Serious Alfian Sa'at tells SOTA students to stop dreaming about rosy ending in arts career

A SOTA student says: "I'm allowed to have more than one passion. And you don't get to tell me that I can't have it both ways. So, no, I've never met a SOTA student who gave up on their ambition. And that's because SOTA students understand that it's human nature to have more than one. And we're never going to play the zero sum game with our dreams."


Sure, you're young, you're idealistic. You probably don't believe, at this point, that it's possible to bite off more than you can chew. But I also want to tell you that unless you start according an arts career the respect and commitment that it deserves, and that means not treating it like an after-hours hobby, or a post-schooling co-curricular activity, or making statements like 'well who's to say that I won't still dabble in the arts?', we will never reach a stage where professionalisation is possible, and we will never create a real industry, the kind you might aspire to be part of one day.


When you come in late for rehearsals, because of the overtime from your 'real' job, the work suffers. When you don't get your lines down because you don't have the head space and bandwidth for the play, the work suffers. When your stage manager has to try working around your schedule and has to even cut rehearsals to accommodate your 'real' job, the work suffers. And you expect everyone around you to make compromises and sacrifices so that you can chase your double rainbow?


I know I'm coming across as harsh. But I have to register my disappointment at the responses coming from SOTA students regarding why an overwhelming majority of them, despite having an arts-based education, would ultimately choose non-arts careers. What I'm hearing are 'you haven't been to SOTA so please don't comment', 'I'm still young and have every right to change my mind', 'don't talk about your tax dollars subsidising my expensive arts education, I refuse to be blackmailed by any talk of obligations', 'people were so discouraging when I joined SOTA and now that I have internalised that discouragement you want to blame me?' The kind of defensiveness that comes from avoiding the real issues.


And for me the fundamental issue here is: in spite of a prolonged exposure to the arts, a career in the arts remains a deeply unattractive option for many of these students. And I really would like to know why. Yes, I know some students found out along the way that they were interested in something else. Some felt that they were more suited for a life as arts patrons and consumers than as artists. I have no doubt that these are honest responses, but I also feel there is something else if you scratch hard enough.

Read more at Alfian Sa'at: Be honest in addressing both your fears and desires

Re: Alfian Sa'at tells SOTA students to stop dreaming about rosy ending in arts caree

Though I agree with Alfian there have been outstanding individuals who not only had a brilliant career (day job), raised a family and still was an icon of arts. Lim Chor Pee comes to mind.

I still felt that Alfian should not have given up his medical studies and I am sure he would have found the bandwidth.

Re: Alfian Sa'at tells SOTA students to stop dreaming about rosy ending in arts caree

Not every one who pursues a study in SOTA will end up as a professional. But it doesnt have to mean that nothing is learnt or ever acquired. Some need life long practice before meeting success. Inspiration is often the motivator. A writer may suffer writer's block before producing a best seller or a classic. How many of the famous authors and artists achieved fame post-humously? Arts and art forms require passion and perseverance. A few would have the innate talents but for most, its 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration.

Re: Alfian Sa'at tells SOTA students to stop dreaming about rosy ending in arts caree

the med school dropout who talks way too much avant-garde cock.

Re: Alfian Sa'at tells SOTA students to stop dreaming about rosy ending in arts caree

micromachine said:

the med school dropout who talks way too much avant-garde cock.

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Med school is not easy man. And after med school the post grad training is even more demanding.

Arts in Singapore got no future lah. The market is simply too small.

Re: Alfian Sa'at tells SOTA students to stop dreaming about rosy ending in arts caree

micromachine said:

the med school dropout who talks way too much avant-garde cock.

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who?alfian saat?

Re: Alfian Sa'at tells SOTA students to stop dreaming about rosy ending in arts caree

micromachine said:

the med school dropout who talks way too much avant-garde cock.

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they might have a future if they are willing to live the life of a beggar until they are dead.

i like to go to thrift stores and second hand shops and look at art of artists who are long dead and see if their art is worth $50 or not.

