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Museum visitorship hit record 3.7 million in 2015

SINGAPORE — More than 3.7 million visited national museums and heritage institutions last year, a whopping 27 per cent over 2014 and a record for the arts sector, revealed the Ministry for Culture, Community and Youth in a report on Tuesday (Nov 15).

Crowds throng the front lawn of the National Museum of Singapore. Photo: Ooi Boon Keong

Crowds throng the front lawn of the National Museum of Singapore. Photo: Ooi Boon Keong

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SINGAPORE — More than 3.7 million visited national museums and heritage institutions last year, a whopping 27 per cent over 2014 and a record for the arts sector, revealed the Ministry for Culture, Community and Youth in a report on Tuesday (Nov 15).

Heritage events that did not require tickets — including the Singapore Night Festival and the Singapore HeritageFest — also saw a sharp increase in attendance from 5.2 million in 2014 to 6.2 million last year, while attendance for ticketed performing arts events increased slightly to 1.9 million.

It was also a good year for Singapore films, which took in about S$11.2 million at the box office last year, recovering from a sharp dive to just over S$4.7 million in 2014, although it is still below the S$13.2 million in 2013.

The report does not say how many films were released last year.

This year’s Singapore Cultural Statistics report, which has been published annually since 2008, showed that the Singapore Arts Museum posted the best performance among the museums in terms of visitorship which stood at 903,357 last year — an all-time high.

But the number of people going to the National Museum of Singapore — parts of which were closed for renovation for about a year before re-opening in September last year — has gone down since 2013, from about 1.2 million that year to just 774,555 last year. Similarly, visitorship to the the Asian Civilisations Museum has been on the decline, from 813,100 in 2011 to 349,587 last year.

The report said that last year’s overall high attendance in national museums and heritage institutions was aided by the opening of the Indian Heritage Centre in May and The National Gallery Singapore in November.

In just the first two weeks of its opening, over 170,000 visitors flocked to The National Gallery Singapore, exceeding initial expectations by more than 40 per cent. The museum reached its one millionth visitor mark in June this year.

Meanwhile, government funding for arts and culture last year stood at an estimated S$929.9 million, surpassing the S$885.2 million in 2014, and the highest since the Government began publishing the report in 2008. More than half of the funding went towards arts and heritage.

Private contributions in the form of cash, in-kind donations and sponsorship to the arts sector also shot up to S$150 million last year from S$62.3 million in 2014.

In all, employment in the arts and cultural sector was 26,568 last year, down about 3.1 per cent from 2014. But total operating receipts for the sector was S$7.5 billion in 2014, compared to about S$5.4 billion in 2004.

The sector’s nominal value-add — the value-add after taking out costs like materials, rental and equipment — was S$1.7 billion in 2014, compared to just over S$1 billion in 2004.

Artistic director of theatre company The Necessary Stage Alvin Tan said the positive figures bode well, especially for the national museums. The next step, he said, is to sustain this momentum and one suggestion is to have interdisciplinary art forms in the museums such as by mixing theatre with visual arts.

“You need to break the traditional forms of arts. It will make it more exciting for visitors,” he added.

Dr Hoe Su Fern, Assistant Professor of Arts and Culture Management at Singapore Management University’s School of Sciences, said the positive figures do not necessarily point to a healthy arts scene. She noted that the Our Singapore Conversation series showed that arts and culture were ranked as one of the lowest priorities for Singaporeans.

“For a healthy arts scene, we need to ask questions such as are we supporting the artist, the art, or its public dissemination?” added Dr Hoe.

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