Culture Plus

December 2017-September 2018 / Temenggong 18/20, The Star Vista

WITH EFFECT FROM 1 SEPT 2020, TEMENGGONG 18/20 IS NOW KNOWN AS HILLSIDE1820.

If you knew your craft could touch the life of someone in need, what would you create?

Culture Plus is an initiative to nurture the artistic talents of vulnerable adults and develop their self-worth so that they have the opportunity to fulfill their aspirations to contribute meaningfully to society. Through a creative exchange of ideas in a participatory art platform developed by talented vulnerable adults, forgotten communities are brought together for a powerful shared experience, thus integrating societies and enriching lives.

Founded on a belief in the healing power of the arts to enrich the lives of forgotten communities, Culture Plus: A Message From Outside explores the creative journey of five inmate-artists from Visual Arts Hub at Changi Prison Complex and nine elderly residents from United Medicare Centre (Queensway) as they draw paintings for one another.

Over the course of our art sessions facilitated by master artist Sun Yu-Li, across the space of two months, each inmate was paired with two residents as they embarked on the art-making process together. The ‘paint-pals’ conversed with each other virtually through the exchange of visual journals, each sharing their thoughts and reflections on the things and people they hold dear. This exchange of ideas then served as inspiration for the artwork they created for each other.

Culture Plus also introduced Augmented Reality (AR) technology to five other inmate-artists, which further enabled them to bring the stories of the paint-pals to life through animation.

This initiative by Global Culture Alliance hopes to leverage on the transformative power of the arts to bring peoples together for powerful shared experiences, to enrich lives of communities we often forget​​ and to create artistic platforms for the public to reconnect with these communities.

Culture Plus: A Message From Outside is held in partnership with the Yellow Ribbon Project and United Medicare Centre (Queensway) and supported by Our Singapore Fund.