The Substation
The Substation is Singapore's first independent contemporary arts centre. It was founded in 1990 by Kuo Pao Kun. The Substation is centrally located in the city's civic district and was the first building under the National Arts Council's "Arts Housing Scheme". It officially opened on 16 September 1990. The Substation is a non-profit organisation and registered Institution of Public Character in Singapore, which relies on financial and in-kind support from the general public, commercial organisations and government ministries to cover the costs of operating and developing arts & educational programmes. As an arts centre, The Substation closed in 2021 and has since transformed into an arts collective called "The Substation 2.0".
History
The site of The Substation, as its name suggests, was previously a power sub-station. The building dates from 1926. In 1950 the Public Utilities Board added a garden to house outdoor equipment. The sub-station ended its operations in the late 1970s and the building was left vacant.Throughout the 1980s, there was a consistent and unprecedented increase in government investment in the arts, an emergence of many art activities and capacities initiated by artists and art groups and a dramatic increase of global interest in the arts from Asia and Southeast Asia. Against such a backdrop, the Ministry of Community Development explored ways to develop arts and culture in Singapore in the 1990s. In 1986, dramatist Kuo Pao Kun and Practice Performing Arts sent in a proposal for the conversion of the disused building to an arts center. It was accepted. Also in 1986, the building, together with the adjacent Tao Nan School and the shophouses along Armenian Street, were earmarked for conservation under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's Civic and Cultural Master Plan.
In 1989, the MCD officially invited Practice Performing Arts Centre Ltd to manage The Substation and put up funding of $1.07m for the building's renovation. In June 1990, the interior fittings and equipment installation works were undertaken, and The Substation officially opened on 16 September 1990.
In the first five years of The Substation's history, under the visionary artistic direction of founder Kuo Pao Kun, The Substation was a pioneer arts space in Singapore and was a site for experimentation of all the art forms, especially since there were so few spaces for the arts in that period, let alone spaces for the more experimental arts. Any of the artists who worked with The Substation in the early days were attempting things that were unprecedented in the history of modern arts and culture in Singapore. Even as a venue, The Substation had a significance back then that has since been superseded: then, up-and-coming groups like The Necessary Stage, one of the most prominent arts groups in Singapore today, staged their plays at The Substation’s Guinness Theatre or in the Garden. The Substation’s founding coincided with a burst of activity in Singapore such as the emergence of professional theatre companies, new writing in theatre, and a new generation of visual artists inspired by new practices and ideas promoted by artists and groups such as The Artists Village.
The first multi-disciplinary, thematic events were held at The Substation. This included The Tree Celebration, which featured installations, mime performances, theatre performances, readings, and Pao Kun's "Memories" seasons, which explored tradition and heritage from a personal point of view, through art. The "Memories" seasons developed into The Substation's annual festival SeptFest which was notable for the seminal arts conferences that brought together artists, critics, cultural commentators, civil society activists, and the public.
The Substation was part of a trend in the Singapore arts scene when "new" things were emerging. From the beginning, The Substation received critical acclaim because it gave instrumental support to independent artists and arts groups like Zai Kuning and Theatre Ox, opening up a space for such practices. The first arts conference held at The Substation in 1993, "Art vs Art" brought together many of Singapore's important artists, academics, critics and arts administrators; members of the public were also key participants in this weekend event. The feeling among those who participated was that this bringing together of such diverse people to discuss the arts and the place of the arts in Singapore society was something new, and that it was a special moment in local arts history.
Under The Substation's second artistic director T. Sasitharan, The Substation entered a more mature phase as an institution as it started the process of institution-building, as its management and financial systems were consolidated, and as the arts scene became more professional and government investment in arts and culture increased. Programs at The Substation were streamlined, international and regional networks expanded, and artists encouraged to develop rigour in their practices and approaches to art. Platforms started under Pao Kun's leadership – Dance Space, Music Space, Raw Theatre – developed into important showcases for new artistic work in Singapore, through artist commissions. The Moving Images film programme was set up in 1997 with the aim of nurturing Singapore – and later, South East Asian – filmmakers and growing a regional film community. During this period, The Substation continued its support for independent artists by setting up an artist-in-residence programme in line with its original mission to persevering and supporting the development of independent artists into their maturity. However, The Substation faced considerable difficulty in supplying financial resources for the resident artists' stipends because what most funding bodies and corporate sponsors wanted to support was a final product not the process of experimentation that was a great part of The Substation's focus.
In line with an increasing global interest in "Asian" contemporary arts, The Substation continues to be crucial for Singapore arts and culture. It functions as an incubator of new artistic work, artistic practices, and artists and as a gathering point for the arts community the public. The Substation continues to be a place where young artists and arts groups can have their start and as a space for critical discussion that allows for experimentation. The Substation is to educate a new, young generation about The Substation and the value of maintaining this open space for diverse voices, languages, opinions, and artistic practices in Singapore.
The centre is scheduled to move out of its premises in July 2021 and the premises will be converted into a new centre for multiple arts groups. While the Substation is invited back to be a co-tenant after the renovation, the Substation's board decided against it and permanently closing the center.
Location
The Substation is located on 45 Armenian Street, Singapore, in the heart of the civic district. Its nearest MRT stations are City Hall, Bras Basah and Clarke Quay stations. The site of The Substation was a previously power sub-station until the 1970s. The building dates from 1926.Facilities
The Substation's venues include a black box theatre, a gallery, a dance studio, Random Room and two multi-function classrooms.Box office
The Substation Box Office is located at the ground floor foyer of The Substation.Theatre
The Substation Theatre is a flexible black-box performance space. It has a seating capacity for 120 people, with 108 retractable seats, and can accommodate 200 people standing. It hosts both high-profile, and small independent arts events, ranging from the Singapore Short Film Awards to gigs by local musicians, and performances by numerous local and international performing artists.Dance Studio
The Substation's Dance Studio is 135 square metres (13.5m x 10.5m and has a maximum capacity of 40 people and is used for rehearsals, small performances and classes like Yoga, Capoeira, Aikido and Contemporary Dance.Classrooms
The Substation has two classrooms on the second floor. Each classroom is 30 square meters and can comfortably accommodate 20 seated people. They are suitable for meetings, classes, talks, and performances.Garden
In the early 1990s, many young musicians started out by playing in The Substation Garden. The Garden was a haven for local bands, especially indie, rock and metal bands whose brand of "loud" music was not always appreciated by the mainstream back then. The first 24-Hour Round the Clock at The Sub Music Festival was held on 31 Dec 1990 in the Garden and the Substation's "countdown gigs" have gone down in the annals of local music as legendary events.The Garden was also home to a wide range of performances. Among the notable ones were Pao Kun's The Tree Celebration and The Silly Little Girl and The Funny Old Tree. Other memorable "outdoor" plays staged include "The Mahabharata Part I: The Game of Dice", presented in 1995 by William Teo and his company Asia-in-Theatre Research Centre. The Necessary Stage, Priyalatha Arun, Khairuddin Hori/ Naga Naga, and World-in-Theatre also staged productions in the Garden.
Today, many groups prefer to use The Substation Theatre rather the Garden for various reasons, including not having to worry about the possibility of rain. The Substation Garden is now used by Timbre Bar and Bistro.
Programmes
The Substation hosts and co-hosts a large number of programmes, courses and events in its premises. The Substation holds events that are designed, curated and presented by The Substation or other organisations without any curatorial or artistic assistance from The Substation. The latter type of events may qualify for rental subsidies, as part of The Substation's mission to support the arts.This section highlights some of The Substation's core programmes.