Rimi Khan is a Senior Research Fellow with the Melbourne Social Equity Institute and School of Culture and Communication at University of Melbourne (UOM). Her current interests include arts and multiculturalism, cultural policy and ethical fashion. She completed her PhD in Cultural Studies at The UOM in 2011 and has been involved in a number of research partnerships with government agencies and community organisations examining diversity, cultural participation and everyday citizenship. In 2015 she published a book, Art in Community: The Provisional Citizen, with Palgrave MacMillan. She has published articles in numerous journals including The International Journal of Cultural Policy, Journal of Sociology, and Journal of Intercultural Studies. She currently teaches subjects on cultural policy and cultural complexity.

Tan Tarn How is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in the Arts, Culture and Media research cluster at Singapore’s Institute of Policy Studies.
His research areas are in arts and cultural policy and media and Internet policy. He has written on the development of the arts in Singapore, in particular, fostering partnerships between the people, private and public sectors; the creative industries in Singapore, China and Korea; cultural policy in Singapore; and arts censorship.
His research interests also include arts education and role of education in cultural and human development. He has also carried out research on the management and regulation of media in Singapore; the impact of the Internet and social media on society; the role of new and old media in the 2008 Malaysian election and the 2006 and 2011 Singapore elections; and the way in which the Internet and social media has influenced the development of civil society and democratic development.
He is working on a book, “Flourishing Life”, which examines issues arising from instrumental economics-oriented thinking in politics, society and education and argues for more comprehensive and humanist indices of development and educational achievement. He was a journalist for nearly one and half decades before joining IPS. He has also been a teacher and television scriptwriter, and is a playwright and arts activist.

Prior to joining the museum in September 2016, Mr Olivier Boasson was the Counselor for cooperation and cultural affairs with the Embassy of France to Senegal. Before his posting to Senegal, he served in Paris as the Deputy Director General of the Agency for French Schools Abroad (AEFE). The AEFE is under the aegis of the French Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs, and oversees the administration of 500 schools operating in 130 countries outside of France, offering the curriculum of the French Ministry of Education to 350, 000 French and non-French nationals.
Oliver has also served as the : Cultural counselor with the Embassy of France, based in Ottawa.( 2006-2010) ; Deputy cultural counselor with the Embassy of France, based in New York City.(2002-2006) ; Cultural attaché with the Consulate General of France, Chicago. (1999-2002) . He has also taught t in two Parisian universities and one middle-school and worked as journalist/editor between 1993-1999.: : : Oliver trained at Ecole Normale Supérieure, University Paris VII, and at Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris.

Kennie Ting is the Director of the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum, and concurrently Group Director, Museums at the National Heritage Board (NHB) Singapore, overseeing national museums and festivals managed by the NHB. As Director of the Asian Civilisations Museum, he has overseen the shift in the museum’s curatorial approach from a geographical focus to a thematic, cross-cultural focus, and has helmed recent exhibitions on the Arts of Myanmar, Korea, Angkor and Java, on the material culture of cosmopolitan Asian Port Cities, and on contemporary Chinese Couture. He is interested in teh history of travel and the heritage of Asian port cities and is the author of the books, The Romance of the Grand Tour – 100 Years of Travel in South East Asia and Singapore 1819 – A Living Legacy.

Paul Tan is currently a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at the Nanyang Technological University and sits on the boards of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony Group and the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre.

Paul joined the National Arts Council in 2011 as the Festival Director of the Singapore Writers Festival and Director, Literary Arts, and helmed four editions of the popular literary festival before serving as the Deputy Chief Executive Officer at the Planning and Corporate Development Group until August 2021.

Paul has also published five volumes of poetry and writes the occasional opinion piece for The Straits Times.

