Mon 04 Jun 2007

A new era of co-operation between Singapore and Scotland was signalled today with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the National Arts Council of Singapore and the Scottish Arts Council, with the first links confirmed between the Singapore Art Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival.

The memorandum will be signed today (June 4) at a ceremony in Singapore with signatories from both parties present. The memorandum will be effective from 4 June 2007 and will last for two years.

The aim of the memorandum is to encourage the promotion of cultural co-operation between the two countries and to strengthen cultural ties, foster understanding and artform development. The aims of the memorandum include all artforms, as well as festivals.

The Scottish-Singapore alliance was illustrated today with the simultaneous signing of a strategic agreement between the Edinburgh International Festival and the Singapore Arts Festival for an exciting cultural partnership.

Graham Berry, special envoy on behalf the Scottish Arts Council welcomed the Memorandum and added: ‘Singapore and Scotland are geographically a long way apart, but together they share a huge interest in arts and culture. We are both proud of our heritage and we can learn from each other and make this Memorandum of Understanding a stepping stone to inform our people of arts in each others country. Scotland’s arts are vibrant as are Singapore’s and we look forward to experiencing the best of both countries work.’

Jonathan Mills, Director of the Edinburgh International Festival said: “The Festival plays an important role for Scotland internationally in creating dialogue and building cultural bridges. This strategic alliance with the Singapore Arts Festival marks the expansion of this vision, particularly with Asia, and is a framework for important work in strengthening international ties of all kinds between countries.”

Goh Ching Lee, Festival Director of the Singapore Arts Festival said: “We welcome this opportunity to work with the Edinburgh International Festival in joint commissions and presentations. Singapore is ideally positioned to facilitate intercultural collaborations and through this alliance, we hope to play a key role in launching exciting new work which contributes to the artistic dialogue between Asia and Europe. ”

The two festivals have agreed to co-operate and collaborate on artistic creations and presentations and support opportunities for exchange and dialogue between festival artists and festival associates.

In 2007 the Singapore Arts Festival’s commissioned co-production Optical Identity, a music theatre collaboration between Scotland’s Theatre Cryptic and Singapore’s T’ang Quartet premiered at the Singapore Arts Festival from 31 May to 2 June 2007 and will be presented at the Edinburgh International Festival from 31 August to 1 September.

Press contacts:

Edinburgh International Festival: Susie Burnet, 0131 473 2020, press@eif.co.uk

Scottish Arts Council: Michelle Jordan, 0131 240 2404

Nigel Sim, Assistant Director, Corporate Communications

DID: 6837 9730 | Mobile: 9680 5045 | E-mail: Nigel_SIM@nac.gov.sg