Building International Friendships
Inaugural SIF Connects! In Washington D.C. : Celebrating friendships through cultural connections
The SIF organises a series of SIF Connects! events in cities such as Washington DC to celebrate endearing friendships between Singapore and the world community.
What do American thought leader and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Jim Leach, prominent artist pair Gregory Burns and Angie Tan-Burns and a group of Singapore contemporary dance artists from the Maya Dance Theatre have in common? They all play a part in building relationships between Singapore and the world community.
In partnering the SIF to build stronger people-to-people ties between Singapore and the US through cross-cultural conversations and collaborations, they have nurtured international friendships “rooted in personal connections, relationships and the shared belief in working for a better world” says Ms Euleen Goh, Chairman of the SIF at the inaugural SIF Connects! event in Washington DC, on 14 November 2013.
Prominent artist pair Gregory Burns and Angie Tan (pictured here interacting with a guest) explored cross-cultural collaborations through their artistic practices as well as living in different cities in their exhibition Portals and Passages, which was showcased at the event.
This emphasis on friendships - both across borders and across cultures – to build a better future was what led the SIF to organise an event that showcases and celebrates culture as a bridge in connecting communities.
SIF Connects! Washington D.C. also seeks to reconnect and continue the conversations with Friends of Singapore (FOS) - programme alumni and former residents of Singapore - communities around US. And the evening certainly provided an opportunity for those present to gain an appreciation of Singapore or relive their Singapore experience through works of art, performances and food. Organised in partnership with and hosted by the Singapore Embassy in Washington D.C., the event brought together some 80 FOS (Friends of Singapore) and Singaporeans in an evening of friendship and cultural exchange.
From left to right: Maya Dance Theatre from Singapore sharing a slice of Singapore culture through their performance, Path, which fuses traditional and contemporary dance forms together; Building friendships through cultural connections was the theme of the inaugural edition of SIF Connects! Washington.
Guests explored American and Singaporean artist pair Gregory Burns and Angie Tan-Burns’s reflections of living across different cultures in Portals and Passages, a series of mixed genre works combining painting and photography. Homegrown dance company Maya Dance Theatre presented a side of multicultural Singapore with Antar, an Asian contemporary dance performance fusing traditional and modern forms. And finally, no SIF Connects! event would be complete without a line-up of Singapore food, and there was plenty of satay and rendang to indulge in.