Jean practises social advocacy, creative arts and community mobilisation to pilot projects that push for progress on inclusive education and equality in early childhood. Before she joined the Lien Foundation, Jean was a community artist who co-founded SUPERHERO ME, an inclusive arts movement that focusses on fostering social interaction between children of different needs. She mentors a network of creatives and growing community of 60 art facilitators to confidently work with the special needs community and adopt an inclusive approach in their work. Building on her training as a photojournalist, Jean found her calling in community arts through projects with the National Arts Council spanning youth mentorships to arts in eldercare. Her interest has shifted to capability building, where she conducts training in inclusive and community arts for social service practitioners, educators and arts institutions. For her commitment to inclusion through the arts, Jean was recently conferred the Singapore Youth Award 2018.

Dr Lucy Bolger is a lecturer of music therapy at the University of Melbourne (UOM), where she has a particular focus on contemporary music therapy theory, intercultural learning experiences, and blended learning models of teaching. She has been integral to the set up and delivery of the UOM Masters of Music Therapy course in Hong Kong, graduating its first cohort of students in 2018. She is also involved in the research supervision of several creative art therapy graduate researchers.
Lucy’s music therapy research and practice primarily focus on music therapy processes with marginalised young people and communities. In particular, her work explores music therapy practice in community and international development settings, with an emphasis on collaboration, power, participation and sustainability. She has multiple peer reviewed journal articles in this area of study. In addition, Lucy is the chair of the ethics committee for the Australian Music Therapy Association, and a member of the research and ethics committee for the World Federation of Music Therapy.

Izan Satrina Mohd Sallehuddin is the founder of the Cultural Economy Development Agency (CENDANA). Prior to setting up CENDANA, Izan led one of Malaysia’s leading cultural and creative industries development organisations.
Izan also played a pivotal role in various industry development committees, including:

• Former Board of Directors and The KL Biennale Committee for the National Visual

• Arts Gallery

• Performing Arts Committee for the National Creative Industry Policy

• The catalyst, committee observer and facilitator for The Royal Arts Gala Fund Selection Panel

She also serves on the evaluation panel for the INXO Arts Fund, and currently is the council member of the Global Entrepreneurship Movement and Arts, Live Festival and Events Association (ALIFE).

Rachelle joined the arts sector as she firmly believes in the restorative and transformative power of the arts – in shaping lives, empowering individuals and making connections. She hopes for everyone to have access to the arts and to experience first-hand how the arts and culture feed into the fullness of our being especially in today’s economically progressive yet increasingly uncertain and violent world.

Paul Adams is the full time Learning & Engagement Manager at the Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT). Paul joined SRT from Manchester (UK) after spending 10 years in the theatre industry working for leading charities and commercial theatre companies.
Paul has a Diploma in Musical Theatre and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Performance from the University of Huddersfield. His focus is in facilitating and managing Arts Education programmes and participation opportunities across formal education, community outreach and venue based programmes. His work is centred on inspiring young people and adults to engage in cultural and creative activities that will enrich and enhance their life in some way.
In Singapore, Paul has been part of the team driving the Access Arts Hub, a consortium of organisations and individuals championing better access to arts for persons with disabilities. The consortiums objectives are to make venues more accessible, encouraging content producers to plan for accessible events whilst reaching out to people with disabilities to support their engagement with the arts.

Rebecca Chew is an educator and passionate advocate for arts education. She first led Naval Base Secondary School as Principal in 2002. In 2005 she was appointed as Founding Principal, School of the Arts (SOTA). Among her other contributions, she serves as the National Arts Council Arts Resource Person for Music, Advisory Member, Arts for Good, Singapore International Foundation and Museum Advisory Panel Member, (National Gallery Singapore). Rebecca is well-known for her work with children and youth choirs. In 1996, her work was nominated for the UNESCO prize for Bridging Peace and Culture. Since 2012, Rebecca has been the Academy Principal, Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts, Ministry of Education, Singapore, where she heads up building professional learning and teaching capabilities for MOE art and music teachers. Rebecca will be taking her new appointment as Principal, Holy Innocent’s High in Dec 2018.

Chad McGitchie has been the Head of Visitor Teams and Access Lead of the Whitworth and Manchester Museum since 2008. A driven and inspirational arts and culture leader, Chad is devoted to building resilient public facing teams that are thoughtful and considerate in their approach to welcoming and connecting with all visitors. Chad has led his teams through a major £15m capital redevelopment project at the Whitworth 2015 and is currently at the beginning of a £13m transformation project at the Manchester Museum 2021, which will create the UK’s first permanent gallery to explore stories and experiences of South Asian communities and will establish the world’s first Centre for Age Friendly Culture. In partnership with the University of Manchester’s Multilingual Department, Chad is leading projects on how the use of different languages, thoughtful signage and designs help to create public spaces that are fully accessible.
Working with local, national and international organisations, Chad develops bespoke training programmes that focus on both public facing teams to be intelligent, responsible and a dependable resource for arts, health and culture in the UK. Throughout his career, Chad passionately promotes the importance of access and accessibility, equality and inclusion and the sector’s social responsibility to local and global communities. Developing strong partnerships with disability organisations such as HearFirst, Henshaws, MindsEye and the public, Chad designs training that goes beyond raising awareness to building teams that are committed to make museums more inclusive, imaginative and caring places.

With close to 30 years of experience in Singapore’s arts scene and with international experience that ranges from Asia to South Africa and Europe, Jeremiah Choy is a Creative Director, Producer and Curator. He has directed and produced theatre shows, concerts, arts festivals, Singapore and International events such as Singapore Day (Sydney, Shanghai, San Francisco), Spotlight Singapore (Cape Town, Bratislava and Prague, and Mexico City), NS50 and Sing50. Major recent works for 2018 include as performer in Esplanade Studio’s Leda and Rage; show director for Esplanade Gala Dinner, ImaginAsia Concert (a platform to showcase young Asian musicians) and Sunburst Concert (in conjunction with Muscular Dystrophy Association Singapore and SOTA), dramaturge for Maya Dance Theatre’s Flowers Don’t Bloom All The Time (a dance drama on Sexual Assault) and festival director for Enabling Festival (to raise awareness for dementia and caregivers). He is also an advocate for freelancers in Singapore.

Kelvin Ang has almost two decades of experience in architecture and conservation at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). The URA is Singapore’s national planning, land use and building conservation authority.
Kelvin obtained his Graduate Diploma (Architecture) and a MSc. in Sustainable Heritage, both at the Bartlett School, University College London, UK. Kelvin has led a multi-disciplinary team to deliver several conservation projects including the gazette of over 700 buildings since 2003. He was the URA conservation consultant for the showcase restoration of the National University of Singapore (NUS) Baba House and is currently a member of its Building Committee. His portfolio includes public education and partnership programmes, overseeing Place Management efforts and enforcement work.
He also serves on the Board of the Arts House as well as being on the School Advisory Committee of his alma mater, Dunearn Secondary School. His other interests include community work and supporting grassroots projects related to education and intangible cultural heritage.

Kim Eun Young is a Museum Educational Curator at the Jeonju National Museum in Korea, responsible for the exhibition planning of the Children’s Museum and educational programmes for various target audiences. She has been interested in the social role of the museum and the sustainable educational activities for it. She has been doing education for the disabled and the blind at the museum since 2007. She has been working on projects such as cultural heritage experience space (Touch Museum) braille and programmes for the blind. Her experience with working with the blind has led to her
interest in working with and providing access for the underserved communities.

Dr Meredith Martin is Associate Director, Cultural and Public Engagement in Chancellery at the University of Melbourne. Chancellery Engagement works with academic divisions to shape the University’s commitment to lead and influence public conversations and policy development. Meredith leads the University’s Cultural Impact strategy and sets the agenda for the University’s major cultural partnerships. Her role at the University involves bringing thought leadership, research, and teaching into strategic public programming and partnerships with key cultural institutions, extending the University’s reach and audiences and ensuring our place in the cultural life of the city of Melbourne,
nationally and internationally. Meredith was instrumental to the introduction of the discipline of media and communications at the University and has been Research Fellow on a number of cultural research projects funded by the Australian Research Council

Sharon is the Research Director of the Culture Academy, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, and the Chief Research Officer of the National Arts Council in Singapore. In these roles, she leads teams to carry out studies on social impact of the arts, population surveys on arts and cultural engagement as well as arts and cultural manpower in Singapore. As an economist, she has conducted research in productivity measurement and growth, industry development, choice experiments and the non-market valuation of cultural resources. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the International Journal of Cultural Policy, Journal of Cultural Economics, International Journal of Hospitality Management and Tourism Analysis.

