International Symposium on Art, Culture and Community Engagement

Dr. Chandrabhanu

http://chandrabhanubharatalaya.com/dr-chandrabhanu/

Dr. Chandrabhanu's illustrious career as a professional dance artist spans over forty years of creative and pioneering work. His charismatic presence, the mystical depth, and strength he exudes on stage, as well as his ability to communicate his art to the audience, has given him the status of being a stirring, dynamic and magical artist of the theatre. His great skill, eloquence, style and elegance are combined with depth and intellect to produce unique artistry blending the elements of aesthetics, mysticism and scholarship. A consummate performer with the extraordinary power to turn sensuousness into a spiritual experience, he nevertheless is an intellectual pioneer, ploughing effortlessly through philosophies globally, and within this, to place Indian Dance in a highly rigorous intellectual context. yet when he is on stage he makes the audience feel so intimately familiar with his persona, so accessible to the inner spirit, that his communication of the soul of his dance becomes a natural transformational experience for the spectator. he has performed to high acclaim in India, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, The Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, USA, Great Britain and the Netherlands.

Chandrabhanu's partnership with Geoffrey Goldie (b.1921-2007) has produced a unique blend of art, dance, and aesthetics in a holistic manner. Geoffrey Goldie was the man who inspired him and shared with him the passion for artistic expression. Their joint artistic visions and creativity have manifested into one of the most marvelous and unprecedented arts experiences. He is an equally inspired and visionary guru to his hundreds of dance disciples. In 1973 he established the Chandrabhanu Bharatalaya Academy in Melbourne. The academy has become a highly dynamic cultural and community center, and now includes the departments of Odissi, Carnatic music, Odissi music and mrdangam studies. To date, Chandrabhanu has presented 130 students in their Bharata-Natya and Odissi arangetrams (solo debut recital). In addition, the Academy has produced several mrdanga arangetrams since 2003, and the first Veena aragetram in 2007, as well as vocal arangetrams. In 1986 Chandrabhany established the Bharatam Dance Company, a fully professional dance ensemble supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and the Victorian Ministry for the Arts. The company functioned for 15 years, until 2000, and toured Australia and internationally. Chandrabhanu produced over 40 full-length new works and original productions in the Bharata-Natyam, Odissi and cross-cultural contemporary genres. In its time the Company contributed to the development of dance in Australia from a multi-cultural perspective and created professional career pathways in dance for artists from non-English speaking backgrounds in Australia.

In 1984, Chandrabhanu initiated a Dance-in-Education outreach-touring program, which took the Company to thousands of schools and communities throughout urban and regional Australia. This program gave unprecedented access to Asian dance and theatre to students and communities, which otherwise would have very little contract with Asian Cultures.

In 2006, he established Jambudvipa Association of Indian Acts (JAIA), a production company to undertake a diversity of dance and music presentations. Chandrabhanu has been the artistic director of several community dance projects, including those for the CIty of Melbourne and the City of Fairfield (Sydney). He has been artist-in-residence at several universities and held two fellowships at UNIMAS, Sarawak, Malaysia. He was a member of the Australia Council Dance Committee and Arts Victoria Dance Committee for three years. More recently he has been invited to teach at the National Arts Academy of Malaysia (ASWARA) in Kuala Lumpur annually. In addition, he presents papers and lectures regularly for several arts organizations and at university seminars. Chandrabhanu was a recipient of the prestigious Monash University Graduate Order of Australia Medal by the Australian Government on Queen's Birthday 2006, for his services to Indian Classical Dance and the promotion of MUlticultural Arts. His latest creative production is the choreography of all 24 songs of Jayadeva's Geeta Govinda.

BRIAN JOHNSON LOWE (MYPAA)

