Goodman Arts Centre in Mountbatten holds its first HOME | GROUND on Saturday 24 October, from 4pm to 10pm. The one-day programme spreads performances, installations, workshops and a makers’ market across the centre’s studios, carparks, field and amphitheatre.
The site was once home to Tun Seri Lanang Malay Secondary School, LASALLE College of the Arts and the School of the Arts. Today it houses nearly 70 arts tenants, making it Singapore’s largest arts enclave. HOME | GROUND is billed as a new signature programme for the centre, with former students and teachers, past and present tenants, and neighbours all part of the line-up.
What is on across the grounds
The programme runs under four strands. kiss the raindrops gathers performances and installations about the communities that once used the buildings, including storytelling sessions by Natalie Hennedige and Suhaili Safari that pay tribute to Tun Seri Lanang Secondary School. ROOTED | Site Encounters places site-specific works by alumni and resident artists around the centre.
HOME | Frequencies and ilmu bring live music, dance and cultural acts, with NADA, Kiat and Cherry Chan on the bill. i thought you knew is the hands-on strand: Nicole Goh runs a session on the craft of ironing a shirt, and another workshop teaches fathers to plait their children’s hair.
Ground Goods turns the visitor carpark into a market of local makers and food trucks, with vendors including Goodnight Gang, MF MOTO, Moon Pang Toh, Rugged MFG. and Mad Rat Inc. PayNow or PayLah! is the preferred way to pay. On the field, The Commons Gathering asks visitors to bring their own chair and stay a while.
Open studios from 10am
More than 20 tenants open their studios to the public at 10am on 24 October. The HOME | GROUND programme itself runs from 4pm to 10pm. Visitors can see works in progress and talk to the artists in the spaces where they make their work. The open studios follow Goodman Artventure, a set of year-round trails around the centre that started on 6 June.
“With HOME | GROUND, we are bringing these chapters together through performances, installations, workshops and shared experiences across the Centre,” said Sharon Tan, executive director of Arts House Group.
Getting there
Goodman Arts Centre is at 90 Goodman Road, a 10-minute walk from Mountbatten MRT station on the Circle Line. Buses 12, 14, 30, 30E, 158, 196 and 401 stop on Mountbatten Road. Parking on site is limited, with more public parking along Kampong Kayu Road.
A heritage node for Mountbatten
The day also launches HAN@Mountbatten, a Heritage Activation Node run with the National Heritage Board, starting with the unveiling of a mural at Mountbatten Community Club on 24 October. A call for stories invites people with links to the area to share memories, particularly of its shipbuilding and shipyard history, changing flora, heritage businesses and built environment.
