Our Stylo Mylo crew, comprising of members from The Little Arts Academy and 10 Square Youth, were invited to perform at the “Spirit of Giving” Performing Arts Ball in Philippines, a fundraising charity gala organised by The PARC Foundation.
They collaborated with ParcAralan Scholars, performing in front of many special guests at the concert organised in aid of the youths supported by The PARC Foundation.
ChildAid 2019 featured a total of 13 children and youths. From emcees – Rey Phua and Qaseh, to hip-hop dance groups- Stylo Mylo and Sugar Rush Crew, audiences were left enraptured by their dexterity, wit and electrifying showmanship!
Children and youths from The Little Arts Academy (LAA) and 10 Square Youth performed songs for the festive season as part of the launch for ChariTrees 2019.
The year-end Christmas initiative saw 200 specially-designed physical and augmented reality (AR) Christmas Trees light up the Marina Bay Waterfront Promenade in celebration of our community heroes.
The launch event was a showcase of the spirit of giving; in honour of the efforts of corporations, community groups and individuals who have helped those in need to overcome adversities and thrive during challenging times.
The Little Arts Academy kicked off their calendar project in partnership with Citi Singapore for the fifth consecutive year!
The theme for 2020 is ‘Diversity and Inclusion’. A digitally-enhanced calendar was conceptualised to showcase the works of more than 40 young artists of diverse artistic genres: dance, music, theatre and visual arts.
Through the brainstorming workshop led by guest artist, Larry Peh, coupled with many digital art and technology lessons, the children were able to bring their artistic creations to life with their newfound digital skills.
Additionally, our Performing Arts students could be involved in this collaboration for the very first time! Going beyond traditional canvas and paint, our Visual Arts students worked with the Performing Arts students to video record and incorporate movements into their digital artworks.
LAA’s 11th anniversary celebrations saw the reprisal of an original production Chutki, staged in 2013 that was written by a former student. The story was adapted from Paro Anand’s children novel Wingless, in which the protagonist, angel princess Chutki finds friendship and love in her journey to gain acceptance for being different.
Encounters in the Heartlands • When Chance meets Change
More than 50 children and youths staged an original production about their encounters in the heartlands that brought them out of their comfort zones. In one of the stories, four teenagers are stuck in a lift; they share their personal challenges and motivate each other to embrace Chance as an opportunity for Change.
During the June holidays, our students had the privilege to visit Google Singapore’s office at Mapletree Business City.
The children gained many insights about embracing technology at work and also had fun exploring the different spaces inside. They were especially delighted to explore the Makerspace.
As we continue to embrace a digital future, we hope to open young minds to the infinite possibilities of technology – merging their creations and art with tech!
A jungle scene comes alive in 3D from the iPhones of audiences as they watched the children of arts training centre, The Little Arts Academy (LAA) perform in “Ki”, a year end theatre show adapted from English author Rudyard Kipling’s classic children story, The Jungle Book.
The jungle scene is one of several digital backdrops that have been created and animated by the children and youths aged six to 19 using digital art tools such as Google’s Tilt brush to provide an immersive experience.
This infusion of technology is a first time for a production by LAA, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in November 2018.
Says curriculum manager, Azizah Abdullah, “The children have taken the ownership for this performance to go beyond traditional art making so as to bring a new experience to this production. They feel a sense of accomplishment when they see their works come to ‘live’ through the use of digital technologies, which opens up new and unexpected possibilities.”
See the world in Rhythmic Patterns through the eyes of young and talented budding artists from our advanced visual arts programme, Mini Monet.
The artworks reflect a unique perspective of the many hidden patterns that can be found in their surroundings. They are also an expression of how children see beauty in the ordinary. With their vivid imagination, they have created a new dimension filled with endless possibilities.
Using creative patterns and vibrant colours, our young artists invite you to relook at what is conventional and make new discoveries with innovative ways of pattern recognition.
CAVE, which stands for Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, has been available at polytechnics and universities here, but can now be accessed by children aged six to 12 years old at The Little Arts Academy’s (LAA) new campus at Yishun’s Northpoint City. [more…]
Fun With Lines is an excursion into the children’s imaginative worlds and by extrapolation, a view into their hobbies, interests and greatest desires. From accidental paint splatters, to hidden shapes and energetic musical beats, these young visual art students have sought inspiration from everyday interactions that inspired them to put their imagination onto canvas. For the first time, this exhibition features the use of Augmented Reality (AR) infused into their art works. Step into a curious world of Fun With Lines and experience the blurred lines of reality and fiction!
