Inaugurated in 1977, the annual arts festival went on a hiatus after 2012 and returned in 2014 under the baton of Festival Director Ong Keng Sen. With the mission to artistically reinvigorate and transform the festival, Ong renamed it Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA). He initiated The O.P.E.N., a pre-festival of ideas to engage diverse audiences with the ideas, issues and themes of SIFA. Today, SIFA is the premier national performing arts festival managed by the Arts House Limited and commissioned by the National Arts Council. It aims to inspire through great international and Singapore artistic experiences in performance, theatre, dance and music. 

Internationally acclaimed New York-based Chinese artist and ACC Fellow, Cai Guo-Qiang, curated an exhibition featuring 15 contemporary Chinese artists working across disciplines and multiple media. What About the Art? presents each artist in individual galleries, a curatorial approach exemplifying each artist's unique language and methodology and highlighting the distinctive creative pursuit of each individual participant. 

Stemming out of installation opera ‘Paradise Interrupted,’ this series of new iconic work by ACC grantee Jennifer Wen Ma explores the notion of paradise and utopia. The exhibition features two newly commissioned works, two video installations and a multi-media painting installation. ACC grantee Xiaoyu Weng, Associate Curator at the Guggenheim Museum, contributes a critical essay that surveys the artist’s recent works,” says the gallery.

A co-production of National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying), Spoleto Festival USA, Lincoln Center Festival and Singapore International Festival of Arts, the one-act “installation opera” Paradise Interrupted is adapted from a section of the Kunqu classic The Peony Pavilion and has gathered some of the most prominent Asian and Asian American artists working nowadays. The Emmy-awarding winner (and ACC grantee) Jennifer Wen Ma's stage design incorporates paper cutouts, Chinese watercolor, light and shadow, and multimedia installations. The result is dark, mysterious garden that leads the depth of the human heart. 

Cry Joy Park—Gardens of Dark and Light investigates the history and social landscape of Charleston, a cultural capital of the American South, and an exemplar of its complex opulence and beauty. The exhibition creates an immersive, multi-sensory experience that explores the juxtaposition of utopia and dystopia. Cry Joy Park is an ongoing series of work following Paradise Interrupted, an installation opera conceived, designed, and directed by ACC alumna Jennifer Wen Ma, which made its world premiere at Spoleto Festival 2015.