TF-NUS Heritage Champions aims to engage up to 120 youths over two years to incubate up to 10 innovative digital heritage projects
The National University of Singapore Libraries (NUS Libraries), in partnership with Temasek Foundation (TF), and supported by the National Heritage Board (NHB), has launched an inaugural youth heritage ambassador outreach initiative, TF-NUS Heritage Champions, to promote youth awareness and engagement with Singapore’s unique heritage.
Through a curated training programme and support for heritage engagement projects, this initiative aims to inspire participants to increase their knowledge of Singapore’s built, social and cultural heritage; enhance bonds and trust between communities through collaborations; and incubate new innovative and interactive solutions for community engagement.
“As a multicultural society, Singapore has consciously strived to better understand our diverse heritage, which has contributed to the social harmony and cohesion we enjoy today,” said NUS University Librarian, Associate Professor Natalie Pang, who conceptualised the initiative. “However, in our race towards modernisation and urbanisation, Singapore has had to balance between preserving the past while securing its future on the global stage. Inevitably, this has created gaps in the preservation and understanding of our rich history and heritage.”
Past studies have shown that young people in Singapore largely agree with the importance of understanding local heritage, however the same studies also show that they do not actively seek out that information or try to understand it in a new light. It is with this desire to revitalise and motivate youths to understand their heritage in new and innovative ways that TF-NUS Heritage Champions was conceptualised.
“It is crucial that we retain our collective sense of shared history and culture, by preserving the histories and memories of our environment and communities, re-presenting them in a new light for future generations to encounter and learn from,” said Assoc Prof Pang.
An Academic-Public-Private Collaboration
NUS Libraries has long been a steward and repository of historical documents and artefacts with national significance, such as the private papers and journals of Emeritus Professor Edwin Thumboo, the late pioneering actor Bai Yan, and the fifth Earl of Cranbrook. TF-NUS Heritage Champions brings together Temasek Foundation’s strengths in curating programmes to build social resilience and catalysing innovation, and NUS Libraries’ expertise in knowledge and information management, digital preservation and multi-disciplinary learning technology, and wide network of academics and expertise in heritage and related disciplines.
“Temasek Foundation is proud to partner with NUS Libraries in this collective effort to promote our shared heritage through the inaugural launch of TF-NUS Heritage Champions. This project aligns with our interest in championing ideas and programmes that catalyse impact in Singapore and the region – we look forward to seeing the new and meaningful innovations that will be ignited by these young heritage champions,” said Temasek Foundation Senior Director of Programmes, Mr James Chan.
Together with the active support of the National Heritage Board (NHB), TF-NUS Heritage Champions marks a significant milestone in bringing together academia as well as the public and private sectors in furthering the cause of heritage preservation in Singapore.
“NHB is honoured to support the TF-NUS Heritage Champions programme, as it will promote greater co-ownership of our heritage among community institutions and deepen engagement with youths to encourage them to participate in and advocate for Singapore’s heritage. We are also excited to see how our youths will apply technology and innovation to engage with heritage, which in turn will enrich the heritage landscape of Singapore.
We hope more community institutions can follow in the footsteps of TF and NUS Libraries to play this vital role in the safeguarding and promotion of culture and traditions,” said Mr Gerald Wee, NHB’s Director for Education and Community Outreach.
Groundwork for the initiative began in early 2024 with several weeks of roundtable discussions between various mixed groups of academics, historians, heritage groups such as the Singapore Heritage Society, and government agencies such as NHB and the Housing Development Board. The discussions helped to define specific areas that programme participants will focus on.
“The roundtable discussion was a rare occasion that enabled various experts in the heritage field to meet to talk about topics and themes in a safe academic setting, which is something NUS Libraries can actively cultivate through its network and active work in conservation,” said Mr Fauzy Ismail, President of the Singapore Heritage Society.
He added, “This project is a great opportunity for Singapore Heritage Society to advance its mission to support heritage conservation in Singapore. Being able to interact with and link up students, and public and private sectors to collaborate across sectors is a rare opportunity, and should happen more often, since it creates an opportunity for students to understand more about the work that goes into developing and maintaining heritage projects. Hopefully this will lead to students becoming more active participants and stakeholders in Singapore’s heritage. I’m looking forward to see what interesting projects participants will come up with.”
(Please refer to Annexe B for photos of the roundtable sessions that can be used for publicity purposes.)
Programme Overview
The programme is catered for youths from institutes of higher learning in Singapore. Registration for the first run will start in July 2024, and the second run in 2025.
NUS Libraries hopes to recruit up to 60 participants per run (for a total of 120 participants over two years), who will then embark on a training phase comprising several weeks of workshops on Singapore’s history and heritage, as well as digital preservation methods and community outreach.
The training phase will culminate in a heritage ideathon, in which participants will be given a period of several weeks to develop innovative solutions for a specific heritage and conservation challenge, which participants can identify on their own, or from a list of suggested areas and topics identified by NUS Libraries (See Annexe A). Participants will then be given the opportunity to present their proposals to a panel of judges, which will include representatives from NUS Libraries, Temasek Foundation, NHB and Singapore Heritage Society.
The five best proposals will move on to an incubation phase lasting up to six months, in which the selected groups will be provided resources as well as additional training and mentorship to deliver a pilot implementation of their proposal.
By the end of the programme, NUS Libraries hopes to incubate up to 10 community heritage projects, which can then be further developed by local heritage groups, private sector organisations, or government agencies.
A summary of the programme, training workshops and potential heritage themes and topics can be found in Annexe A.
“This programme aligns with the work we do at NUS Libraries, where among our myriad roles as knowledge and information professionals, we also serve as custodians and archivists of Singapore’s history and heritage,” said Assoc Prof Pang, adding, “In our work with students at the University, it is very clear to us that our youth are at the heart of this effort, bringing innovation, energy, and fresh perspectives to help their peers – and future generations – understand that to know where we are headed, we must always know where we’ve come from.”
TF-NUS Heritage Champions is open for registration from now till 2 September 2024.