The Substation will move out of its 45 Armenian Street home in July, as the National Arts Council (NAC) prepares to renovate the building and turn it into a new centre for multiple arts groups.

The contemporary arts institution, which was founded in 1990 by the late theatre doyen Kuo Pao Kun, has a reputation as an incubator space for artists to experiment and collaborate. Its 1,630 sq m centre has a black box, art gallery and studio and working spaces.

After the refurbishment, The Substation may return as a tenant under the Framework for Arts Spaces scheme, an NAC spokesman told The Straits Times yesterday. The scheme was introduced in 2011 and subsidises rent.

But NAC said it would also ask other arts groups about sharing the building, saying the increasingly vibrant arts scene meant a higher demand for physical spaces.

Last July, ST reported that The Substation, which was established under NAC's Arts Housing Scheme, would risk losing much of its space after the handover.

The Substation's co-artistic director Raka Maitra, 51, told ST yesterday that its future looks uncertain and a lot of plans will have to change. "I was hoping we would be able to come back full-scale, otherwise I don't know how we'll keep our Associate Artist Programme going, how we will have festivals, how we will have an interdisciplinary space. There's a difference between arts housing and a home for the arts.

"If we get only part of the space and we have to rent the theatre for our own shows, it won't be an incubation space any more. It will be very difficult to keep the vision of The Substation alive. We have artists from every discipline working here, and this is really a space for young artists."

The Substation has been looking at places like Goodman Arts Centre and Aliwal Arts Centre as interim venues during the two-year renovation period, which is slated to begin in the third quarter of this year.

At the moment, half of The Substation's funding comes from an NAC grant, while the rest comes from rental income from leasing out spaces in the building. It currently employs 11 full-time staff and three part-timers.

NAC said the renovations will introduce technological features and offer an improved design to support the creation and presentation of multi-disciplinary arts.

It added that it had identified the need for upgrading the building, a conserved property, in late 2017 after site inspections, and had consulted The Substation about this.

"Following this, NAC delayed the renovation project and extended The Substation's lease to accommodate its 30th anniversary programming on the premises," said the spokesman. "Since then, NAC has also engaged The Substation and its key stakeholders regarding their needs and plans. NAC has also offered The Substation interim space options and provided additional funding to support its needs during this period."

The Substation's last festival before moving out will be SeptFest: In The Margins, which will run from March 4 to 28. It was delayed from last September owing to the coronavirus pandemic.