Re: Alfian Sa'at tells SOTA students to stop dreaming about rosy ending in arts caree

As someone has pointed out, main aim of SOTA is a well rounded education with focus on the arts. No difference from Singapore sports school.

Alfian, I think you are forgetting that SOTA students do not get an 'arts-based education'.

They are in a secondary school, a pre-tertiary school that prepares them for the International Baccalaureate diploma. Not an arts-based diploma. The art form is offered as just one of their core subjects. Along with Math and Science and Humanities. Just like A levels.

SOTA is NOT a vocational arts school. Not even a tertiary school. Those would be Lasalle and NAFA where the courses there are really arts-based and geared towards vocation.

SOTA students enter the school at 12-years-old, like all other secondary schools. They study standard academic subjects like other secondary school kids.

I'm really trying to understand why you seem to expect different from SOTA students compared to other secondary schools. And what about those who take up music and art at A level? Why is it ok for them to choose a non-arts path and not continue to be musicians or artists while SOTA students seem to be vilified for taking that option?

Re: Alfian Sa'at tells SOTA students to stop dreaming about rosy ending in arts caree

frenchbriefs said:

they might have a future if they are willing to live the life of a beggar until they are dead.

i like to go to thrift stores and second hand shops and look at art of artists who are long dead and see if their art is worth $50 or not.

Click to expand...

jackson pollock poor his whole life, after death his works worth millions

Re: Alfian Sa'at tells SOTA students to stop dreaming about rosy ending in arts caree

kelton65 said:

As someone has pointed out, main aim of SOTA is a well rounded education with focus on the arts. No difference from Singapore sports school.

Alfian, I think you are forgetting that SOTA students do not get an 'arts-based education'.

They are in a secondary school, a pre-tertiary school that prepares them for the International Baccalaureate diploma. Not an arts-based diploma. The art form is offered as just one of their core subjects. Along with Math and Science and Humanities. Just like A levels.

SOTA is NOT a vocational arts school. Not even a tertiary school. Those would be Lasalle and NAFA where the courses there are really arts-based and geared towards vocation.

SOTA students enter the school at 12-years-old, like all other secondary schools. They study standard academic subjects like other secondary school kids.

I'm really trying to understand why you seem to expect different from SOTA students compared to other secondary schools. And what about those who take up music and art at A level? Why is it ok for them to choose a non-arts path and not continue to be musicians or artists while SOTA students seem to be vilified for taking that option?

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Alfian Sa'at
Yesterday at 14:13 ·

After various exchanges I think I've gained some clarity and insight into the SOTA issue, and I wish to apologise if there has been any misrepresentation. I would like to share some of the things that I have learnt over the past couple of days:

1) In spite of its name, 'School of The Arts', SOTA is not a vocational school. The name might echo that of the Lasalle College of the Arts, or the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, but it is a school where students take a 6-year programme that leads up to the International Baccalaureate. One goes back to a speech by Lee Hsien Loong at the school's opening:

"The curriculum in SOTA is unique, because the arts and academic subjects are carefully integrated together...And I think this is appropriate, because many of the SOTA graduates will go on to professions which are not directly involved with the aesthetics, to be doctors or engineers. But I hope whatever you do, your training in the arts will equip you with a more comprehensive perspective and way of thinking and add an extra touch to the new profession which you will learn."

I knew at the back of my mind that this had always been the case--SOTA's focus would be academic subjects, and students could opt for arts subjects--but I couldn't help developing a strong impression that this was a dedicated arts school. Perhaps it was the great facilities--a theatre and a black box, both of which have hosted productions by professional theatre companies. (I have lovely memories of 'Cooling Off Day' performed on the campus.) Perhaps it was just this general sense of affection (and pride) I would feel as I walked up its weird terraced steps, that it was a place where the next generation of artists would emerge from.

