Building community and open dialogue through music, musings and hybrid creative projects.
Safiah Sulaiman (b. 1987) is an arts practitioner, independent researcher, writer and organiser based in Singapore. Passionate in working with art forms of all kinds, out in the field and with different communities, her areas of interest include critical discourse on community arts, arts education, street photography, bubble tea and discovering good music.
She works closely with artists, schools, statutory boards, foundations, and organisations in developing arts exposure programmes. She first started her career in arts education and outreach for theatre company The Necessary Stage (Singapore) — fostering partnerships with clients such as the National Arts Council (NAC) Singapore, Ministry of Community, Youth and Sports (MCCY), National University of Singapore (NUS) Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Singapore Maritime Foundation, and with school principals in the West Zone Cluster under the Ministry of Education (MOE) Singapore. In 2016, she was selected to be part of NAC Youth Arts Overseas Attachment as Curatorial Assistant for Next Wave Festival (Melbourne), and in Skammdegi Festival (Iceland) as NAC Capability Development grant recipient. She was also once the festival manager for the inaugural Storyfest Singapore (2017), and part of the arts programming team (Theatre and Dance) in Esplanade — Theatres on the Bay (2017 — 2019) for da:ns festival, Pesta Raya, and monthly free music programmes mainly.
Safiah is currently the Senior Executive (Arts Development) for Club Rainbow Singapore, a local charity supporting children and youths with chronic illnesses, and an adjunct lecturer in LASALLE College of the Arts (Singapore) for BA (Hons) in Arts Management.
Read more: In Conversation with: Safiah Sulaiman on the Impact of the Arts