 shows.
For the past five years the SMU Arts Festival has been the student’s key platform for creative expression. Students take full advantage of the university’s location and collaborate closely with the arts organisations and institutions situated around it. Coordinated by SMU’s arts and culture fraternity, who manage the entire programme, more than 250 undergraduates and 14 student groups are involved.
Dr Lee Boon Yang, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, opened the Festival as Guest of Honour on 18 January. He noted the university’s support for the arts, the importance placed on offering a well-rounded educational experience through the Festival and SMU’s success in inculcating a |
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Detail of The Sixth Day installation by Donna Ong
(photo: Reuben Ong) |
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| Dr Lee Boon Yang, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, opening the SMU Arts Festival 2008 |
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spirit of exploration and innovation among the students. Dr Lee and the audience were treated to the gala performance non|sense Overture, an aural and visual work conceptualised by Dr Joyce Bee Tuan Koh, Head of Music at the School of the Arts Singapore in collaboration with visual artists John Stewart Jackson and Kai Syng Tan, and performed outdoors at University Square by over 40 SMU students. Part of the evening’s programme included a viewing of Awlays here but not Awlays prsenet, with the exhibition curator, Dr Eugene Tan, programme director for contemporary art at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Singapore, which featured 12 site-specific works by 13 local artists. SMU student exhibition Nonsense-tification also caught the Minister’s attention. The innovative interactive installations got people to rethink how they perceive familiar experiences or spaces on the SMU campus. |
