After 39 years of housing dozens of NUS arts groups, including the Electronic Music Lab (NUS EML), the venerable building known as Runme Shaw CFA Studios is going to be demolished.
There are no plans to build a replacement building. Instead, all of the arts groups that have been using the Studios for training, lessons, rehearsals, and performances, will have to find new spaces around the National University of Singapore campus. Many of them will be able to book classrooms and rehearsal rooms at NUS University Town (“UTown”) but this is subject to limited availability. Instruments will all be stored in a common storage area.
Is this bad news for the arts on NUS campus?
For many of the arts groups - Guitar Ensemble, Fingerstyle Guitar, Jazz Band, Symphony Orchestra, Wind Symphony, Indian Instrumental Ensemble, Indian Dance, Chinese Orchestra, Chinese Dance, Chinese Drama, Dance Blast, Dance Ensemble, Dance Synergy, Angklung Ensemble, Harmonica, and more - this will definitely add friction to their rehearsals and training sessions. Some of them will have to use classrooms instead of dedicated music rehearsal rooms. All of them will lose the use of the established Studios which had a range of music rooms from single piano studios, to mid-size group rehearsal rooms, to full-size dance studios, and even a full-size auditorium that could fit a symphony orchestra.
Is this good news for the arts on NUS campus?
On the other hand, there could be a silver lining to this ominous cloud. The Studios have been a stand-alone building, apart from the main public areas of NUS, and out of sight and mind of the NUS public. With the groups forced out of the Studios and into the more accessible spaces at NUS UTown, their rehearsals will potentially be exposed to more NUS students and vice versa.
This could be an opportunity for more outreach, pop-up shows, and mini-showcases. The groups and their instruments (and in some cases, sound systems) would be right near the public, making it easier to perform there.
This is historic but it’s not the end of EML!
Just to avoid panic or confusion, it’s only the BUILDING that is being demolished, but Electronic Music Lab (and all the other arts groups) are going strong! EML is planning more events, recruiting new members for the new semester, and preparing to train them to create and perform electronic music!
The history that will be lost is all the memories that we’ve created in the Studios since the 1980s. But even those will live on in photos and in online installations.
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In the meantime, come to the show!
Join us on Friday 2 August 2024 at NUS Runme Shaw CFA Studios for the final block party there!
6 PM SYNTH MUSEUM - come and play the digital synths that EML has been using since the 1990s!
8 PM to 10 PM SWANSONGS - watch our live electronic music performance with SEVEN original electronic musicians! Details at https://osa.nus.edu.sg/event/swansongs-eml/
What do you think?
Do you have an interest in the arts? What are your thoughts on this change that is going to take place? Do you have any advice for the groups? Please share in the comments!
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