We had our biggest turnout yet at LEPARK – a community and F&B space for the arts, selling out all tickets for Be An Idea’s 7th Fuze Night, making it our most successful event to date. Bringing together the best people in the social impact sector, Fuze Nights serves as a platform for our humble, local superheroes to relax, connect and learn from others in the same space. Introducing elements of Vision into Fuze, we had an exciting line-up for the evening. First up, a bucket of beers to share for two lucky draw winners who dropped their cards into Lepark’s generous fishbowl!
“People, can grow their own food.”
Sharing his personal story on how he became a citizen farmer, Bjorn Low of Edible Gardens talked about how he wanted to repurpose under-utilised spaces and to also introduce the importance of sustainable food production in Singapore. He shared broadly about his work with schools, the National Design Centre, his involvement with popular F&B joint, Open Farm Community and how his work has helped empower the disabled and helped increase employment opportunities for the elderly. He also shared about his rooftop gardens at Raffles City and Wheelock Place and invited everyone to start with simple “desktop farming”.
“We came, we partied, we listened to the good content that we had, we worked with the communities ground up, all the music production was local – people who believed in the content that we had.”
Next up, we had Carmen Low, lady boss (and now event host!) of indie rooftop F&B joint, Lepark and arts curation platform, Getai Group. Sharing passionately about how they started from nothing to the largest rooftop concert, Getai Electronica, which attracted more than 1200 people, Carmen reiterated as to why Lepark is essential as a test bed for local artists. They’ve prototyped many “crazy” ideas before taking them out to under-utilised spaces around Singapore. Programming local music and art content on several platforms, their ideas include live art jam sessions, documentaries, pet adoption drives and yoga - all with the aim of bridging gaps in society and to introduce heritage and cultural elements via the arts.
Now widely known as a platform for local and original content, Lepark and Getai Group hope to always be a safe and open space for anyone.
Up next was the ever-enigmatic Tim de Cotta, who performed three of his originals to an enthralled audience. Sharing heart and soul via lyrics accompanied only by the bass guitar, the co-founder of Getai Group wowed everyone with his poignant and heart-hitting tunes.
“So many of us just look out around us, the journey inwards is really quite vital – it’s an ongoing process, it’s really important to appreciate the fact that every day is about putting one foot in front of the other.
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Our next speaker, well-known host, speaker and entrepreneur, Wong Li-Lin, energetically took to the stage as she shared about her life goal to collect recipes as to how to succeed in life. She shared about categorising people into three main groups – those who are engaged (people who love what they are doing, those that always want to do better), those who are wise (they are genuine about wanting to do the right thing), and those who are compassionate (people who empathise). She articulated the importance of being true to yourself, to explore, but to do no harm. Closing her talk with heartfelt stories about her kids, Sage and Jonas, Li-Lin left the audience feeling inspired to be better versions of themselves.
“The circus can inculcate life skills – it has the ability to help raise self-esteem and build greater resilience as well.”
Next, we had founder of Circus in Motion, Jay Che, who shared about his introduction to circus arts and how a eureka moment made him realise that what he enjoyed doing had the ability to truly make a difference. He shared about how Cirque Du Soleil had a mission to help street kids and and how they have a social initiative called Cirque Du Monde (Circus of The World) to help youths-at-risk around the world. Jay, a social intern then with a local NGO in Singapore, was introduced to Cirque Du Monde in 1999 and was sent for training. He shared about the core purpose of Circus in Motion – to inculcate life skills and to educate kids via workshops in schools. He shared about the various challenges faced and how he overcame them eventually.
“Perceptions are very skewed – we need to use social media and new media to share more about Pink Dot.”
Closing off our wonderful night of insightful talks, we had Deryne Sim, spokesperson for Pink Dot Singapore, a non-profit movement for everyone, straight and gay, who support the belief that everyone deserves the freedom to love. She shared about the genesis of Pink Dot, about how people feared attending the event as they might get arrested. Gradually, as fear dissipated, the number of people attending grew exponentially, hitting 28,000 in 2015. Deryne also shared about the many other challenges the LGBT community faces. These challenges include media censorship, unnecessary laws and the inability to register as a society as it is “contrary to national interest.” Without recognition as a society, it is near impossible to raise funds. She went on to discuss the different ways they’ve utilised to share about Pink Dot – ambassadors, sponsors, collaborations with corporates and businesses that do not discriminate against the LGBT community. She concluded by encouraging audience members to watch the three mini-documentaries produced for Pink Dot 2016. Here’s a link to the videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/pinkdotsg
Fuze Nights typically take place on the last Wednesday of each month. Look forward to more insightful talks and opportunities to connect every last Wednesday of each month at Artistry.