The announcement from Lee Weng Choy and Audrey Wong 2008- October

In October last year, Weng and Audrey told us (the board) of their decision to step down some time in 2009. Although this was sad…end of an era…it was clear that closure and renewal is important for everyone, both personally and professionally. So the process of finding a new Artistic Director began.

Like everything in The Substation, it is all about process.

We felt we had to design a process which took into account many different things including; The Substation’s mission, ‘best practices’ (of charities and arts groups), our own Articles of Association, our existing hiring policies, our budget and our own – the board’s – responsibility for the integrity of the process itself.

We realised that this process would have to stand up to the staff, the incumbents, artists, major stakeholders, donors and the general public.

So we spent nearly 8 months coming up with the final process, a job description, a timeline, and the very first public announcements.

During this time, many things were discussed, passions were expressed (in a good way!), values were explored and the very essence of The Substation was turned inside out by the board members. The management (Weng, Audrey and Julie) and Board of Directors also spoke with individuals in and around the arts community to assist us in clarifying issues and developing the most robust process possible.

We decided that we’d proceed thus:

1) First we call for applications and submissions. Obviously ‘applications’ speaks for itself, but the ‘submissions’ bit was our way of asking people interested in the future of The Substation to air their views. This way, even if someone didn’t want the job, they’d have a say and we would listen.

2) Then we’d (a subcommittee here as it is hugely time-intensive, of Peter Schoppert, Tan Pin Pin, and KC Chew) meet everyone who is an eligible, qualified and appropriate candidate and listen to what they have to say. We’d have questions of course, and these applicants’ opinions are sought on a wide variety of topics.

3) A shorter list of candidates would meet again with the remainder of the board to present, ask questions, answer questions and generally explore possibilities, potential and a future.

4) In the final stage, two or three remaining candidates would be asked to make a short presentation to the board and invited members of the arts community and stakeholders of The Substation. This final stage was only confirmed quite late in our own internal discussions. We knew we needed to seek broader input, but struggled with finding the right forum. We considered opening this up to the general public, but realised that in order to respect the (understandable) requirements for confidentiality on the part of the candidates, those attending this presentation must be invited guests and also must agree to respect the process.