Singapore Loses Major Exhibition and Residency Platform

NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA), a leading nonprofit organization in Southeast Asia for artistic research, residencies, and exhibitions, will shutter its seven-year-old facilities at the Gillman Barracks arts precinct in March 2021. The closure is due to a funding shortfall that resulted from the decision of NTU CCA’s primary co-funders, the Nanyang Technological University and Economic Development Board, to decrease their monetary support. After the platform’s last show, featuring films by Trinh T. Minh-ha, ends on February 28, 2021, the organization will be pared down to a single research and administrative office, an online archive, and a final publication about its projects to date.

The cessation of NTU CCA’s operations at Gillman Barracks was announced on August 18 by contributing editor Melanie Pocock said: “What seems to be lacking is a commitment to diversity—that is, sustaining an art ecology composed of multiple institutions of different shapes and sizes.” Others lamented the closure as an immeasurable loss. Highlighting the value of NTU CCA’s residency program in particular, multimedia artist Yee I-Lann told : “The tangible and intangible worth of this casual and deliberate exchange amongst arts folk and wider audiences cannot be undervalued and is precisely what the world needs more of at this deeply uncertain time.”