Tumpang 🧳

From the Malay word ‘tumpang’, meaning ‘take shelter with’, the word is also used more colloquially to describe having one’s items carried by someone else on a trip, or to hitch a ride.

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Tumpang is an ongoing series of peer-based activities and initiatives by Producers SG to lower the barrier to access to international networking events.

This started in 2018 with an informal call in our Facebook group by one of our Organising Team Members, Fezhah Maznan, inviting independent artists, producers, and companies to pass her their marketing materials to ‘hitch a ride’ in her suitcase to the Bangkok International Performing Arts Meeting (BIPAM). This first #TumpangToBIPAM was followed by other similar initiatives. As travel resumed after the pandemic, Producers SG also looked to think about ‘in-person’ Tumpang opportunities, especially for early-career producers looking for support to develop more international networks.

Tumpang Fellowship 2023

In 2023, we piloted our first Producers SG Tumpang Fellowship programme, aimed at independent producers and arts managers to go on field trips to attend and participate in international arts markets and networking events.

Through formal and informal meetings, presentations, sharing sessions, visiting arts venues and attending arts events overseas, Tumpang Fellows were able to:

• Gain international networking experience and develop wider professional networks

• Deepen their understanding of art-making and producing practices in other cultural ecosystems and contexts;

• Increase the visibility of Singaporean independent practitioners internationally; and

• Build awareness and create opportunities for international collaborations and presentation of their works, projects, and practices in other markets.