Many have said that being a part of the art scene in Singapore will not bring you far, but is this still true? One of the supporters of Singapore’s art scene, Noise Singapore, has just recently celebrated their 10th anniversary with a festival held on the weekend of 30 and 31 October. Noise, a National Art Council (NAC) initiative, has made us understand its role in our society now, more than ever.

 

Collaborated with The Local People, the festival was held at the Foothills, Fort Canning. The Local People and Noise Singapore believe in being a platform for young artists to bring out their talent. Noise’s alumni musicians such as Inch Chua, Shigga Shay, and Take Two performed, along with an art market of 80 vendors put together by The Local People.

 

At the festival, inspiration was infectious. Hammocks were put around and many people were relaxing on them while watching the performances. The atmosphere was lively, yet laid-back.

 

Sarah Mok, the 22-year-old designer of ‘Sarah Thursday’, was one of the vendors during the festival. Sarah was a student just like many people but had the motivation to make a change from the start. She came from Temasek Polytechnic, with a Diploma in Visual Communications.

 

Her main intention of starting Sarah Thursday was to break the stereotypical mindset that most Singaporeans have of making a living out of art, and to encourage arts in Singapore.

 

Despite beating the norms, Sarah still has other jobs to support herself financially but continues Sarah Thursday as her full-time passion. She works part time at a cat café and also does freelance work for a photo booth as Sarah Thursday cannot be a fulltime work for her just yet. However, Sarah believes it will, slowly.

 

The mindset of not being able to be a successful artist in Singapore is changing. Sandra Riley Tang, 25, a member of Sam Willows who has also recently opened the Yoga Collective at the beginning of this year, believes that there are a lot of successful local musicians.

 

“But then again, what is your measure of success?” Sandra questioned as she smiled. “Does success mean being able to go overseas? Winning a Grammy? Being on television?”

 

It is definitely harder to agree with what has been told to us before. With help from Noise such as The Music Mentorship (TMM) programme, Noise has become a “counselor” for aspiring artists. TMM grooms aspiring artists with experienced musicians from the industry.

 

In addition, aspiring artists now at least have somewhere to go in search of their passion. The fact that Noise has been around for a decade is clear proof that the arts scene is indeed very possible in Singapore.

 

Inch Chua, who was the first student under TMM, has seen Noise’s developments. Owing to the mentorship, Ms Chua now does full-time music.

 

Ms Chua recalls how Noise first started: still figuring out what they could do for the local art scene. However, now because of TMM, Noise has filled in the gap between commercialised art and traditional art.

 

Ms Chua also runs Invasion Singapore with Scape, which aims to bring music to schools and “invade” their assembly periods.

“Hopefully like propaganda,” she said cheekily.

 

She has upcoming plans of touring Southeast Asia next year, prior to her new Extended Play (EP).

 

With support for the art scene, in time there will be decades more of such anniversaries. With more art markets springing up and influences growing, the art scene will grow. Soon, the negativity will be beaten.