Tiara Jacquelina tells of financial toll in championing the arts in Malaysia

 The producer-director shares how corporate demands and lack of support are stifling creativity.

(From left) Kakiseni president and film director Low Ngai Yuen (moderator), classical dancer Ramli Ibrahim, producer Tiara Jacquelina and fashion designer Bernard Chandran at the arts forum organised by the Merdeka Award Trust.

KUALA LUMPUR:

 Award-winning producer and director Tiara Jacquelina has opened up about the immense challenges of financing the arts in Malaysia after pouring her own money and energy into creating large-scale productions that championed Malaysian stories.

Tiara, a driving force behind some of Malaysia’s most iconic productions, described the pressure of justifying art in commercial terms as exhausting.

The arts advocate told a forum here today that despite her commitment to national identity and cultural storytelling, she grew tired of constantly having to “knock on doors” just to make a case for support.

“I did it all for the love of the arts, but I learned the hard way that passion alone isn’t sustainable,” said the founder of the Enfiniti Academy of Musical Theatre and Performing Arts.

At one point, Tiara secured RM1 million in sponsorship from a major corporate body. However, she said it was an amount that came with strings attached.

She was expected to deliver up to three times in returns, alongside key performance indicators (KPIs), publicity deliverables, and media coverage.

Instead of nurturing creativity, she found herself buried in spreadsheets.

“Just as I was stepping into the director’s role, I was handed demands for publicity and ticket targets. That’s not the role of an artist – that’s a media agency’s job,” she said.

She was speaking at a forum titled Profit Meets Performance: When Arts Means Business organised by the Merdeka Award Trust here.

Low Ngai Yuen, president of the arts and culture NGO Kakiseni and moderator of the session, agreed that the arts ecosystem in Malaysia lacks the structure and support needed for creatives to thrive.

She said that because of the lack of proper partnerships available to artists, many of them have had to compromise their visions to fit into corporate moulds.

“Beyond sponsorships, what we really need is a model thinking in terms of community and ecosystem building,” she said.

“If we want to see a thriving arts sector in the next five years, both the government and corporate Malaysia must commit to long-term investment in the development of artists and their work.”

Dancer and founder of the Sutra Foundation, Ramli Ibrahim, noted that the value of the arts should not be measured by financial metrics alone.

“You can’t define the success of the arts in ringgit and sen,” he said, stressing that the “profit” of arts lies in its influence on people.

Fashion designer Bernard Chandran took the conversation further, stating that the problem runs deeper than just funding.

“In the end, we’re not just in the business of entertainment, we’re in the business of creating meaning,” he said.

“Until we begin treating the arts as fundamental to our national identity, we’ll always be running uphill.” - FMT