Brian is the Co-Founder of My Performing Arts Agency, Malaysia’s largest arts intermediary, an agency with the express goal of supporting the continuing development of artistic & cultural efforts in Malaysia where he leads the overall goal and vision of the company, it’s values and philosophies, measures of success quantitatively, short to long term business and financial strategy, high-level execution plans, co-development of brand strategy and identity of MyPAA. MyPAA is now regarded as the go to organisation for high impact arts and culture ecosystem improvement initiatives by Malaysian and international corporates, arts councils and advisory boards as well as global arts networks.
To date, MyPAA has championed iconic arts initiatives that include The Royal Arts Gala - a prestigious fundraising dinner graced by Their Royal Highnesses, the King and Queen of Malaysia, Karnival Seni Kreatif Kita - an arts carnival that attracted 30,000 participants when it was held in Pasir Gudang, Johor, Borak Arts Series - an regional touring arts conference for creative practitioners, business leaders and the arts industry to converge and discussion about the arts in South East Asia as well as Artistlabs - Malaysia’s first and only creative accelerator for entrepreneurs. Brian was also responsible for conceiving and writing the strategy and execution papers that was eventually presented to the government to form Cultural Economy Development Agency (CENDANA) as well as Borneo 744, Malaysia’s first Blue Ocean Entrepreneurship Township in Kuching, Sarawak. Prior to this Brian was the Head of Business Development for North America, for the Multimedia Development Corporation, where he represented Malaysia’s ICT industry under the MSC Malaysia initiative in numerous G2G, G2B & B2B level missions abroad leading to lead identifying, qualifying & successful negotiation to secure investment and high impact projects. His largest contribution to the country was when he successfully negotiated a RM595million investment for Iskandar which was reported by the Malaysian Prime Minister through PEMANDU’s Business Services NKEA, closed approximately RM680million in FDI for 2011 and had successfully built a pipeline of RM1.91billion worth of foreign direct investments. Other notable key account acquisitions include Paypal, Facebook and Sherwin-Williams to name a few.
Brian is the Vice President and one of the 6 founding members of Arts, Live Festival and Events Association (ALIFE), a global mentor for Creative Startups USA and was recently appointed by Minister of Youth and Sports YB Syed Saddiq and Tan Sri Tony Fernandes to be on the board of Perbadanan Stadium Malaysia. In September this year, Brian will be launching his latest venture named Poptron.co, a lifestyle social commerce platform that connects curated content and brands to a like-minded global community. His passion lies in playing tennis, where he played as a junior for Penang state but his first and only true love will always be music where he is the composer, producers and rhythm guitarist for his band Primitive Leap.

WELYNE JEFFREY JEHOM (Center for Malaysian Indigenous Studies, KL)

A senior lecturer teaches anthropology of development subjects. Since 2018, the head of research, Center for Malaysian Indigenous Studies. On community engagement, founder of Iban pua kumbu community weaving project established since 2014.

Abstract

This paper discusses several anthropological conundrums related to the role of the researcher in community development, the responsibilities of the scholar to the discipline, and the tension between activism and academic vocation. I shall explore these issues in the context of my research and involvement in the production of pua kumbu, a traditional Iban textile. Central to the production of the pua kumbu is not just the knowledge of the weaving techniques, the natural dyes, designs and motifs but also the animistic beliefs and rituals, folklore, stories, and taboos associated with this Iban textile. Since 2013, I have studied indigenous and traditional knowledge as a development tool, focusing on the pua kumbu as the “artifact” to naturally facilitate the Iban community into becoming the “social lab” and the “subject matter”. I performed a social experiment by engaging a community of weavers and creating a platform for the women to weave for the commercial market with the emphasis on the conservation of the intangible aspect of the pua kumbu. Several anthropologists have branded my role as “improper”, arguing that it compromises my research. How is partnering with the community to uplift their livelihood by progressing their creations and conserving the intangible aspect of the pua kumbu detrimental to my research, when modern perceptions of traditional life is associated with poverty, and rural living and economic practices are considered backward?

Prof. Dr. TAN SOOI BENG

Tan Sooi Beng is Professor of Ethnomusicology at the School of the Arts, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang. She is the author of Bangsawan: A Social and
Stylistic History of Popular Malay Opera (Oxford University Press, 1993), and co-author of Music of Malaysia: Classical, Folk and Syncretic Traditions (Routledge, 2017); and Longing for the Past, the 78 RPM Era in Southeast Asia (Dust-to-Digital 2013), which won the joint SEM Bruno Nettl Prize, 2014. She also co-authored a
multimedia book and box set on the Potehi of Penang (George Town World Heritage Incorporated, 2017) and edited the book Eclectic Cultures for All: The Development of the Peranakan Performing, Visual and Material Arts in Penang (USM, 2019). Tan is the Editor-in-Chief of Wacana Seni, Journal of Arts Discourse, serves in the Advisory Editorial Board of Asian Music (USA), and is an elected Executive Board Member of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM). She is actively engaged in the practice of community theatre for young people in Penang and is an advocate of activist research.

