Infinite Rasa: Celebrating Heritage, Community and the Arts

• It’s a day of multiple celebrations. Let me first start by congratulating SIFAS on your new area – such a beautiful place. Open air, able to accommodate many people, open to all walks of life. Anybody can just come in and take a look. And I think that's really what we want to see.

• As far as our arts are concerned, it's also the new year. I just like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. All of India celebrates the harvest festival at this time. And I wanted to just say: may this new year bring you and your families abundance, love and bountiful harvest in whatever you do. I would like to add my deepest congratulations to SIFAS once again, for the wonderful work that you do.

• Not only is it about the arts, but it is also about bringing everyone together, and I think you have done that very successfully. So I want to thank Mr KV Rao, President of the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society or SIFAS, board members, management committee members, trustees, donors, performers, artists, members of the public, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for having me here today.

• It's a wonderful time of the year. It is where we see a blossoming new beginning that starts because of the new year. What better way to celebrate than to be here in this wonderful premise?

• Everything right up to what happens in this place, why it is the way it is, you guys have taken it, transformed it and made it your own. And I think that love for the arts, the love for the culture comes up very clearly in what we see today.

• But more than that, it is the ability for us to bring together people from the community. I see many people from different organizations here – Bengalis, Gujaratis, Malayalis, Tamils – all of us coming together, regardless of race, language and religion, to celebrate the arts. I think it's a fantastic signal, a fantastic statement that we have created here.

• I also wanted to add that the arts, in particular, is unique. Not only does it have the power of bringing everyone together, as I highlighted, but it also reflects tradition, history and culture.

• And again, today, they have used the tagline Infinite Rasa. That indicates abundance in the new year. At the same time, there is the essence, which is what Rasa is about. And I think that is wonderful in ensuring that we are able to focus on what is truly important when it comes to the arts.

SIFAS as a Cultural Anchor

• Arts is about history, and I must say, SIFAS has done tremendously well. From 1949, starting with 12 members, you have grown into a community of over 2,000 students, 40 staff and a wonderfully committed board and management committee, bringing Indian art forms to the next level in Singapore.

• If we cast our minds back to 1949, when the war just ended, this place would have been in a very different shape and form. This was a hospital, and it would have been a very depressing time. Yet, we were able to see light amidst darkness and use art as the shining light to bring us to where we are today.

• I'm sure the 12 members in 1949 would not have a clue how life would be like today, and how much we would have blossomed and grown.

• So once again, congratulations.

The Festival as a Platform

• The arts is also about tradition, and here it is reflected in the SIFAS Festival of Arts, showing how tradition has evolved in today’s context and connects meaningfully with wider and more diverse audiences.

  • Now in its 22nd year, the Festival has become a key platform that brings together established masters, emerging artistes and the community, creating space for both continuity and innovation.

  • And this year’s theme, as I have said, “Infinite Rasa”, is something that resonates very strongly. With that, I must say, congratulations on the theme as well – a wonderful theme that reflects the essence of what the arts is about, and the essence of what SIFAS does.

Strong Ecosystem: Local Talent and Global Excellence

• The Festival also reflects how SIFAS has strengthened the arts culture in Singapore.

  • This year, we have over 100 local artistes participating alongside internationally acclaimed performers, such as Aruna Sairam, Kaushiki Chakraborty and Radhe Jaggi, just to name a few.

  • This combination of strong local participation and global collaboration allows for the facilitation of artistic exchange and encourages our artists to pursue excellence in art.

  • Now, taken together, this supports our ambitions to develop Singapore into a distinctive city of the arts.

Singapore’s Multicultural Identity

• The arts, including the traditional arts practiced here at SIFAS, play a key role in ensuring exchanges among different communities, and even within the Indian community.

  • As you know, I chair a committee called INEI, which aims to bring the Indian community together. I look forward to SIFAS’s participation, because together we can strengthen our footprint – not just within the Indian community, but beyond that, to bring other communities together. And we are stronger for it, celebrating our strength in diversity.

  • Through music, dance and visual arts, we are able to gain  deeper insights into communities and cultures beyond our own. In Singapore’s diverse society, these shared experiences strengthen our social cohesion and nurture a sense of belonging.

• This is why the Government supports arts and cultural institutions like SIFAS, and platforms such as SIFAS Festival of the Arts.

  • It is not only safeguarding traditions, but it also about making them accessible and relevant to wider audiences, through workshops, exhibitions and lecture-demonstrations that deepen engagement and build cultural literacy among our youth and amongst influencers.

  • In doing so, these institutions and events serve not just as custodians of heritage, but as important cultural anchors.

• I would encourage SIFAS to do more and reach out as much as you can to the Indian community, and to go well beyond that as well.

Multiculturalism and our Shared Future

• Now as we retain our traditions, and as we do wonderful work that we do in SIFAS, is not only to create Infinite Rasa, but it is also to develop the next generation of leaders and the next generation of performers, as we have seen many of them who are here today themselves.

• And this is also why MCCY has introduced new initiatives across the arts sector to support precisely this.

  • For example, a new Multicultural Arts Programme Grant, which was announced last month during the budget, provides dedicated support for the development and presentation of traditional and multicultural art forms.

  • We are also enhancing the Artists-in-School Scheme with greater funding support, to allow schools to bring in artists to deliver traditional and multicultural arts learning experiences for students.

  • So, there are many programs that are available. Again, I encourage SIFAS, as you already do, to tap on national resources to be able to expand and to grow your reach within Singapore and particularly among the various art forms that you've seen.

• I wanted to end by saying that the arts is a powerful way of connecting society, regardless of your race, language or religion, despite the backgrounds, whether we are rich, poor, old, young, etcetera.

• The arts has a unifying ability to bring all of us together – to celebrate, appreciate, and encourage performance. And I think that is what gives us great joy, to see all the work that every one of you does, whether in supporting SIFAS or helping with the running of SIFAS, and the various groups here today that support SIFAS. What we are really seeing here is a network of networks, and that keeps us extremely strong.

• Let me once again congratulate SIFAS on another successful Festival and for your continued contributions to Singapore’s cultural landscape.

  • I encourage everyone to immerse yourselves in the spirit of “Infinite Rasa”.

  • And it is my pleasure to declare the SIFAS Festival of Arts 2026 officially open.

  • Thank you.