Speech By Dr Balaji Sadisivan, Senior Minister Of State For Information, Communications And The Arts, And Health, At The Awards Ceremony Of The Creative Youth Xchange

Speech By Dr Balaji Sadisivan, Senior Minister Of State For Information, Communications And The Arts, And Health, At The Awards Ceremony Of The Creative Youth Xchange @ Gallery Hotel On 17 November 2005, 7.35pm At Gallery Hotel

1. I am delighted to join you at the awards ceremony for Creative Youth Xchange @ Gallery Hotel. I would like to congratulate the top 16 participants of Creative Youth Xchange @ Gallery Hotel who are here today, as well as welcome those amongst you who are visitors to Singapore.
   
   

   2nd Edition of Creative Youth Xchange

2. Creative Youth Xchange seeks to be the platform for youth in the region to realise and showcase their most cutting edge creative talent and ideas . It is encouraging to see that this year’s call for entries, based on the theme of “5 Walls: Defying Definitions”, has attracted 114 entries from Australia, China, Indonesia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.
   
   

   Creative Youth Xchange Partnership Structure

3. Creative Youth Xchange has evolved into a unique partnership structure. This structure, while allowing youth access to a real world test bed for their ideas, also allows industry partners to benefit from a real world creative laboratory. We hope that this would lead to new ideas and breakthroughs in the industry. We are indeed grateful to Gallery Hotel for forming this special partnership with the Ministry of Information, Communications & the Arts (MICA) to co-develop and co-present Creative Youth Xchange. This partnership has enabled this year’s short listed participants to be given a three dimensional canvas each, in the form of the rooms of Gallery Hotel, to realise their creative dreams over the last two weeks in a unique workshop format.
   
   

   Creative Youth Xchange Workshop

4. The two-week workshop is a new addition to this year’s Creative Youth Xchange. The workshop is a process during which experiences and encounters are woven in to encourage youths to explore and expand the scope of their work.
5. During the course of this workshop, mentors such as Mr Ashidiq Ghazali (Ogilvy and Mather Senior Art Director and part-time DJ), Ms Eunice Olsen (Nominated Member of Parliament, youth activist and musician), Mr Goh Boon Teck (Toy Factory theatre director), Ms Ketna Patel (artist), Mr Benny Ong (fashion and lifestyle designer) and Mr Sebastian Chun (Head, Design Services at Asian Civilisations Museum) have challenged participants with varied tasks to encourage them to explore different creative aspects such as drama, texture and story in their work. The Faculty of the School of Art , Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University has instructed participants on the principles of space, color, light, sound and technology. Samuel Seow Law Corporation has provided participants with a rare insight on how to best protect and exploit their intellectual property – their ideas. I believe cross fertilisation of ideas across the Creative Industries and the unique learning environment here has provided our top 16 participants an experience of a lifetime and has given them and their works a new dimension and perspective.
6. You would know that this competition aims to re-define and transform a hotel space. However, as you tour the transformed rooms later, you will realise that this is way beyond an exercise in interior design. Entries submitted have come from across the fields of arts, design and media. The key elements of the workshop span across the entire spectrum of the Creative Industries.
   
   

   Synergistic Approach in Development of Creative Industries

7. This synergistic approach mirrors our strategy in developing the Creative Industries, comprising the distinct but interlocked art, design and media sectors. This is the Creative Industries Development Strategy, under which we will invest more than S$200 million over 5 years to develop Singapore into a New Asia Creative Hub.
8. Creative Youth Xchange @ Gallery Hotel is one of the events under the Crea ©tive 2005 – Reinvent Your Future initiative, a clustering of activities by MICA under the Creative Industries Development Strategy. The other events clustered under Crea ©tive 2005 include Beyond 2005: The Global Summit for Creative Industries, Singapore Design Festival and Asia Media Festival. I hope you will find time to participate in the many on-going activities under the two festivals.
   
   

   Conclusion

9. The organisers told me earlier that one of the taglines used for this year’s Creative Youth Xchange is “19 Rooms, 16 Participants, 1 Winner”. I would like to offer an alternative. “19 Rooms, 16 Participants, 16 Winners”. Through the workshop process, the interactions and the exchanges, I believe that all of you are winners as you would have benefited immensely from this experience and gained new skills and perspectives that will go a long way in your future career in the Creative Industries.
10. In conclusion, I extend my heartiest congratulations to the prize winners of Creative Youth Xchange @ Gallery Hotel and offer my best wishes to all participants.