Nurturing Identity and Creativity in Art Education in Singapore

—Creating National Culture in the 21st Century and Societal Creativity—

Abstract

Art education in Singapore, which is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nation, has been involved in nurturing each ethnic identity through the development of educational programs that reflect the Chinese, Malay, and Indian cultures. Simultaneously, nurturing of the national identity beyond ethnicity has been sought, and for this purpose, it has become essential to create a national culture. Although it is challenging to create a new symbolic culture with national cohesion, the large-scale promotion of art and culture has been planned and implemented to establish the presence of Singapore’s art and culture in the global society. The five-year plan “Our SG Art Plan”, implemented in 2018, demonstrates the policy’s intention to create a new symbol of a creative community that embraces the ethnic culture and to form the national identity of Singapore. Such a policy goal is reflected in the art education curriculum implemented in 2018. In art education in Singapore, the function of nurturing both the national identity and creativity is recognized for its similarity with the concept of “Societal Creativity,” which regards creativity as a potential of the society as a whole.