And how *affirming* it was to think that there was this school, right in the civic district, which could support students who wanted to paint or sculpt or act or dance or play music, who showed exceptional talent in these areas. Any visitor who saw the name 'School of the Arts' would somehow assume that Singapore has an education system that recognises alternative paths to excellence. This is splendid (perhaps inadvertent) PR of course, but also not entirely accurate PR--since the core of the programme is still academic.
Given the facts above, it is unreasonable to think that SOTA solely exists to groom the next generation of artists in Singapore and unfair to evaluate it based on this criterion. After all, SOTA's stated aims are not only "to identify and groom future generations of artists", but also "creative professionals to be leaders in all fields, and to be patrons and supporters of the arts".

The arts there is not so much an aspiration as it is enrichment. It is my fault entirely for not recognising this, and associating the decline in the number of SOTA graduates continuing arts in higher education with another disheartening statistic: the drop in number of those taking literature in school. Those melancholy numbers + romanticisation of SOTA = tragedy on social media.

2) Another error was in trying to engage with students who were not taking up arts careers. This inevitably led to a sense that I was guilt-tripping teenagers, that I was being 'sanctimonious', 'holier than thou', 'my way or the highway', judging their choices from the position of one who had supposedly taken the leap into the unknown.

This is all really gross because I then become that naggy uncle who tells kids how privileged they are these days and why can't they turn that privilege into some give-back-to-the-arts-community lah dee dah. I just want to make it clear that I respect whatever these students decide for themselves. At the same time I can't help but feel a lump in my throat when I see yet another exceptionally gifted artist decide that he or she would rather do something else, because it's a very familiar scenario, and they say don't worry, I'll never lose the passion for it, I'll always have a foot in it somehow, but often life takes over and then one day I find myself going 'hey remember that X, wasn't X's talent like, once in a generation phenomenal?'

OK I know, stop it, this is straying into emotional blackmail territory already, why your FB update must do stream of consciousness, so what I wanted to say was that I should have focused instead on the good 15-20% of those who *are* choosing an arts-related trajectory, to see how I can encourage their development, to open doors for them, to make the scene less opaque, less impenetrable. A deeper appreciation of those who have chosen such a path (and this is what we can all do, collectively), and ultimately no less an appreciation of those who haven't.

3) I know there are sensitivities surrounding this particular issue, because of our national habit of demanding that certain investments show results (which I think is a way of asserting our stake in certain things, because we are so politically disenfranchised). And someone will mention 'taxpayer's dollars', and others will say 'elitism' and 'expensive arts education'. And then we will fall back into thinking of education as manpower training, and like in that comic, the question of "what do you want want to be when you grow up?" actually means "how do you want to sell your labour?"

Of what value is an arts education to the students there? Of what value is it to society? What, ultimately is the value of art? I know these questions will always be asked. And I also think that the more readily the answers come to us, or if the answers are so obvious as to not even deserve mentioning, the greater the possibility that SOTA graduates will choose arts careers.

Re: Alfian Sa'at tells SOTA students to stop dreaming about rosy ending in arts caree

Truly big of him.

gatehousethetinkertailor said:

Alfian Sa'at
Yesterday at 14:13 ·

After various exchanges I think I've gained some clarity and insight into the SOTA issue, and I wish to apologise if there has been any misrepresentation. I would like to share some of the things that I have learnt over the past couple of days:

1) In spite of its name, 'School of The Arts', SOTA is not a vocational school. The name might echo that of the Lasalle College of the Arts, or the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, but it is a school where students take a 6-year programme that leads up to the International Baccalaureate. One goes back to a speech by Lee Hsien Loong at the school's opening:

"The curriculum in SOTA is unique, because the arts and academic subjects are carefully integrated together...And I think this is appropriate, because many of the SOTA graduates will go on to professions which are not directly involved with the aesthetics, to be doctors or engineers. But I hope whatever you do, your training in the arts will equip you with a more comprehensive perspective and way of thinking and add an extra touch to the new profession which you will learn."

