For AY24/25, the primary focus of this course is two fold:
‣ Experiencing professional project management within the Contemporary Art World
‣ Understanding the key stakeholders, professional activities and aesthetic vocabulary of the Contemporary Art World, especially in the Singapore context.
Critical questions to be explored include:
‣What are the stakeholders, professional activities and specialised areas of activity in the contemporary art world today, especially within the context of Singapore?
‣What are the roles and responsibilities of arts managers in the contemporary art world?
‣How do arts managers develop, engage and enrich the experiences of contemporary art audiences?
‣How do arts managers manage differing interests and stakeholders, while striving for financial sustainability in the contemporary art world?
‣What is the best way - if any - to frame and promote a particular contemporary art exhibition?
‣What role does the public have in engaging with the objects and ideas in exhibitions?
Students who complete this course should acquire the following course-specific skills :
‣ Be familiar with the scope and function of the various bodies, industries and organisations involved in the promotion, collection and presentation of contemporary visual culture, especially in the SG context.
‣ Understand what is involved in the roles and responsibilities of arts managers and intermediaries working behind the scenes to enable the local visual arts world ‣ Obtain familiarity with the aesthetic vocabulary of the contemporary art world from provenance to compliance and connoisseurship
‣ Be able to engage critically with a range of curatorial and exhibition strategies in varying display settings
‣ Be able to apply a range of critical, theoretical, art historical and museological approaches to the study of exhibitions and displays in contemporary settings ‣ Be keenly aware of the changing nature of exhibiting contemporary art, including peripatetic, freelance and nomadic models
‣ Be able to critical assess the potential impact of different and varied influences on changing nature contemporary art, including ethical issues and growing crises
For AY22/23, the primary focus of this course is on exploring the complexities of exhibition management, especially
‣ Introduction to the concepts and procedures required to develop, manage and deliver an exhibition for contemporary art, to public audiences
‣ Interrogation of the idea of the contemporary art exhibition as a meeting point between the institution and the public, and as a charged site of dialogue and meaning between the players in the exhibition circuit
By the end of this course, participants should be able to:
- Understand and articulate the complexities of social change initiatives.
- Exercise interdisciplinary thinking in examining and addressing social change issues.
- Evaluate social change messaging and campaigns.
- Apply research skills through study design, data collection and data analysis.
- Understand the sociocultural nuances of working with Thais and Bangkokians.
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Understand the complex social and environmental issues brought about by mass tourism and over-development
- Gain first-hand experience of Balinese culture, history, and society (within the context of the modern Indonesian nation-state)
- Develop ethnographic research skills by collecting, reading and analysing data
- Solve the real-life issue of raising awareness towards sustainable tourism for social change
- Apply the knowledge and experience gained in the course to developing socially responsible and environmentally conscious business models for social enterprises
Since globalization and innovation are two key forces that shape individual and business success in the 21st century, this course aims to enhance students’ understanding on how people can utilize their cultural knowledge to generate creative and innovative ideas, by means of integrating different perspectives, theories, strategies, and technologies. In this multicultural environment, people must collaborate effectively across cultural borders, broadly defined, to solve pressing problems and develop new products and solutions that will appeal to the global market. Cultural and creative industries are one of such sector that emphasizes culture as the foundation for developing and supporting industries through creativity (e.g., cultural tourism, community cultural development, performing art, product design). Via collaborating with the students and faculty members in the Institute of Creative Industries Design at the National Cheng Kung University, SMU students will have hands-on cross-cultural collaboration experiences with their Taiwanese counterparts. Through participating in class discussions and learning different case studies of Taiwan’s cultural and creative industries during the field trip, students will receive ample opportunities to sharpen their cultural knowledge and skills and to apply these new insights to benefit creative productions in the real world. Students will also gain cultural immersive experiences through conducting in-depth analysis of the business client in their SMU-NCKU work team. At the end of the course, students will be able to integrate theories of culture, psychology, and design thinking to broaden their knowledge about the development and sustainability of cultural and creative industries. They might also identify from the insights gained from the Taiwan cases to benefit the cultural and creative industries in Singapore.
Since globalization and innovation are two key forces that shape individual and business success in the 21st century, this course aims to enhance students’ understanding on how people can utilize their cultural knowledge to generate creative and innovative ideas, by means of integrating different perspectives, theories, strategies, and technologies. In this multicultural environment, people must collaborate effectively across cultural borders, broadly defined, to solve pressing problems and develop new products and solutions that will appeal to the global market. Cultural and creative industries are one of such sector that emphasizes culture as the foundation for developing and supporting industries through creativity (e.g., cultural tourism, community cultural development, performing art, product design). Via collaborating with the students and faculty members in the Institute of Creative Industries Design at the National Cheng Kung University, SMU students will have hands-on cross-cultural collaboration experiences with their Taiwanese counterparts. Through participating in class discussions and learning different case studies of Taiwan’s cultural and creative industries during the field trip, students will receive ample opportunities to sharpen their cultural knowledge and skills and to apply these new insights to benefit creative productions in the real world. Students will also gain cultural immersive experiences through conducting in-depth analysis of the business client in their SMU-NCKU work team. At the end of the course, students will be able to integrate theories of culture, psychology, and design thinking to broaden their knowledge about the development and sustainability of cultural and creative industries. They might also identify from the insights gained from the Taiwan cases to benefit the cultural and creative industries in Singapore.
- Sensitivity to Developments in Asia: Enhance academic and practical understanding of key sustainbility issues across the region. Obtain sufficient knowledge about these issues to engage in design thinking exercises that generate practical and innovative ideas designed to address these problems.
- Disciplinary Knowledge: Critically evaluate specific sustainability issues through the lens through several social science disciplines, including sociology, political science and psychology. Deepen our knowledge of the sustainability development goals.
- Critical Thinking: Apply design thinking methodology to generate and refine innovative and practical approaches that can address specific problems.
- Intercultural Understanding and Thinking: To understand how different cultures experience specific problems differently. To display cultural understanding in designing solutions.
- Communication: To hone the skill of presenting innovative ideas to experts clearly and engagingly.
On completion of this course, students should acquire the following global citizenship skills,
attributes and outcomes:
- Attitude: develop an attitude of discovery/innovation/creativity, through receptiveness of new ideas, and willingness to explore, experiment and learn from mistakes
- Attitude: develop strong sense of ethics and responsibility as well as increased capacity for teamwork, flexibility, cooperation and tolerance through exposure to different cultures and contexts
- Attitude: awareness of, and respect for, the social and cultural diversity in communities and ability to work collaboratively with people from diverse cultural backgrounds
- Attitude: obtain self-direction and organisational skills, with the ability to set goals and manage time and priorities
- Ability: develop strong critical analysis, reasoning and creative thinking skills, and the ability to prepare and present their ideas in both verbal and written mode at a competent level
- Accomplishments: ability to develop relevant solutions to real-life problems or new processes, and ability to function as ethical, imaginative and resourceful arts and cultural managers who will advance the arts and cultural ecosystem
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
• Express thoughts and ideas on diversity coherently and respectfully
• Evaluate theories that seek to explain equity and diversity
• Identify rhetoric, as well as dominant and normative discourses on diversity issues
• Analyse and evaluate the policies that relate to the managing of differences
• Understand the sociocultural nuances of diversity management in Japan
Specifically, the course has aims to provide students with:
- Opportunities to work with community partners to understand the problems faced by vulnerable groups
- Apply their social science education to resolving a real-life problem
- Have an opportunity to make a positive impact in the context of Singapore
