Peeking Behind-The-Scenes as a CFA Arts Ambassador

Hello! I’m Bevlyn, and this was my CFA Arts Ambassador journey in this unpredictable year of 2020.  

Stacking A Club Sandwich  

Upon joining CFA in March 2020, we were immediately swept up in the planning for the HERE! Arts Carnival. It was a novel experience, to say the least: having to structure the show around Circuit Breaker measures meant that all of us, including the staff, suddenly had to adapt to a new format. As students with little prior experience, on top of observing how others were running virtual events, we had to do research for the events we were planning (its format, sequence and even down to how we wanted it to look—my YouTube recommendations were clogged with American game shows within the week).  

The CFA community 

May to August went by in a flurry of virtual meetings and email exchanges. I met with all 21 CFA groups twice to work on the content, and got to know many student artists and their stories in the process; brainstorming with the interns and other Ambassadors also introduced me to other students on campus with a similar drive to do something for the arts on campus. Surrounded by a community of people who were invested in the arts, I enjoyed hearing the various ideas and viewpoints about the arts on campus, and in Singapore. These different approaches had to be attributed to the diversity of backgrounds of the people I interacted with, which I found to be something I might have only experienced as an Arts Ambassador. Similarly, many had a range of skills to bring to the table, making our programmes a lot more fun. 

Figuring out the technical details of a programme was very different from the simpler events I was used to in high school, but whenever I encountered any problems, I could always arrange meetings with the CFA staff. They would tirelessly help generate solutions with me, especially when it came to how to make our ideas work around the limitations we had. Virtual meetings were draining at times, as unused to them as I still am, but by the end of the meetings, I was always far more motivated to work on the problems I faced. Apart from that, the team took care of our welfare despite the physical distance among all of us. The first time I got a special delivery—a club sandwich, as I was working on Club Sandwich—from the Talent Development and Programming team, I was really surprised and touched that they would go the extra mile to send us food. 

The show was mostly pre-recorded to minimise technical glitches, and organising how all participants (over a hundred of them) should log in and record their portions within a certain timeframe was certainly a momentous effort by the team. But it was especially cool being in the call and overseeing how the programme I sketched out took shape right before my eyes, and I found how the student artists took time out of their busy schedules to share about the art they loved, and be so enthusiastic about it despite the late recording hours. This was immensely heartwarming. 

Exploring digital marketing

In September, I discovered a new interest in the marketing communications side of things when I chose to explore digital marketing with the Marcomms team. It was a small team, but they handled so many different responsibilities each day, and I was only helping with a tiny—but very informative—portion of it. I found that I enjoyed coming up with new ideas and angles to present what our CFA community has achieved. This involved reviewing what our CFA groups have covered on their social media, and weaving them into a coherent narrative around a theme that I wanted to emphasise about our arts on campus. My time in Marcomms has not only exposed me to producing content for social media, but it has also given me a renewed interest in communications and new media now that I’ve a more solid framework for how theories and skills can be applied.  

Before CFA (and NUS), I spent a lot of time creating and practicing art, but the process of turning creation into a performance was still virtually unknown to me.  As I’d hoped, being a CFA Arts Ambassador has opened my eyes to the arts scene at a more professional level. It’s certainly given me an increased appreciation for the number of people, talent, and skills that goes into making any event or production possible, and a newfound respect towards the effort with which every small detail is produced. 

Want to be a CFA Arts Ambassador? We have callouts every year around December, follow us on Instagram @nuscfa to stay informed!