UAS Arts Symposium 2025
The Work of Art Now —
Practices and Pedagogies in Southeast Asia
The University of the Arts Singapore (UAS) brings together artists, educators, practitioners, scholars and researchers to address critical questions on arts practices and arts education today and into the future. A century ago, artists and intellectuals contemplated ‘the work of art’ in an age of technological advancement and the rise of mass society. Throughout the 20th century, Southeast Asian artists, thinkers and educators grappled with ‘the modern’ as their societies emerged from colonial rule amid massive social transformation. As the region enters the second quarter of the 21st century, what does it mean to make art, teach and learn art, enjoy and embody art in our everyday lives and livelihoods, and in shaping our collective life?
The UAS Arts Education Symposium 2025, The Work of Art Now: Practices and Pedagogies in Southeast Asia, explores the evolving demands of arts practices and arts pedagogies under new material and social conditions. In a crisis-ridden world, artists and arts educators ‘dwelling in doubt’ foster deeper engagement and discovery, encouraging reflection, even speculation, on new and unknown frontiers. These include artmaking in digital and physical spaces, the co-existence of traditional and contemporary practices in the curriculum, transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary inquiries, and creativity in the service of economic and social life.
Acknowledging the complex interrelationship between arts practices and arts pedagogies, the Symposium aims to establish critical readings of current developments in arts education, opening new lines of inquiry on how we can develop a sustainable and caring ecosystem that contributes meaningfully and effectively to the sociocultural development of our peoples and the region.
Register here
Enquiries: [email protected]
Programme
| 9.15 am | Registration with light refreshments |
| 10:00 am | Opening Remarks Kwok Kian Woon, Vice-Chancellor, University of the Arts Singapore |
| 10:15 am | Keynote 1: The Work of Art in the Age of Genocide T. Sasitharan, Director and Co-Founder of Intercultural Theatre Institute |
| 11:00 am | Panel Discussion 1 (Pedagogy) |
| 12:30 pm | Lunch |
| 1:30 pm | Keynote 2 David Teh, Associate Professor, National University of Singapore; Convenor, NUS Visual Arts and Cultures Major; Co-Artistic Director, Thailand Biennale Phuket 2025 |
| 2:15 pm | Panel Discussion 2 (Practice) |
| 3:45 pm | Closing Remarks & Roundtable Venka Purushothaman, Deputy President & Provost, LASALLE Chong Keng Hua, Vice President (Academic) & Provost, NAFA |
| 4:30 pm | Drinks & Networking |
Keynotes & Panellists
The title of this talk echoes, arguably, one of the most important essays ever written about art, art history and modernity; about what artistic value means in a moment of unprecedented moral crisis. A moment when everything humanity had held sacred and true, of art and of life, is upended and questioned. Walter Benjamin was a genocide victim. Does it matter he wasn’t killed in a concentration camp, had escaped “arbeit macht frei"? We too, in Southeast Asia (and elsewhere), are alive at a time of an unmatched moral crisis; old alliances fall apart, old friends are now foes, the ‘centre cannot hold’. What should the work of art be now? What is the onus of the artist now, witnessing genocide and climate catastrophe? In an age of ‘post-truth’ politics, with the media in bed with the highest bidder and unchecked plutocratic power? What succour, if not answer, could art offer? Is making art even moral in the shadow of apartheid, dispossession and settler colonialism? If not consolation or solution, can art (and artists) at least hold on to the hope of answering the old woman who asked Anna Akhmatova: “Could one ever describe this?”. Would mere description suffice?
The panellists are invited to respond to questions such as:
- What types of artists and arts workers does the world need today? What skills, knowledge and disposition are important for our students' careers, and to enable them to realise agency within a rapidly changing world?
- In what ways do emerging issues challenge and present new opportunities for arts pedagogies?
- How do informal spaces of learning open up opportunities for alternative modes of pedagogy and social engagement?
Panellists:
Wendy Chua, Programme Leader, BA (Hons) Design for Social Futures, LASALLE
Susie Lingham, Independent artist, Curator, and Educator, Singapore
Riduan Zalani, Co-Founder and Artistic Director, Nadi Singapura
Shahrin Johry, Founder, Under the Bridge Collective
Woo Yen Yen, Programme Leader, MA Arts Pedagogy and Practice, LASALLE
Moderator:
Michael Tan Koon Boon, Dean, Research and Knowledge Exchange, Research Division, NAFA
Abstract coming soon.
The panellists are invited to respond to questions such as:
- In times of increasingly volatile social, political and economic conditions, disruptive technological advances and ongoing climate emergencies, how can the critical, affective and imaginative potential of the arts open up new horizons for understanding and inhabiting the world with responsibility and care?
- What does it mean for art education institutions to qualify or validate artistic and creative practice as ‘research’ — as modes of inquiry and sites of knowledge production that propel thought, create concepts and engender new ethico-political concerns?
Panellists:
Amitesh Grover, Theatre Director and Professor, National School of Drama, India
Jeffrey Koh, Associate Professor & Head of Design Factory@SIT, Singapore Institute of Technology
Joyce Koh, Associate Dean, School of Interdisciplinary Arts, NAFA
Kok Heng Leun, Founder, Drama Box, Singapore
Shubigi Rao, Artist, Writer and Curator of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, 2022
Moderator:
Francis Maravillas, Programme Leader, BA (Hons) Art Histories and Curatorial Practices: Asia and the World, LASALLE
Kwok Kian Woon, Vice-Chancellor, UAS
Co-Chairs:
Venka Purushothaman, Deputy President & Provost, LASALLE
Jerry Soo, Vice President (Academic) & Provost, NAFA (Before Feb 2025)
Chong Keng Hua, Vice President (Academic) & Provost, NAFA (Feb 2025 onwards)
Members:
Joel Gn, Lecturer, School of Spatial & Product Design, LASALLE
Rebecca Kan, Associate Dean (Degree Studies), Faculty of Performing Arts and Associate Dean (Curriculum & Pedagogy), Teaching & Learning Centre, NAFA
Francis Maravillas, Programme Leader, BA(Hons) Art Histories & Curatorial Practices: Asia and the World, LASALLE
Darren Moore, Senior Lecturer, Music, LASALLE
Michael Tan, Dean, Research & Knowledge Exchange, Research Division, NAFA
Woo Yen Yen, Programme Leader, MA Arts Pedagogy and Practice, LASALLE
Xin Xiaochang, Head, Special Projects Unit, NAFA
Ye Shufang, Senior Lecturer, School of Fine Art, NAFA
Secretariat:
Chionh Weiyi, Low Zhaoting, Rachel Lin, Edwina Tang