Kuala Lumpur, 5 August 2021: As artists and cultural performers face uncertainty and venue closures due to the pandemic, comes an initiative that livens up the art scene! Artists and practitioners of the Malaysian Arts, Heritage and Culture are invited to be part of the Arts for All Seasons (ArtsFAS) line-up, in which successful applicants are eligible for consideration of a project funding of up to RM250,000. Application opens until 15 August 2021.
Organised by Yayasan Hasanah (“Hasanah”) in the final quarter of every year, ArtsFAS serves as a platform to showcase Malaysia’s preserved and conserved arts, heritage, and culture through a series of performances, exhibitions and showcases that are open for the public to enjoy. While it honours our local artists, it was created with the core aim to pave the future of culture, connecting our heritage to generations of tomorrow, through all seasons.
The ArtsFAS platform welcomes application from practitioners of Malaysian Arts, Heritage and Culture, under a registered association or company in the art forms of dance, music, theatre, storytelling and oral traditions, visual arts, and crafts; with an element of traditional arts that can be contemporarised to suit current times. In line with ArtsFAS’s vision, activities proposed are encouraged to carry an element of education for the younger generation - where both the master and the disciple are featured.
Dato’ Shahira Ahmed Bazari, Managing Director of Yayasan Hasanah shares, “Through ArtsFAS, this important work to activate, and preserve the arts in Malaysia shall continue. This year, we hope to support the arts community as our ‘cultural frontliners’, provide economic opportunities, while soothing the hearts and spirits of the people with the healing power of arts as we cope with the challenges ahead.”
In its lead up, during the nation’s Movement Control Order (MCO 3.0), ArtsFAS in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture brought a series of music and performing arts to selected vaccination centres featuring local musicians to support the community while spreading good, calming vibes of music to bring more comfort in the vaccination process with vaccine receivers and frontliners.
Earlier in 2020, ArtsFAS, in support of artists and the arts community affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, collaborated with seven performing organisations and three individual performers – The Temple of Fine Arts, Akasha, Hands Percussion, Geng Wak Long, Rhythm in Bronze, No Noise Percussion, Ex-MAS Crew, Endang Hyder, Dodi Mohasdi, and Hajjah Rogayah Shukri.
Since its establishment in 2015, Hasanah through one of its core focus areas - arts and public spaces - has touched the lives of many in the sector and the public at large; contributing to the larger movement of arts, culture, and heritage preservation in Malaysia. By the end of 2020, a total of 90,559 individuals were exposed to Malaysian art, heritage, and culture through Hasanah’s support for various shows, screenings, theatre productions, workshops, exhibitions, festivals, and place-making activities. ArtsFAS is the latest addition to the various art preservation and conservation initiatives by Hasanah.
For further information and details on how to apply, visit www.yayasanhasanah.org/artsfas. Application opens until 15 August 2021.