Performed by the children of The Little Arts Academy, DamaiLane: Part 1, is based on Sing to the Dawn by Minfong Ho. The story follows the life of Dara, a young village girl who wins a scholarship to study in the city school. Her Father, a conservative man disapproves of her furthering her studies, while her brother, Kamal becomes envious. Dara faces obstacles at every turn and eventually overcomes them and proved to herself and others that she is capable.
The Little Arts Academy (LAA), an arts training centre known for its social mission, opens the first of its two centres in the north of Singapore today. This marks the first step the centre is making to further its reach to the community.
Currently located at PoMo in Selegie Road in the heart of town, LAA’s new north campuses will be located at Northpoint City. The first, North Campus I opens today while the second is slated to open in March 2018. Founded in 2008, LAA provides free arts training in music, dance, theatre and visual arts for the beneficiaries of The Business Times Budding Artists Fund (BT BAF). more..
Six members of dance group, Sugar Rush Crew put up an ethnic dance performance at the 5th edition of ChildAid Asia Malaysia on 25 – 26 August 2016. This is the second time the group is performing at ChildAid Asia Malaysia. This year’s performance was challenging as they had to collaborate with classical Indian dancers from Mahavidya Dance Theatre, a dance group based in Kuala Lumpur (KL). In spite of the short time given to practise, they managed to pull off a beautiful 5-minute dance which drew loud cheers from the audiences.
During this excursion, Sugar Rush Crew also participated in several workshops and took in the sights of KL.
ChildAid Asia Malaysia is a charity concert for young people by young people. Living up to its mission, the concert has brought together local talents as well as many from the region such as Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines and Singapore to perform on the same stage. Its theme in 2017 – Magical – aptly describes this journey which has allowed young people to foster friendships across borders and to use their talents to benefit the less privileged.
This year’s theme for he Citibank Calendar 2018 Competition is Pathways to Progress.
A total of 40 entries were submitted by our students. Of which, 25 sketches were shortlisted which depicted the career aspirations of the students. On 11 August, a panel of judges including Ms Lin Hsiu Yi, Citi Commercial Banking Country Business Head and Mr Rodney head of commercial bank digitisation for Asia, selected 13 designs to grace the 2018 calendar.
The Pathways to Progress initiative is a commitment from Citi Foundation to help youths improve their career-readiness through first jobs, internships, and leadership and entrepreneurship training.
More than 1000 figurines painted by international and Singaporean artists, cultural figures and well-known personalities were on display at the Tian Tian Xiang Shang art exhibition at Raffles City. Tian Tian Xiang Shang, which means ‘ to look up every day’ in Mandarin, is an inclusive project to promote cross-cultural exchanges, creativity and dialogues. LAA students were delighted to participate and contribute 200 painted figurines, each uniquely depicting their limitless imaginations.
Three of our students attended the launch of the exhibition on July 29.
Sugar Rush Crew and Stylo Mylo Crew took time out of their hip hop routine to burn the dance floor with members of the Step One Dance, a leading dance company in Mindanao Philippines. The 16 students who took part in this cultural exchange on 11 June were exposed to an eye opening experience of ballroom dancing – a genre outside their typical dance routine. They shared the dance floor with these professional dancers at Dreams Come True, a charity fundraiser for The Business Times Budding Artists Fund. Huge thanks to Step One Dance and our donors as well as supporters for making this night possible!
Citi’s Global Community Day was a huge success this June! Our children and youths facilitated a tote bag design workshop which was very well-received.
This is the third consecutive year that Citi Commercial Bank has collaborated with The Business Times Budding Artists Fund to showcase the artwork created by our young artists in their marketing collaterals. The collaboration includes an art competition with the theme “Pathways to Progress” for the young artists to translate their career aspirations into creative visual illustrations.
We would like to express our gratitude to Citibank Singapore for giving our beneficiaries an opportunity to showcase their works!
A special performance by the students and alumni from LAA and 10 Square Youth. Titled “A Special TSA: Truth, Struggles & Achievement”, the main cast narrated their stories through a series of videos and performances that depict their experiences of how the Fund has helped them break free from their obstacles.
In March, children and youths from the Little Arts Academy took part in a series of dance workshops conducted by acclaimed French contemporary dancer and choreographer, Mr Abou Lagraa. Mr Lagraa is a BNP Paribas Foundation Ambassador, working with the Foundation since 2006 to promote education for children and young people through the pursuit of an artistic activity. He was in Singapore at the invitation of BNP Paribas Foundation as part of their Dream Up programme, which was launched in 2015 and reaches out to children and youths who are living with disabilities or from underprivileged backgrounds to receive training and guidance in an artistic activity.
