MITA Building
140, Hill Street, Singapore 179369
Civic District Trail 2, Marker 11

The Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts (MITA) regulates the information and communication scene in Singapore. Through mass media, it educates Singaporeans about our Singapore heritage, reminding us about the importance of staying together as one nation. Thus, it helps in enforcing national loyalty and unity in Singapore.

This building, home of the Ministry of Information, Communication and The Arts (MITA), was the Old Hill Street Police Station and Barracks. Designed by the Public Works Department in 1930 under the direction of F. Dorrington Ward, the building took 4 years to complete. It was then the largest building in Singapore.

The 6-storey building consisted of the Police Station, charge rooms, offices, garages, quarters for 125 married policemen and 144 single Inspectors of Police. It remained a Police Station during the Japanese Occupation and a police post up to 1980.

With the introduction of the housing priority scheme for the Singapore Police Force, the policemen were able to buy their own flats and the last occupant left in 1979.

The building was renamed Hill Street Building on 12 May 1983 and served as offices for the National Archives of Singapore, the Official Assignee and Public Trustees and the Board of Film Censors till 1997, when it was closed for renovations. The building reopened in January 2000 and is known simply as MITA at the Old Hill Street Police Station.

The Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MITA) has always been a multi-faceted ministry. In its various previous incarnations as the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Communications and Information, Ministry of Community Development, and Ministry of Information and the Arts, it had consistently played the role of disseminating government information and nurturing an environment for the arts within a multi-cultural context.

Pre-1959
The arts in Singapore became heavily dependent on local talent.
In some ways, the Ministry's organisation and responsibilities foreshadowed MITA's:

• HQ

• News division

• Publicity division

• Broadcasting division

• Library division

• Museum division

• Printing division

The Broadcasting division ran Radio Singapore (the former Radio Malaya) after the merger (1963-1964).

In 1963, the Ministry organised the first Southeast Asia Cultural Festival, featuring 500 artists from 11 countries, at the National Theatre and Victoria Memorial Hall. The Ministry also oversaw the inception of national television. Radio and TV Malaysia (Singapura) became Radio and TV Singapura. The National Archives and Records Centre later became the National Archives of Singapore. The National Theatre Company comprised the Singapore National Orchestra, Chinese Orchestra, Choir, and Dance Company. The Ministry's activities in the arts continued to grow thoughout the 1970s. In the same year, the Ministry organised the Festival of Arts which was to become a fixture in the local arts calendar as a biennial event until 1999 when it merged with the Festival of Asian Performing Arts to become the annual Singapore Arts Festival.

Visit MITA's official website at http://www.mita.gov.sg