After losing our arts housing bid with the NAC, Little Red Shop, like a stray cat looking for a home, has been spending a lot of time seeking a suitable rehearsal venue for our artists. Fortunately enough, earlier this month, we made an arrangement with The Little Arts Academy to rent their rehearsal room, with a common understanding that money paid for the use of the room will be channeled to send an under-privileged child through an arts course organised by The Little Arts Academy.

For we see many similarities between under-privileged kids wanting to do art, but lack the opportunities to do so, and independent artists with limited access to many different forms of resources in Singapore; most of these resources unfortunately are not public goods, and hence are not readily available.

In its attempt to close this gap, Little Red Shop seeks to inculcate a theatre society, where independent artists are encouraged to bundle together to build capacities and share resources. While it faces great difficulties developing its works alone, the campaign, Rehearsing A Good Cause, is another attempt by the theatre society to get more donation monies for its ambitions. In a larger sense, this campaign is a meaningful initiative aimed at artistic development in Singapore, for both young and mature artists.

Centre Manager Adelina Ong was enthusiastic on this collaboration:

"The Little Arts Academy grew out from a need to provide more systematic arts training and a dedicated creative learning space for The Business Times Budding Artists Fund (BT BAF) beneficiaries and it is indeed encouraging to receive support from the arts community, especially Little Red Shop's effort in wanting to help these children to develop artistic abilities. This donation through Little Red Shop will help to support the education of more children from low-income families through The Little Arts Academy's programmes.

It offers fully subsidised training in dance, music, theatre and visual arts to children from financially disadvantaged families through BT BAF, and it would be impossible to accomplish this without support from the arts community. We are all part of an ecosystem that constantly draws on one another for support and inspiration in order to produce art that inspires and makes a difference to the world we live in.

The Little Arts Academy draws inspiration and knowledge from the arts community, thanks to the gifts of time and expertise through our teachers and in time, we hope that our students will grow up to become innovative, compassionate and creative individuals who will contribute to the arts community as artists, art supporters/donors and audiences who love and understand how the arts enrich our lives."

Rehearsing A Good Cause campaign is a chance for the public and arts enthusiasts to put their dollars into good use. This is a commitment Little Red Shop will make to our donors: Your dollars will be put to good use, not just for Little Red Shop, but also to develop another young prospective artist in Singapore. In addition Little Red Shop will also make donation figures public through our website. We will also track the development of the young artist under The Little Arts Academy's care. Rehearsal cost is pegged at $28 per rehearsal hour.

Art-making shouldn't be stopped in the face of adversities, least of all due to a lack of money in the arts. It shouldn't also be hindered by limited state support. For in diversity we see hope, in this case: Little Arts Academy's out-stretched hands to Little Red Shop in pushing us further toward building excellence in art-making.

We strongly urge friends of The Little Arts Academy and Little Red Shop to come together to make a difference in their lives. Make a small donation of $28 per hour today. All you need to do is to choose the number of hours you would like to support by entering the number of hours in the quantity box after you have clicked on the purchase button: