[PhotoSparks] National Youth Month: Mix Some Noise creativity festival and Doodle Fiesta!

PhotoSparks is a weekly feature from YourStory, with photographs that celebrate the spirit of creativity and innovation. In this photo essay, we feature some of the art work from the Mix Some Noise festival and Doodle Fiesta held as part of National Youth Month!

In the earlier 90 posts, we brought you a wide range of creative photographs from an art fair, world music festival, painting fair, telecom expo, art museum, mobile showcase, math museum, social hackathon, bookstore, co-working space, sensorium, international design week, flower show, outdoor ads, startup roadshow, computer museum, startup T-shirts, business cards, art therapy, startup festival, Diwali rangoli, Vesak, jazz festival, modern art gallery, ecopreneurs, painter-poets, health activists, eNGOs and digital innovators.

My travels this month brought me to Singapore for the Global Knowledge Week, and the 11th annual Noise Festival! Singapore’s government and industry have launched major initiatives to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity. Noise Singapore is the largest youth arts platform in Singapore, organised by the National Arts Council (other initiatives are Youth Corps, Outward Bound and Youth Expedition Project). Artists and makers submitted original works of art, design, photography and music as part of National Youth Month, and winners picked by an expert jury had their works showcased at venues like Esplanade and Capitol Piazza.

The initiative includes the six-month long Noise Art Mentorship (NAM) and Noise Music Mentorship (NMM) programmes, and promising artists are presented with the Noise Singapore Award and a seed grant. Other collectives, galleries and studios are also active in promoting local and global perspectives in Singapore’s arts ecosystem, such as Tokyo Gallery (with artists such as Tomoko Tsuruta, Sousuke Onoike and Saian Nishikuta) and Band of Doodlers (whose recent Doodle Fiesta arts competition received 230 submissions).

“Simply put, doodling is idle drawing. It’s drawing whatever you can think of, or better yet, don’t think,” says Mas Shafreen, founder of Band of Doodlers. “If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not likely to make anything. So I usually encourage everyone to seize mistakes from others as opportunities. My intention from the start was to create an inclusive platform to promote collaboration and co-creation,” he explains.

Check out some of the artistic highlights from these initiatives in this photo essay, and ask yourself: when did you last produce a piece of art – or support others in doing it?

Got a creative photograph to share? Email us at [email protected]!

See also the YourStory pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups,’ accessible as apps for Apple and Android devices.