The Five Arts Centre is a collective of artists and producers founded in 1984 by Krishen Jit (d.2005), one of Southeast Asia’s most renowned theater directors; fellow theater director Chin San Sooi; and dancer-choreographer-educator Marion D’Cruz who was only 30 at the time, in Kuala Lumpur, capital of the culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse Malaysia where Malay, English, and Chinese are all spoken.
Founder member D’Cruz recalls, “Our goal was to provide opportunities and venues for experimental articulation of distinctly Malaysian narratives.”
  Over the past 30 years, Five Arts Centre has fulfilled this goal, acting as a nexus for diverse artistic activities focused primarily in the five fields of Theater, Dance, Music, Young People’s Theater and the Visual Arts – inspiring the community and supporting young artists with a wide range of programs including experimental theatre and dance performances, exhibitions and installations, a contemporary gamelan ensemble, children’s programs, workshops, forums and training programs for directors.

  Currently, Five Arts Centre’s 13 members are from various fields and generations: four in their 60s, four in their 50s, two in their 40s, and three in their 30s. Ongoing “friction” between the generations acts as a positive stimulus, while each member pursues his or her own artistic endeavors, with the younger members in their 30s and 40s acting as the core of the Centre’s activities in recent years.
  Producer June Tan (aged 42) has been a member for 10 years and is in charge of the program for emerging and experimental artists. She says of the program, “It can be a platform for either emerging artists or someone who wants to try a new way of working, a new artistic form. The strength of Five Arts is in its diversity which we hope can mirror the Malaysian society at large.”
  Acclaimed director, Mark Teh (aged 35), is the Centre’s youngest member but speaks powerfully about its ambitions: “We want to provide platforms for young artists, young producers, young writers, young thinkers in all areas of the arts; be they dance, theater, possibly film and even new media. But we also want to engage with inherited and older histories, traditions, questions that are still important and are still relevant.”
Five Arts Centre’s annual budget of 300,000 Ringgit (approximately US$73,000) is covered by Government grants and funding from private enterprises. The Centre has also been collaborating with Japanese artists for the past 20 years and is supported by the Japan Foundation. In recent years, plays directed by Mark Teh as well as other performances have toured Asia and Europe.
  In 2006, the Centre partnered with a Malaysian satellite TV broadcaster to establish the Krishen Jit Astro Fund, which not only provides grants for Malaysia-based artists but also offers economic support to people who contribute to the cultural development of Malaysia.