Abstract

In the past four decades, postcolonial, feminist, literary and race scholars have called for the decolonization of the humanities and social sciences. They raised questions about the hegemony of western colonial thought in academic research, the unequal relationship between researcher and research subject, and stressed the importance of privileging the voices of the common people in the generation of knowledge (Said 1978; Chakrabarty, 2000; Spivak, 1988). To redress the hierarchical differences between the researcher and research subject, some academics have been engaged in activism or dialogic collaborative research (Hale, 2008). This paper attempts to elaborate on the strategies and challenges of a type of activist research in an on-going project to rejuvenate the endangered Hokkien potehi glove puppet theatre in Penang. Central to the strategies is the collaboration and partnership of the researcher with the tradition bearers, students, and the young people of the community in all aspects of research, documentation, and performance towards the common goal of sustaining the form. This type of people-centered collaborative research approach strives for more horizontal and equal relations between the researcher and the research subjects and engages the communities to sustain their own cultures in their own terms. This paper assesses the potentials, tensions, and contradictions emerging from the encounter of community engagement and scholarly activism, and calls for a change in the training of performing arts researchers.

KATRINA STUART SANTIAGO (College of St. Benilde, Manila, The Philippines)

Katrina Stuart Santiago is an independent writer of the essay in its various permutations, from art, theater and movie reviews, to popular iconographies and culture criticism, all bound to Third World Philippines, its tragedies and successes, even more so its silences. She had her start as a contributing writer for the arts and books section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer in 2009, and built a body of work with GMA News Online for three years, from 2010 to 2013. She maintained both an opinion and an arts and culture column with The Manila Times from 2013 to 2017. She is a contributing writer for CNN Philippines and Art+ Magazine, and maintains an independent review website gaslight. She won second prize in the Essay Category of the Palanca Awards in 2008, holds a Bachelor's Degree in Comparative Literature, and a Master's Degree in Philippine Studies focused on popular culture and feminism. She released her first book of creative non-fiction, Of Love And Other Lemons, in 2012. In 2017, her two books of edited and curated critical essays, Rebellions: Notes on Independence and Romances: Variations on Love, was published the Ateneo de Naga Press.
The years of writing and academic study have fuelled her cultural activism that cuts across issues of cultural production and labor, institutional dysfunctions, and systemic crises. The task is to build an organization that will protect cultural workers' rights and unite us on specific and urgent issues within the cultural systems we work in and the national politics we are inevitably affected by. At the heart of all her writing and work is the insistence on criticism as an invaluable part of creativity and change. She teaches at the Multimedia Arts Department of the School of Design and the Arts, College of St. Benilde. She’s been writing at www.katrinasantiago.com since 2008, and is radikalchick online. She lives in Manila.

This presentation seeks to discuss the contemporary issues faced by art projects, organizations, and informal groups that endeavor to engage specific communities in the task, practice, and processes of artmaking and creativity. Citing particular representative ventures and organizations, the task is to first contextualize these experiences in the political structures that it is inevitably and intrinsically part of, and to look at the ways in which the existing systems work for or against these projects. This mapping of initiatives relative to cultural institutions is expected to at the very least reveal the gaps in support structures, and at most shed light on the strained relationship (if not severed ties) between artist-initiated programs and the institutions of arts and culture in the country. This in turn serves as the platform on which this study might stand: where artists (whether as individuals or groups) undertake projects and programs on their own, how is it able to sustain itself? How does it encourage a community to become an integral part of these processes of artmaking and creativity when there is little capital to work with? What strategies of engagement, tools for sustainability have been most useful for existing initiatives? Finally, it is expected that this process of fleshing out art-related initiatives and programs will shed light on the notions of community and sustainability that are in current use, towards actually (1) defining and expounding on the idea of “community” as it is identified, or imagined, by these art projects; and (2) discussing the idea of sustainability in a time and place where the capital for art and its making is concentrated in the hands of a very elite few.

DANIEL LIM (ThinkCity Sdn Bhd, KL)

As a Senior Programme Manager, Daniel Lim spent more than eight years pioneering projects to activate spaces through placemaking in Penang, Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur, under the banner of Think City – a community-focused urban regeneration organisation. Aside from placemaking, his passion in advocating community participation in urban regeneration efforts has led him to oversee numerous other grants and programmes. Daniel’s present role involves the setup, management and execution of Think City’s rejuvenation initiatives in Johor Bahru, and activating downtown Kuala Lumpur towards a Creative and Cultural District. Collaborating with local stakeholders, he is currently working on several demonstration projects aimed at innovating urban solutions and highlighting the potentials of public space usage.

