THE ANNOUNCEMENT & Thank You from Audrey and Weng Choy

A big thank you to all our supporters and the candidates for their care, concern and patience during our search for a new Artistic Director. And finally, we've made the announcement - it will be Noor Effendy Ibrahim!

Yes, the search took longer than we anticipated. Two interview rounds, one stakeholder's forum, many subcommittee and board meetings later, we are at the end of the process.

During the search, the board and team at The Substation underwent their own process of reflection about what The Substation is, was, and can or should be. Each of us has our own dreams for The Substation, as did the candidates. The challenge is to match our aspirations with the reality of the organisation's situation and the resources in Singapore's arts and cultural scene, right here right now. We looked hard at what we had done successfully and where we hadn't done so well; where we had managed to fulfill our mission and where we had misfired. We asked ourselves many questions: "what exactly is our vision and mission? What needs to be changed? What can we afford to change? What are the future possibilities for The Substation? Why does it need to exist? What type of Substation Artistic Director does the Singapore arts scene need?"

These are questions without ready answers, and it's probably why we deliberated so long and hard over the candidates. Each candidate would have represented a different future Substation. We feel fortunate that we could attract extremely talented candidates with strong, diverse and sometimes fascinating track records. To all the candidates, we'd like to say how much we appreciate your thoughtfulness and contribution to the process, and that we are very glad to have met you. To the final four who faced the gauntlet of the stakeholders' forum, we thank you for your commitment - we know it wasn't easy, and we appreciate your time, effort and courage. We know that some people have been critical of the idea of putting the candidates in front of the stakeholders, but The Substation has always done things differently and is a place where people are challenged to go outside their comfort zones. (That's a quality that we'd like our AD and artistic leader to have!) We believed that people who had invested so much of themselves in The Substation and wanted a voice in the future of the place they love, needed to be heard and we sought to find a place for them. A big thank you to the stakeholders who respected the process and its
confidentiality.

The forum demonstrated a certain maturing of The Substation community. Five or six years ago, I doubt that we could have done it, or could have found candidates who would have agreed to it.

It's been a tough process for the board and staff as much as it was for the candidates. But it has been thorough, and the board has been involved, engaged, and taken its responsibilities of guardianship and governance very seriously indeed. We are honoured to have been part of the process.

We are prepared for change and, since The Substation is an organisation that challenges artists, audiences and our own board and staff, we're looking forward to it.

We hope you will all continue to support the work of The Substation! We would like to express our deepest appreciation to all our board,staff, supporters, and artists, who have generously let us oversee The Substation for a while. It has been a privilege.

Audrey & Weng Choy

Drums rolling

The search is complete and the Board has made its decision. We’ll be making a public announcement soon.

We thank our supporters and the arts community for their care and concern.