Matisse at STPI: till 16 Aug

Isadora's Workshop brought to our attention the blockbuster exhibition of Matisse prints at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute. We're going to have to try and catch that...just love the sheer space the STPI affords its art. Then LO can go for a little run along the Singapore river and Pacita Abad's painted Alkaff Bridge.

Pic © Succession H. Matisse

Nature walks at Seletar: 6 & 12 July

The feathered denizens of the once-peaceful Seletar area are migrating because of the construction activities around it and the residents are organising a guided tour and birdwatching experience in an area that in six months will be part of the planned aerospace hub. Register with Sue at 91057778.

Singapore Food Festival: 4-27 July

The food fest kicks off this weekend and the menu includes a opening fest at Lau Pa Sat, lunch at the night safari and a BBQ on Sentosa.

Ballet Under the Stars - 25-27 July

I love the composition in Ngiap Heng's pic for the next edition of BUTS.

Anyway, the next arts-in-the-park experience is coming up at the end of the month at Fort Canning Park. It's SDT's 20th anniversary and they've planned excerpts of their most popular works. There's  face-painting and tattoos for children and do I even need to mention the word picnic?

Gates open at 5pm, performance at 7:30pm. And tickets from Sistic. Free admission for infants in arms and children below 6 years of age.

SDT I notice also has some cool dance appreciation concerts for upper primary and secondary school children in August and October. At $11 a ticket, it's a steal. The Nutcracker children's day special in October is even appropriate for kids 3 years and above.

Mums & Tots at Cathay cineplexes - till 30 Sep

The best thing is that kids below the age of 7 don't pay. So if you have to leave 10 minutes into the show, it doesn't hurt as much. More details here.

Playgrounds roundup

At some point, I thought I'd do a roundup of playgrounds but thankfully someone else has already done that, even if it is more from a technical point of view.

We love Bishan Park and the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden for their sandpits too. Bishan also for its climbing structure and swings, which are becoming increasingly rarer at playgrounds.

I'd also love to hear of playgrounds with shade. We know of some under the trees at United Square, Soo Chow Walk and Watten Estate.

Anyone have a favourite playground with shade or otherwise to share?

Puppet Show, Tanglin Mall: July 7, 2 & 4pm

The next instalment of ToyBox's show featuring singing, dancing, storytelling with their puppets is coming up...At Tanglin Mall Level 2, in front of the Information Counter.

Email edwinmartan AT thebettertoystore DOT com to register with your name, the number of kids coming and which session you'll be there for.

Night Festival, National Museum: July 18-19 & July 25-26

There's nothing scary about these nights at the museum. The first weekend features aerial performances on the premises and in its gardens by Italian group Studio Festi who have performed at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

If your kids are the the kind who fight for their right to party into the night, the National Museum and other museums including the ACM and SAM will offer free admission to the public on July 25 till 2am. I'd think this one was more to draw the teenagers in, though there are a couple of younger child friendly activities from 6pm - 10pm including open-air screenings of the original 1971 film adaptation of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Hairspray.

Since we're hitting the museums a lot these days, thought I might get the annual individual membership costing $50 (LO is below 3 so she gets in for free most times) next time I'm there as they have a discount of 15% off membership subscriptions till 6 July. Dual membership is $80, family $120 and student $20. More details here.

Opera outdoors, 21 June

About a thousand people gathered on a balmy and clear Sunday to listen to some opera at the Palm Valley at the Botanic Gardens.

Most came with picnic baskets, nibbled on cheese, sipped their wine and caught up on gossip between Delibes and Donizetti, while the kids ran around the trees. It really was an enchanted evening.

I do hope this is going to be a regular event, and also that the singers wear something bright and colourful the next time around; we could barely see them and we weren't sitting too far away.

If there is going to be another edition, we also hope to hear about it in advance. One way would have been more signs in the gardens itself. There were benches all around advertising the garden festival which is more than a month away and not a single sign about Opera in the Park, not even one piddly directional sign.

Update on Friday, June 27, 2008 at 12:22AM by MamaSez

While on the Botanics, feeding the ducks and turles at the eco lake - or for that matter in many water bodies here - is a popular pastime for kids. I just remembered a friend saying that these must be the best-fed ducks and turtles in Singapore. And I wonder how many folks throw in appropriate food rather than just bits of bread. The monkeys around Macritchie are said to have become this aggressive because of people feeding them. I wonder what effect all the food thrown into the water has on the ducks and turtles at the eco lake.

Hydro Sapiens, Bedok Reservoir: A dark water tale

Why Bedok? No idea really. The arts fest has ventured in the past into the heartland, to places such as Choa Chu Kang in 2006, so I guess this is another one of those forays, this time in partnership with the PUB.

On a huge floating platform overlooked by HDB blocks, theatre group The Lunatics from the Netherlands has constructed a marine rig/theatrical spectacle from scratch. 

There was lots of water play in this story. The artistes made music from it, fished things out of it, jumped in occasionally, romanced on it, emerged out of, and, naturally, sailed on it to touch on the various aspects of people's relationship with water. There was even a Singaporean touch in the form of twelve volunteers in the show. All very colourful.

 

Be warned, however. For a family show, the themes were quite dark and included some death and destruction; a baby near me even cried. Disappointingly, the fireworks were minimal, apparently the proximity to the Paya Lebar airbase limited their use.
 

Hydro Sapiens is on till Sunday, 22 June at 8pm, Bedok Reservoir Park. Remember to get off at Block 744 on the main road and walk toward the reservoir.