I will be introducing Think City as a social purpose organisation and talk a bit about our Laneways Improvement Programme (Assuming this is a panel discussion and no preso is required). In Malaysia, laneways are often an underutilised asset and their true potential is overlooked. They are typically a service route for sewage as well as provide fire access and drainage. They also function as second connectors or thoroughfare, and sometimes a venue for informal activities. Besides that, their original use as the designated place for sanitary waste of shops and households stems from the fact that most shophouses locate their kitchen and toilet at the back of the property, adjacent to laneways. Today, with development of modern buildings and shophouses repurposed, their original use has become redundant. The laneways become disused, resulting in spaces that are perceived as dirty, unsafe, and unsanitary, as well as a potential spot for antisocial and illegal activities.

This panel aims to uncover and discuss insights and best practices from Think City’s Laneways Improvement Programme, a public improvement project that uses a bottom up approach of encouraging participation from the community in public realm improvement.

KAVITHA KRISHNAN (ThinkCity Sdn Bhd, KL)

Kavitha Krishnan, artistic director of Maya Dance Theatre (MDT) founded the company with Imran Manaff, creative producer/company manager and associate director, Juraimy Abu Bakar in 2007. Kavitha's long experience in Classical Indian Dance (Bharathanatyam), in Asian dance forms and modern contemporary dance brings a unique Asian contemporary dance expression to MDT. Over the years, Kavitha has created inter-disciplinary/trans-cultural dance-theatre works with social consciousness and has worked with international collaborators from Australia, USA, Asia and Europe. MDT’s recent collaboration, Puffing Bodies staged in Germany was supported by Asia-Europe Foundation, Mobility Grant and National Arts Council, (NAC) Singapore. MDT has received SEED Grant from NAC from 2012- 2015 and is recognized as a Citizen Ambassador of Singapore International Foundation (SIF) for promoting Arts for Good. 2002 to 2007 Kavitha was part of ASEAN Flagship Contemporary dance production, "Realizing Rama", which toured internationally. She was instrumental in the development of the module-Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) for Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) and specializes in developing/conducting pre-school and special education movement programmes. In 2018, Kavitha founded Diverse Abilities Dance Collective (DADC) made up of performers with different abilities as part of MDT. Kavitha values dance as a medium for communication and building connections.

Florence Lambert

Since 1934, the British Council has existed to create a basis of friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and the wider world. Our work in the arts has been central to this mission for more than 80 years, seeking to find new ways of connecting with and understanding each other through creativity.

Our work in arts creates new relationships between artists, organisations and audiences to develop stronger creative sectors around the world. We help artists to break new ground, support creativity and innovation, increase capacity by building skills to support livelihoods and cultural enterprise, extend safe spaces for creative exchange and contribute to research and policy. Our work in the arts has grown substantially over the last five years. We operate in over 100 countries around the world, across eight art forms covering the full breadth of UK creative industries. In 2016–17 our work in the arts reached 15.5 million people face-to-face and a further 198 million people online and through the media. The ambition for our programme has also grown. By 2021 it is our aim to have increased the number of cultural connections between the UK and the world, doubling the scale of international activity of the UK culture sector. To achieve this our programme will span five key pillars:

Sharing UK arts with the world – introducing audiences around the world to the best of UK creativity and creating new opportunities for artists and organisations to work internationally. We will also support reciprocal work into the UK.

Fostering collaboration and networks - supporting creative people to collaborate and experiment with new ideas and developing sustainable ways of working for long- term prosperity.

Arts for social change - extending safe spaces for culture, creative exploration and exchange; building trust, enabling dialogue and presenting marginalised voices; and supporting the protection of cultural heritage and expression of cultural identities. Capacity building - strengthening the arts sector worldwide by developing its capacity to innovate, reach new audiences and develop skills.

Policy and research - shaping cultural policy and sharing research with the cultural sector in the UK and overseas.  In Malaysia, The British Council promotes innovative and diverse aspects of the UK arts including visual arts, architecture, design, dance, drama, music, film, literature and creative economy. It provides opportunities for people in Malaysia and the UK to share creativity and inspire each other.

