Global City for the Arts: Weaving Tourism into Cultural Policy

During the “gentler and kinder” Goh Chok Tong years in the 1990s, the good life in Singapore was partly measured by the country’s cultural verve. As the other chapters highlight, cultural policy was still formulated and implemented top-down, and censorship was a major concern then (Jeyaretnam, 1993; Lee, 1996; Chan, 1996; George & Pillay, 2000; Lim, 1993). It was also when the art communities debated passionately over the role of art and artists in society (Leong, 1996; Sasitharan, 2000; Tay et al., 1993; Wong, 1993). Many also observed that new art and cultural opportunities were grabbed, while others were missed (Chua, 2009; Tan, 2009; Purushothaman, 2007). There was nonetheless a proliferation of performances, exhibitions and openings of cultural institutions. Many of these developments were made possible and shaped by support from the tourism industry and its specific agenda.