An Interview with Ms Emi Eu Executive Director of STPI1

Emi Eu Image Credit: Toni Cuhadi. Image courtesy of STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery, Singapore

Culture Academy How has STPI responded to the challenge of COVID?

Emi Eu Around the end of February, we were fortunate to have done a table-top planning exercise on Busines Continuity Processes at STPI, to deal with a hypothetical pandemic. But when I look back it was so naïve, that it was focusing only on the physical side, not realizing that the entire world would grind to a halt. Fast forward to Circuit Breaker, all I remember was trying to figure out how we were going to emerge from the pandemic, and it looked very bleak.

1 STPI Creative Workshop and Gallery STPI is a creative workshop and contemporary art gallery based in Singapore. Established in 2002, STPI is a not-for-profit organization committed to promoting artistic experimentation in the mediums of print and paper and has become one of the most cutting-edge destinations for contemporary art in Asia. STPI collaborates with top international and local artists on projects with print and paper.

Grooming the Next Generation of Cultural Leaders

I was pulled into an informal think-tank of about 18 gallerists who were members of the Art Basel committee from around the world. At first it was like a group therapy session, each sharing what was happening in his/her part of the world, but then we started really thinking about how we were going to continue our business going forward. In that span of 12 months, the entire world has accelerated the shift to the digital realm, at a speed that has been incomprehensible, when the art world was nowhere near to this pre-COVID. We held virtual meetings weekly on Monday nights for those in Asia, and the group was an amazing way of thinking beyond where I was.

Since STPI’s residency programme relies so much on artists coming into Singapore, travel bans have had a huge impact. At the onset of the pandemic, I felt like we just hit a wall which the top cannot be seen. We need artists to come into the workshop to create new works, which we can then sell to bring income. Now, business-wise the gallery has pivoted so much quicker onto the digital platform, but the workshop still a lot of challenges working with artists as many of the Artists typically have a lot of other projects and/or distractions when they are in their own studios, so now our projects take longer to complete. But with every challenge there are opportunities – now we work more with artists who are based in Singapore who can come into our studio and workshop. While this was always part of our strategy, we have just accelerated this, so instead of 1 local artist per year we can have more. And this gave us another insight into how we can contribute towards building up or strengthen the ecosystem here. Some local artists we have worked with are Genevieve Chua (whose exhibition in February 2020 unfortunately was cut short by the Circuit Breaker), and we continue to work with her. We worked with Heman Chong last year after Circuit Breaker, and we now have a solo show in the gallery. We also did a smaller scale presentation for S.E.A. Focus from 22-31 Jan 2021 with Russel Wong. Together with Russel, we created special works to donate total of 49 works to NCID and all Family Service Centres in Singapore to thank them for their hard work during the pandemic period. We are now working with four local artists at the studios who are roughly at the same point in their artistic careers – Jason Lim, Ian Woo, Adeline Kueh and Zul Mahmod, for an exhibition next year. Culture Academy How did COVID-19 affect this year’s S.E.A. Focus? Has this influenced the way people see and buy art?

Emi Eu This January, we delivered the third iteration of S.E.A. Focus – the two earlier versions (2019 & 2020) took the form of art fairs held at Gillman Barracks, so each gallery had a booth to present the works and do sales. We also organized public talks by artists and industry professionals. This year, we did not even think we could do a physical exhibition, but we were constantly monitoring the changing situation - this was one of the biggest challenges, because the regulations could quickly shift. By October 2020, we felt that there might be a chance to hold a small physical presentation, to allow people to come out and see the art. When the project team went into the space, looking at the white walls being built, the emotions we felt were just indescribable. It The exhibition, hyper—horizon was just such a beautiful show. And people came out and were so happy to see art on

Grooming the Next Generation of Cultural Leaders

the wall that they could buy. Some collectors told us that it was the first time in a year that they had come out to actually see and buy works. Yes, they had been given a lot of information online, they had been sent pdfs of artworks from galleries, but to see an artwork in life is such a different experience. You talk to other collectors, your friends, you stand in front of the artwork… all these discussions in person, I don’t think you can really replace that with virtual engagement. The proliferation of online viewing rooms arose because there was no choice, but situation permitting, you could offer the physical show in tandem with what you are offering online. Culture Academy What challenges are there to going Phygital (Physical + Digital)?

Emi Eu Now we need to be able to satisfy both types of customers - which means we all have to work doubly hard. To strengthen the core competencies of the existing team, or when hiring we have to ensure that the person can navigate the digital realm fluently - now we all have to be digitally proficient. Culture Academy Has there been a ‘silver lining’ to COVID-19?

Emi Eu Our ultimate aim was to export S.E.A. Focus out of Singapore and the region to the West, to those who are not familiar with art from our region. And we never thought we could do that till we went digital. And the opportunity to do this came so quickly – we included virtual gallery tours as part of our programme, so someone in Ohio could visit our exhibition online, and listen to talks on Facebook or our Zoom webinars. On the other hand, OVRs (Online Viewing Rooms) are so saturated – many of our buyers are from other industries like Law and Finance whose meetings take place online all they. These professionals visit an art fair as a personal leisure pursuit. They don’t want to be on another digital call. Culture Academy Do you have a key lesson from the pandemic?

Emi Eu The most important lesson for me as a manager, especially relating to the digital transformation of the company, is that success really lies within yourself and your team. Digitalisation is not going to solve all our problems – we still have to rely on our team to use this tool to steer our businesses, and emerge stronger. It was a very steep learning curve for me personally – I am not technically savvy – but my understanding of ‘digitisation’ is a lot better now. This entire journey has been very rewarding in a sense – there has been a lot of personal growth.

Grooming the Next Generation of Cultural Leaders