I knew at the back of my mind that this had always been the case--SOTA's focus would be academic subjects, and students could opt for arts subjects--but I couldn't help developing a strong impression that this was a dedicated arts school. Perhaps it was the great facilities--a theatre and a black box, both of which have hosted productions by professional theatre companies. (I have lovely memories of 'Cooling Off Day' performed on the campus.) Perhaps it was just this general sense of affection (and pride) I would feel as I walked up its weird terraced steps, that it was a place where the next generation of artists would emerge from.

And how *affirming* it was to think that there was this school, right in the civic district, which could support students who wanted to paint or sculpt or act or dance or play music, who showed exceptional talent in these areas. Any visitor who saw the name 'School of the Arts' would somehow assume that Singapore has an education system that recognises alternative paths to excellence. This is splendid (perhaps inadvertent) PR of course, but also not entirely accurate PR--since the core of the programme is still academic.
Given the facts above, it is unreasonable to think that SOTA solely exists to groom the next generation of artists in Singapore and unfair to evaluate it based on this criterion. After all, SOTA's stated aims are not only "to identify and groom future generations of artists", but also "creative professionals to be leaders in all fields, and to be patrons and supporters of the arts".

The arts there is not so much an aspiration as it is enrichment. It is my fault entirely for not recognising this, and associating the decline in the number of SOTA graduates continuing arts in higher education with another disheartening statistic: the drop in number of those taking literature in school. Those melancholy numbers + romanticisation of SOTA = tragedy on social media.

2) Another error was in trying to engage with students who were not taking up arts careers. This inevitably led to a sense that I was guilt-tripping teenagers, that I was being 'sanctimonious', 'holier than thou', 'my way or the highway', judging their choices from the position of one who had supposedly taken the leap into the unknown.

This is all really gross because I then become that naggy uncle who tells kids how privileged they are these days and why can't they turn that privilege into some give-back-to-the-arts-community lah dee dah. I just want to make it clear that I respect whatever these students decide for themselves. At the same time I can't help but feel a lump in my throat when I see yet another exceptionally gifted artist decide that he or she would rather do something else, because it's a very familiar scenario, and they say don't worry, I'll never lose the passion for it, I'll always have a foot in it somehow, but often life takes over and then one day I find myself going 'hey remember that X, wasn't X's talent like, once in a generation phenomenal?'

OK I know, stop it, this is straying into emotional blackmail territory already, why your FB update must do stream of consciousness, so what I wanted to say was that I should have focused instead on the good 15-20% of those who *are* choosing an arts-related trajectory, to see how I can encourage their development, to open doors for them, to make the scene less opaque, less impenetrable. A deeper appreciation of those who have chosen such a path (and this is what we can all do, collectively), and ultimately no less an appreciation of those who haven't.

3) I know there are sensitivities surrounding this particular issue, because of our national habit of demanding that certain investments show results (which I think is a way of asserting our stake in certain things, because we are so politically disenfranchised). And someone will mention 'taxpayer's dollars', and others will say 'elitism' and 'expensive arts education'. And then we will fall back into thinking of education as manpower training, and like in that comic, the question of "what do you want want to be when you grow up?" actually means "how do you want to sell your labour?"

Of what value is an arts education to the students there? Of what value is it to society? What, ultimately is the value of art? I know these questions will always be asked. And I also think that the more readily the answers come to us, or if the answers are so obvious as to not even deserve mentioning, the greater the possibility that SOTA graduates will choose arts careers.

Click to expand...

Re: Alfian Sa'at tells SOTA students to stop dreaming about rosy ending in arts caree

Die poor and hungry under a bridge, that is the ending. Scare or not?

Re: Alfian Sa'at tells SOTA students to stop dreaming about rosy ending in arts caree

Have more courage, then you will not be so easily scared.

mojito said:

Die poor and hungry under a bridge, that is the ending. Scare or not?

Click to expand...