Work-Life: The Making of Community

Work-Life: The Making of Community

Friday 5th March 2010 | National Museum of Singapore | 9.00 am to 5.30 pm
Saturday 6th March 2010 | Tiong Bahru Heritage Estate | 8.30 am to 5.00 pmThe Substation’s Associate Director, Audrey Wong, and Artistic Director, Noor Effendy Ibrahim, will be participating and speaking at the Work-Life Conference happening from 5 – 6 March 2010.

The Theatre Training and Research Programme (TTRP) and the British Council, in collaboration with the National Museum of Singapore Presents –

 A collaboration between the Theatre Training and Research Programme (TTRP), the British Council, and the National Museum of Singapore, in Work-Life: The Making Of Community, 16 leading artists and an audience made up of educators, artists, community workers and representatives from government organisations at both national and local level, will discuss, debate, and develop the ideas of why and how art can be used effectively and responsibly to produce greater understanding, greater tolerance and greater appreciation of the role and importance of community in an increasingly intercultural world.

What makes a community? How can community celebrations help to celebrate identity and difference? Can art bring communities together? And how do artists work with communities to empower them to make their voices heard?

All of these questions and more will be addressed by a team of leading artists from the UK, Singapore and Australia in a major two-day forum, taking place at the National Museum and in and around the Tiong Bahru Heritage Estate in early March.

From large-scale community dance and music programmes and public feasts, to intimate works developed in the spaces of forum theatre and in filmed dialogues, in Work-Life: The Making of Community examples of best practice both from home and abroad will be explored and analysed and the issues and challenges of community engagement and representation discussed.

The forum will consist of panel discussions, presentations, workshops, and site visits. Delegates will also have the opportunity to see Mem Morrison’s Ringside, which will involve a cast of 30 volunteers from Singapore and will be presented jointly by the National Museum of Singapore and the British Council. The forum is very much intended for those who need to develop and deliver community arts and engagement programmes so practical solutions and models will be provided across the two days.

Work-Life: The Making Of Community is presented by TTRP and the British Council, in collaboration with the National Museum of Singapore. It will be jointly moderated by T. Sasitharan from TTRP and Ali Campbell from Queen Mary, University of London.

For more information about the conference, visit the official website here.