In 2017 - 2020 our key work supports the craft community, the creative hub’s communities and artists through 3 main programmes:
- Craft Is Cool
- Creative Hubs For Good
- Connections Through Culture

Assistant Professor Kulkaew Khlaikaew

Kulkaew Khlaikaew, was born in 1975, in Kamphangphet province where is the of the famous world heritage city of Thailand (Sukhothai -Kamphangphet-Sri Satchanalai World Heritage sites by UNSECO). She received her Diploma of the Sustainable Tourism Environment from Environmental Development Institute of Thailand, Diploma of International Tour guiding form Tourism Authority of Thailand and also her Master's degree in Tourism Industry Management from Chaing Mai University (CMU), Thailand. She was a government officer at the Faculty of Management Science, Pibulsongkram University, Phitsanulok Province Thailand. She was a full-time faculty member and worked as a researcher such as her research title was “The Cultural Tourism Management under Context of World Heritage Sites: Stakeholders; Opinions between Luang Prabang Communities, Laos and Muang-kao Communities, Sukhothai, Thailand. Procedia Economics and Finance 23 (2015), published by Elsevier, ScienceDirect Available online at www.sciencedirect.com. She worked as an instructor for the Department of Tourism and Hospitality at Faculty of Management Science, Pibulsongkram University, Thailand between 2005 -2019. Currently, Her main research interests include Tourism and Hospitality management, Community Tourism Management and Cultural Tourism Management. She is also one of an expert committee read the academic result, research result and a consultant of Tour Business, Community Tourism Management in the lower north of Thailand.

Abstract

In today’ s competitive world, words like “Tourism: move forward” is important for many countries around the world. It should be helping all countries stable, prosperous, and sustainable. In the future, new styles of Tourism for visitors come from and leading to new innovative technology and high value of services or hospitalities. The direction of Tourism in the future aims to create a strategy by emphasizing the major issues: new experiencing, value-added content, community engagement, and environment care. The academic techniques such as multidisciplinary research or trans-disciplinary research or participation research were applied and used to develop tourism styles from acting to transform reality. The research of Community based cultural tourism is an important one because of their local wisdom, cultures, arts, and identities were combined with tourism to a new product for tourists. To ensure that the community do and play the tourism projects to the right situation that the publication of trans-disciplinary research results in tourism community will enable not only the researchers also communities to benefit from the results and, if necessary, to use additional trans-disciplinary tourism research should be the part of community studies.

Bernard Goh

BERNARD GOH S.T.M. Founder and Artistic Director of Hands Percussion Malaysia, Head of Hua Zong 24 festive drums development department, Vice Chairman of 24 festive drum association Malaysia. Artistic Director of Damansara Performing Art Centre (DPAC). Bernard began his artistic journey long before 1997, the year in which the group was formed. This Graphic Design graduate from the Malaysian Institute of Arts (MIA) has an intense love and passion for percussive music and the performing arts. He was a multi-award winning instructor of a school brass band for 6 years and it was there that it all began. This love for percussion led him to learn shigu drumming from Mr. Tan Fui Choong, the founder of ‘24 Festive Drumming’, a unique Malaysian drums performance. Mr. Tan’s influence led him to form HANDS, and now after nearly 20 years, he has successfully led the group to become one of the leading percussive groups in Malaysia. During this time, Bernard and HANDS has also represented Malaysia in music festivals all over Asia, Europe, and America. Bernard’s name is not only synonymous with HANDS, he is also sought after for his musical artistry. Many performers and performing arts groups have invited Bernard to collaborate with them in their productions, and they include The Actors Studio, RiverGrass Dance Theatre, Nyoba Kan, Judimar Hernandez and many others.

Abstract

After 22 years as founder and artistic director of the versatile Hands Percussion group, there is a lot that can be learnt from Bernard Goh. From advocating Malaysia’s ‘24 Festive Drums’ art form to playing Tchaikovsky’s masterpieces on the gamelan as well as learning the West African djembe and the Balinese gamelan, Bernard shares how the group has struck a balance between honouring what is traditional and working smart at challenging and developing it. Now a world-class multi-disciplinary performing arts group, the elements of cultural diversity in the group’s performances are testimony to their dedication in celebrating Malaysia wherever they go. Educating, nurturing and developing young people in the community is an important part of the group’s work. Bernard highlights how children at local schools in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and other states have benefited from drumming programmes, workshops and camps conducted by his team. The group’s ‘Balik Kampung’ campaign was initiated in 2009 where children in nationwide rural areas got to experience a little of the performing arts. In partnership with Fugee School, KL Hands community work contributed towards empowering Syrian refugees through music and art, with the launch of Maybank’s ‘Drum for Hope’ campaign in 2017.

