Individual Assignment Entry 2: Be A Manager

On Tuesday, the 5th of January 2010, I visited the National Library Building to visit an exhibition on the "Singapore Chinese Drama and Other Performing Arts". It took place at the Promenade on Level 9, and did not require an entry free.

(a) What is the objective of this event? Give a brief background to this event.
The aim of the exhibition on the "Singapore Chinese Drama and Other Performing Arts" is to provide a brief overview of the development of Chinese Drama in Singapore and create awareness of the importance of drama to local culture. The National Library also hopes that more people will be encouraged to come forth to donate related materials to the library for heritage preservation and research purposes.

(b) Who is the target audience?
The exhibition is targeted at people who are interested in the history and development of local Chinese Drama and other performing arts, people who barely know anything about it so as to create an awareness of the importance of drama to local culture, as well as people who lived in Singapore during the 1940s and 50s and want to take a walk down memory lane.

(c) How is the event publicised? (In other words, how does the target audience get to know about the event?)
Upon a search on Google, I realise that the event is publicised on a myriad of websites, ranging from the National Library Board's website itself to websites promoting the latest events in Singapore such as inSing.com to even two articles on The Straits Time's website.

In the order of how they would appear under the search of "Singapore Chinese Drama and Other Performing Arts National Library Board" on Google:
1. National Library Board
2. inSing.com
3. Singapore Happenings
4. National Library
5. Eventful
6. Yesterday.sg
7. The Straits Time - What's On: Sat's Top Picks
8. WhatsHappening.sg
9. Singapore Art Gallery Guide
10. The Straits Time - What's On: Thursday's Picks
11. Singapore Seminars

(d) Is the event reported in the media? If yes, how widely is it reported? (do a quick analysis of the reports, in terms of the angles that the media take, the importance of the coverage, and your opinion on the impact of the coverage). If no, why do you think the media did not cover the event? What do you think could be done to attract media coverage?
Yes. The event was mentioned in two articles on The Straits Time's website. Despite being reported in two articles, however, they were only very briefly covered in a minor section of the articles, that themselves are part of a minor section of the newspaper. Moreover, in both articles, the event is mentioned among many other local events that are taking place around the same period of time, and hence can be very easily overlooked. I feel that although media coverage has been done on the exhibition, very little importance has been placed on the articles which resulted in a minute impact. Hence, very little people were actually informed about the event, and even lesser people were persuaded to act and visit the exhibition after having read about it.

This is how details of the exhibition is mentioned in both articles:

SINGAPORE CHINESE DRAMA AND OTHER PERFORMING ARTS EXHIBITION

The contributions of Chinese theatre groups are highlighted in this exhibition of periodicals, photographs and posters dating back to the 1950s. Learn more about the significance of these groups that have shaped the development of the performing arts in Singapore.

Where: Promenade, Level 9, National Library Building MRT: City Hall/Bugis When: Till Jan 26, 10am - 9pm daily Admission: Free Tel: 6332-3255 Info: golibrary.nlb.gov.sg

(e) Assume you are the manager overseeing this project. Evaluate the success/failure of this event. How would you do it differently for greater success?
I would say that the event was overall a failure because the turnout rate of visitors was very low. When we visited the exhibition, besides the security guard, there were no other visitors to the exhibition besides two of my classmates and myself. Throughout our stay at the exhibition venue, only one or two senior-aged men walked in to take a brief look around before leaving. There was also a group of Caucasians who arrived at the venue, practically walked one round the exhibition without even looking at anything it had to offer and then leaving. They were disinterested in the exhibition, and looked as if the only reason as to why they were even there was because it was part of some tour. Hence, my classmates and I were the visitors who stayed the longest at the venue, and the only reason as to why we were even interested in the exhibition was to complete this MMP blog entry.

The exhibition also had a very low range of content to offer. It was a very small-scale exhibition, and I personally feel that it failed to fully showcase and do justice to the history and development of our local Chinese Drama and other performing arts. It also failed in one of its objectives to "create awareness of the importance of drama to local culture" as the exhibition had failed to convey that message to me.

However, the event was not a complete failure. I feel that although the turnout rate of visitors was not ideal and there could have been more content included in the exhibition, it did manage to achieve most of its set objectives. It managed to "provide a brief overview of the development of Chinese Drama in Singapore"; it was a "brief overview", as it was small-scaled, and did showcase the development of Chinese Drama in Singapore. I also feel that it managed to encourage more people to "come forth to donate related materials to the library for heritage preservation and research purposes" as people who have visited the exhibition would see that the National Library is sincere in its appeal and could really do with more materials to do with the development of local Chinese Drama and other performing arts.

The exhibition was also well-organised and laid out, as everything was arranged in an aesthetically appealing manner. A good sense of space was also made use of, as can be seen in the following photographs.



For greater success, I would first of all make it a bigger-scaled event and ensure that a bigger media coverage was done. I would try to gather more interesting and value-added content first before putting up the exhibition so as to fully showcase the history and development of Singapore's Chinese Drama and other performing arts, as well as to successfully create an awareness about the importance of Chinese Drama to local culture. I would probably not hold it in the National Library, and instead in the Singapore Arts Museum as it would be a bigger-scaled event, and more people would actually drop by to visit on a regular basis as well.

In terms of publicity, assuming that budget is not an issue, I would get local professionals trained in Chinese Drama and Dance to put up performances within or outside the venue at allocated time slots. I would also hold a competition for Primary and Secondary School students who take part in Chinese Drama and Dance. This way, the exhibition would also be able to reach out to the younger population in Singapore as these performers and their friends who would drop by to give support would be aware of the event, and also emphasize on the importance of Chinese Drama to local culture that it aims to create an awareness of. This would also make it more newsworthy and attract more media coverage.

Also, I would translate the contents from Mandarin to English to provide a translated guide as many were in the form of Mandarin articles and posters that visitors who are not literate or proficient in written Mandarin would not be able to understand and would hence be unable to fully appreciate the exhibition.