The students’ hard work was evident at the showcase where they collaborated to perform dance items from the workshop. LAA would like to thank Mr Abou Lagraa and BNP Paribas Foundation for their support and initiative!
Christmas is coming! To celebrate this joyous occasion, The Clementi Mall Management has liaised with 10Square and The Little Arts Academy to organize a series of enchanting performances for festive shoppers. Our children and youth performers dazzled members of public with their evening performances, on the 16-18 Dec and 21-23 Dec, with the stage right at the very heart of the mall!
On 8 December 2016, a launch event was held at Fidgets, an indoor playground, for three books written by 7 talented 10-year-old students from CHIJ Kellock Primary School. The three books are titled “No”, “Emily and the Paintbrush” and “The Magic Bag of Gold Coins” respectively, which are part of a collaboration project between CHIJ Kellock Primary School and The Rice Company Limited, in commemoration of the 11th anniversary of the Business Times Budding Artist Fund (BTBAF).
On 3 and 4 December 2016, to kick-start the Christmas season of giving, our students participated in a fundraising event in partnership with Uniqlo. The event was held over the weekend at the Uniqlo Orchard Central Flagship Store.
Prior to the event, our students participated in a drawing workshop conducted by renowned artist, Peter Draw, to perfect their drawing skills so as to create masterpieces for the donors at the event.
As the end of 2016 approaches, it is now time for the LAA’s annual year-end production. This year, the play put up will be a reimagination of Roald Dahl’s riveting children’s novel ‘The BFG’, the story of a big friendly giant, his human friend Sophie and their quest of a lifetime to save the children from human-eating giants. The morning of 1 December, opening day of ‘The BFG’, is buzzing with adrenaline at 10square@Orchard Central, where the play will be held. This is the day that the children have all been waiting for, the day they will showcase their individual talents, after weeks upon weeks of tireless rehearsals. Here’s a peek of ‘The BFG’!
On 29 November 2016, the annual Mini Monet Visual Arts Exhibition was held at 10Square at Orchard Central, featuring art works by 10 of our young artists aged between 10 to 12 years old.
These young artists are under a year-long Mini Monet Arts Programme sponsored by the United Overseas Bank (UOB), where they will go through visual arts training at the Little Arts Academy. Over the course of the year, these students are then required to produce 2 to 3 pieces of artwork and their works are then featured after completion of the programme at the annual Mini Monet exhibition to celebrate their graduation.
On 19 November 2016, ChildAid Asia held its inaugural symposium event, “Friendship without Borders”, at Suntec City. The event was organized by The RICE Company Limited with the objective of promoting the ChildAid movement in the Asian region as opportunities for young budding artists to showcase their talents on a bigger stage, as well as to raise funds for a worthy cause.
40 distinguished guests turned up for the event. At the symposium, key partners from Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia were also invited to do presentations on the ChildAid movement in Asia and its future direction amidst the different political and socio-economic factors and challenges in today’s world.
ChildAid was established in 2005 with the main objective of raising funds for The Business Times Budding Artist Fund (BTBAF) to provide arts training for young artistic talents, as well as for The Straits Times Pocket Money Fund to provide pocket money to children from low-income families. Since then, it has become one of the largest-scale annual children’s charity concerts in Singapore, with the annual ChildAid Concert attracting large audiences from all walks of life.
Presenting to you, the Sugar Rush Crew at Rpresenting to Da Fullest Hip Hop Competition! The sweat, tears and hard work they had invested in this competition had definitely paid off when they got into the finals. Although they won consolation prize, what mattered the most was that they had danced with all their hearts and soul. These experiences would undoubtedly be stamped in their minds and aid them in the long journey ahead. A big thank to BNP Paribas for supporting the Sugar Rush Crew thus far and making the dreams of dancing come true for these children!
On 28 May 2016, Sugar Rush Crew (who were supported by The BNP Dream Up Project) reported to Changi Airport and embarked on a journey they would never forget. Just in 4 hours, they landed on the beautiful land named Ha Noi, Vietnam, ready for upcoming challenges! These talented teenagers were singled out to perform for the ASEAN Children’s Festival.
On 13th May 2016, the children division and the youth division of the Little Arts Academy collaborated to put up performances for the 11th anniversary of BT BAF (The Business Times Budding Artists Fund), which was held at 10Square Auditorium. The performances were multidisciplinary as they encompass singing and dancing.
The auditorium was bursting with cheers, exclamations and blasting music the moment Stylo Mylo dance group walked up the stage. Who wouldn’t be amazed at the skills of Stylo Mylo? These young children from the Little Arts Academy won the hearts of the crowd with their sharp, refined hip hop movements, from the way they swung their hips to the way they shook their heads. One couldn’t help moving his body along with these energetic, animated children.
