Artist-In-School Scheme 2027

The Artist-In-School Scheme (AISS) is a National Arts Council (NAC) arts-education scheme supporting sustained partnerships between Singapore arts professionals and mainstream or Special Education (SPED) schools. Partners co-design customised arts-learning experiences intended to deepen students' engagement in and through the arts. AISS is therefore a school-partnership and learning-experience scheme, not a general arts grant or an open enrolment programme for individual students (NAC, accessed Aug 2026).

NAC says an AISS project should provide at least 12 interaction hours with the artist for the same student group or cohort. The scheme's definition of arts professionals includes artists such as musicians, dancers, writers and sculptors, as well as other arts-industry practitioners such as art critics and lighting or sound designers. This makes the scheme broader than performance workshops alone: the published objectives also include non-performative arts knowledge, curriculum-aligned learning in SPED schools and arts-based teaching skills for SPED teachers (NAC, accessed Aug 2026).

2027 application cycle

NAC's published AISS 2027 information says the application window opens on 10 August 2026. Projects starting in Term 1 on 11 January 2027 have an application deadline of 12 October 2026, while projects starting in Term 2 on 22 March 2027 have a deadline of 20 November 2026. Results are to be notified in batches from October 2026 to February 2027; these are application-cycle dates, not a promise that every proposal will be funded (NAC, accessed Aug 2026).

Mainstream and SPED pathways

The scheme has a mainstream AISS pathway and a SPED-AISS pathway. Both are framed around school–artist partnerships, but the published page provides separate briefing and application materials for the two pathways. AISS should not be collapsed into a one-size-fits-all arts lesson or treated as proof that the same project design applies to every school context; the relevant NAC guidelines and school partnership process govern the application (NAC, accessed Aug 2026).

Enhanced AISS

For the 2027 cycle, NAC describes Enhanced AISS as additional funding on top of existing AISS support for school projects in Traditional Arts and Multicultural Arts. Traditional Arts projects are intended to deepen appreciation of practices, techniques and cultural knowledge rooted in Singapore's major ethnic groups. Multicultural Arts projects are intended to strengthen students' rootedness in Singapore's multicultural identity and appreciation of diverse cultural traditions through participation in the arts. These are published programme objectives, not a statement that every AISS project receives the additional support (NAC, accessed Aug 2026).

Scheme boundary

AISS sits within NAC's arts-education work and is distinct from NAC's general creation, presentation, capability-development and other arts-sector grants. Its defining unit is a sustained school partnership that co-designs learning experiences with an arts professional. The existence of an AISS application window does not establish that an artist, school or proposed project is automatically eligible, selected or funded; applicants should use the current AISS guidelines, templates and application form linked by NAC (NAC, accessed Aug 2026).