Imran Syafiq (Ask Dance Company)

Ask Dance Company has been conducting community workshops focusing on dance starting from 2011. It is aimed to promote dance in Malaysia as well as the appreciation and understanding of cultures through dance, enabling talented individuals who are not able to afford formal training to experience dance, and to create a healthy environment by encouraging dance activities as a positive lifestyle choice. These aims are achieved by staging workshops and performances throughout the country that showcases Malaysia’s diverse cultures and multicultural heritage, and also engaging the young including the underprivileged by offering free workshops and interactive talks throughout the year. By combining performances with workshops, ASK Dance Company intends to engage the local communities through dance. By learning the form and context of the dances of the various ethnic communities, ASK Dance Company will be able to educate the youth to appreciate the multiple dance practices in our country.

Topics to be covered

1) Different level of engagement that we had (students to teachers)
2) Difficulty of having funding from corporate companies for performing arts
community program compared to sports (marathon etc)
3) Audience development
4) Appreciation for the arts.
5) Understanding and the ownership of Malaysian identity through dance.

Janet Pillai

Janet Pillai founded Arts-ED (2007), a non-profit organization in Penang which provides place-based culture education for young people. She served as an associate professor at the Department of Performing Arts in University Sains Malaysia (until retirement in 2013) and is currently an independent consultant and resource person in the field of arts education and cultural sustainability. Her area specialization is in cultural mapping, community-engagement and arts education. Her work entails research and programming community-engaged projects in partnership/ consultation with community, local agencies, artists and professionals. She also conducts research is an expert resource person with organizations such as UNESCO Bangkok, APCIEU Korea, and GETTY Foundation.

Abstract

This presentation will showcase some of the socially engaged arts projects by non-profit organisation Arts-ED in Penang. The organisation programmes together with artists and community stakeholders and works with participants young people aged 11-16 in community settings. The projects focus on place-based learning and emphasise community engagement, the art-making process and artistic outcomes which benefit community. The session will explain the methodology used by the organisation and expand on some of the principles of socially engaged arts.

Tunku Putri Afifah Tunku Anor

Putri holds an honours degree in International Relations from Keele University, UK in 1999 and is currently pursuing her postgrad studies in Management, locally. Her 20-year career span began in the educational field administering the A-Levels and BTEC HND in ASEAN and Australasia under the UK awarding body. Her foray into the arts was during her 5- year stint as Secretariat Manager for the ASEAN Youth Volunteer Programme whilst implementing the theme ‘Preserving the ASEAN Heritage’ which saw 50 ASEAN youth converging in Melaka for their immersion into the richness of our culture and heritage. This was the time she was responsible for managing the US Aid for International Development (USAID) funding amounting to more than USD1.42 million for ASEAN level project implementation locally and in Cambodia and the Philippines. The past 2 years saw her on the other side of the coin as Head of Projects (Environment, Sports and Arts & Culture), overseeing applications for sponsorship of arts initiatives locally but with the potential to bring greater impact internationally. Having experienced both sides of the coin as recipient of local and international funding and currently working with one of the largest corporate foundation in Malaysia, she hopes to provide the balance and empathy that could contribute to the ascending success of the growing arts scene in Malaysia and beyond.

Abstract

Yayasan Sime Darby’s support for the Arts in Malaysia: Funding the Arts in relation to Community Engagement Projects Yayasan Sime Darby (YSD) is the philanthropic arm of the three Sime Darby companies. As one of the biggest proponents of the Arts in Malaysia, YSD has committed to more than RM23 million towards more than 85 initiatives under its Arts & Culture pillar since 2009. Under its 3 focus areas which are Arts; Culture Encouragement, Arts Demand Development, and Arts Education & Empowerment, YSD is currently supporting several impactful arts initiatives namely, its biennial YSD Arts Festival in collaboration with klpac which would be in its 4 teh installment come August 2020. The largest FREE for all Festival in Malaysia since 2014 makes the arts inclusive, reaching out to different communities such as the underprivileged. Other projects supported by YSD would be The Living Museum of Printing by The Royal Press, a polyglot letterpress living museum dedicated to preserving the craft of letterpress printing since 1938 and one of the oldest surviving polyglot letterpress printing houses in the world. ADC’s Traditional Dance Training for Trainers Workshop has since 2011 promoted and trained communities with the uniqueness of the Zapin, Inang and Joget as part of their effort to reintroduce and revive Malay traditional dances in the local arts scene, especially among the youth. Summing it all up is the Hubs for Good project in collaboration with British Council and UM as an example of an initiative to foster the development of creative industries in Malaysia through the development of creative hubs. YSD will continue to support various art projects that have the potential to encourage better appreciation of the arts by Malaysians from all walks of life, resulting in a sustainable, positive impact to society and the world at large.