In stark contrast to the Nu Style performance by Stylo Mylo, the house was brought to a complete silence when they heard the angelic voice of Hayati. To complement her sweet voice, Twinklers, our very own Ballet students, moved with the rhythm around Hayati, making it one of the most beautiful performances ever! This collaboration of the youth and the children division added a perfect note to the night when we commemorated the 11th anniversary of BT BAF.
This anniversary production titled A Tree’s Tale is adapted from The See-Saw Tree, a play written by David Wood. Performed by children from The Little Arts Academy, it tells a story of resilience and creativity in the face of adversity. The play ends with a twist which asks for your participation.
Each year, a group of children-budding visual artists from The Little Arts Academy are selected to be a part of the Mini Monet Programme. Through their artwork, these children display their vivid imagination, rich creativity and the world as seen through their young eyes. More importantly, they show potential in being tomorrow’s leading artists and bringing communities together using their talent and passion for visual arts. The Mini Monet programme, an advanced level visual arts programme, seeks to provide greater support for talented young visual artists from financially disadvantaged families. United Overseas Bank (UOB) has been the sponsor for this programme since 2010. The Little Arts Academy is grateful to UOB for their steadfast support. In this year’s edition, the children shares what being a Mini Monet means to them…
A beautifully painted cherry blossom tree, accompanied by white cranes neatly scattered on the floor of the auditorium at 10 Square @ Orchard Central was the focal backdrop of LAA’s 6th annual production, Dreams.
More than 40 children and youth were involved in the production. Dreams was graced by Ms Kathy Lai, CEO, National Arts Council, and attended by board members of The RICE Company Limited, Board of Trustees of The Business Times Budding Artists Fund, partners, sponsors, families and guests. Held from 22nd to 23rd November 2014, the children performed in front of almost 200 guests who came to watch the two productions.
Seventeen 2D artworks and eight 3D sculptures were showcased at the Mini Monet 2014 Exhibition held at 10 square @ Orchard Central from 21 November to 25 November. Crafted and painted using various medium, these imaginative art pieces were the works of 10 children from the Mini Monet class, an advanced visual arts class supported by the United Overseas Bank (UOB). The theme of the artworks this year was Imagination.
The opening ceremony, attended by more than 30 guests comprising families, friends and supporters, was graced by Ms Tan Ping Ping, Vice President of the Group Brand Performance and Corporate Communications, United Overseas Bank.
Sponsored by UOB since 2010, the Mini Monet programme is an advanced level visual arts programme at The Little Arts Academy. UOB will be extending their sponsorship for another group of talented budding visual artists next year.
The Little Arts Academy’s very own junior show choir made their debut at the Business Times Budding Artists Fund’s (BT BAF) 9th year anniversary celebrations held at the Academy’s premises on 9th May 2014. Only a month old, they performed a catchy ONE Direction hit ‘While we’re young’, much to the delight of the guests. The celebration was attended by over 100 guests, among which were members of the BT BAF Board of Trustees, supporters, partners and donors, beneficiaries and parents. Guests were treated to a series of performances by the children and youth at LAA from the different disciplines.
Nineteen Bright and Bold works graced the gallery at The Arts House from the 28 November to 2 December. The beautiful works were among the best creative expressions of 10 children from the Mini Monet class supported by the United Overseas Bank.
Done in a range of media, including Jumping Clay and Cloth, the artworks spoke of the numerous hours of hard work, patience, love and joy of these young artists and their supportive parents and family members.
After almost three months of intensive rehearsals, the day to stage LAA’s fifth anniversary production – Chutki, had finally arrived. An hour before the matinee show was scheduled to start, parents and guests were lining up outside for their tickets to gain admission at the Alliance Francaise.
Chutki is a story that advocates acceptance, while at the same time presenting the beauty of the arts. This story was written by Nur Shahanaaz Muhd Taufik, one of the Youth Division theatre students, and was adapted from the story Wingless, by Paro Anand,about theangel princess Chutki who was born without wings and thus treated differently by the other angels.
More than 60 children from across all four art forms and youth from LAA were involved in the production. The children and youth ballerinas took on the role of Happy and Dark Angels, while the Nu Style dancers were the street kids that introduced Chutki, our protagonist, to the beauty of the arts. The budding actors from the Children Division took on the roles of the main and supporting casts. Coordinating all of them, as well as the stage was the Young Actors Anonymous, the Youth Division @ LAA theatre group. The youth took on the roles of Assistant Director, Costume Designer, Stage Manager and more, taking charge of the performance from the backstage.
