Transcript

I'm Trisha Craig, Vice President for Engagement at the College where, among other things, I work on our strategic events. So, I have spent a lot of time in the Performance Hall. The PH, as we call it, is the beautiful creative heart of campus. It has hosted all of our Common Curriculum lectures, which allowed our cohorts to bond over shared ideas. Important speakers and conferences have been here. It's a space for amazing performances by our students. And because it's one of the largest spaces on campus, a place for the community to gather.

Some aspects of the Performance Hall are unique to Yale-NUS. The College's curriculum was designed with Western and Asian intellectual traditions in mind, and the campus architects, the firm Pelli Clarke Pelli, also sought to blend those architectural traditions. Pelli Clarke has worked extensively on Yale's campus, and the Performance Hall evokes many of Yale's halls. But it also has these stunning, interlaced decorative motifs carried out in cherry and teak woods that are inspired by the textile traditions in Southeast Asia. And you see those motifs repeated elsewhere on campus.

I have so many favourite memories of the Performance Hall, but a couple stand out. When I was Dean at the Centre for International and Professional Experience, I suggested that our staff members spend a semester attending one Common Curriculum course, because we planned and supported the Week Seven experiential learning trips for first-year students. Those were thematically derived from the Common Curriculum, and I loved attending lectures with my colleagues. 01:55Personally, one of my career high points was moderating a conversation on stage in the Performance Hall. That was between American journalist Fareed Zakaria and Singapore's Ambassador-at-Large, Tommy Koh. They spoke about the coming challenges of the 21st century. But I think maybe my favourite experience is when giving dignitaries a tour of campus. I bring them to the Performance Hall and we walk in and inevitably they just gasp because it's so beautiful. It's quiet and hushed, the light is golden, and the scent of the wood is so rich it feels like a sacred space. And to me, it is.

The Sol LeWitt wall drawing at the entrance of the Performance Hall is one of the most spectacular works of art on campus. But I'm not sure many people know who Sol Lewitt was. A Connecticut born American artist who was a founder of the conceptual art movement, his wall drawings are site-specific works that follow his guidelines, but they're also adapted to the spaces they inhabit, and they're subject to interpretation by the people who install them. So, they become collaborative pieces, but they also highlight Lewitt's belief that the idea itself is the work of art. This piece, Wall Drawing #442, was installed in 2015 and is on loan from the Yale University Art Gallery. It's just so perfect for this space, I hope more people will come and view it.