Aaron Seeto is the Director of Museum MACAN (the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara), in Jakarta, Indonesia. He has a vast experience as an advocate of on advancing the goals of contemporary arts organisations and curating significant exhibitions of artists from the Asia and Pacific regions. Aaron was formerly Curatorial Manager of Asian and Pacific Art, at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Brisbane, Australia where he led the curatorial team at the eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8) in 2015. He was the Director of Sydney’s ground-breaking 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art from 2007 before joining QAGOMA.

Chng Hak-Peng is a Fellow of the Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth’s Culture Academy, which champions the development of the next generation of Singapore’s cultural leaders in the public and private sectors.  In professional practice, he is a strategy and leadership advisor to companies going through acquisitions, mergers, and transformation. He has more than 20 years of hands-on leadership and management experience across Asia and the United States of America.

From 2015 to 2022, Hak-Peng served for eight years as Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore Symphony Group, the country’s flagship classical music organization that manages the full-time professional national orchestra, several amateur orchestral and choral ensembles, as well as the Singapore market for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. During his time, he focused on the development of the international brand of the orchestra, as well as nationwide community, youth, and education programmes.

Ms Serene Lim is the Director (Policy & Planning) of the National Arts Council (NAC). Serene leads the divisions under her care in developing robust arts and culture policies to nurture Singapore’s arts ecosystem. Her department engages in organisational development and performance management work to strengthen NAC’s internal processes, as well as the crafting and alignment of communication narratives with NAC’s strategic objectives. Serene also oversees the planning and implementation of NAC’s cultural diplomacy efforts and internationalisation activities, to position Singapore arts globally through international exchanges, collaborations, market development initiatives and showcases.
Serene graduated from the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy with a Master in Public Administration, and was awarded the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy medal. Prior to her current secondment at NAC, she was serving in the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.

Ye Yipei is a Digital Curator with the In-gallery Digital Media Team in the Palace Museum, China, a position she has held since 2014. Being an English editor for the museum official website for two years, she switched to do digital curation including on-line and off-line presentation. She was the Chief Curator of Auspicious Symbols in the Forbidden City App series and An Audience with a Minister mini programme on WeChat platform. When the In-gallery Digital Media Team was established separately for digital curation, she was
assigned to the new team. She is a team member in the construction of Duanmen digital gallery, an Assistant Curator and Executor of the following digital exhibitions: the Palace is a Museum and Discovering the Hall of Mental Cultivation: A Digital Experience. She is currently in charge of exploring the practical application of artificial intelligence for the Palace Museum and generating the database for knowledge graph; and engaged in building the Dagao Xuandian digital gallery.

Mitsuru Haga is a Professor at Tohoku University, Japan and his fields of specialty are Ancient Greek and Roman Ancient Central Eurasian Archaeology, as well as Higher Education Theory.
Following the path of Alexander the Great, he has excavated a Greek-Kushan City in Uzbekistan and he has been studying the transmission of iconography of Greek and Roman mythology towards the East, in which Buddhism played an important role. He strongly believes that it was not just a unilateral flow of ideas from the West to the East. It has been mentioned often that Western iconography had the power to be assimilated into the East. However, Prof Haga believes that the East had the power and ability to exclusively and selectively absorb elements of Western mythology and its iconography to adapt them into Eastern Cosmology and therefore forming an even richer Eastern Civilization.
Prof Haga is also the Vice-Chairperson, Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific Bureau, United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and Vice-Chair/Bureau member, Japanese National Committee for UNESCO Memory of the World.

Jervais Choo is the Programme Director for the DigiMuse project at the National Museum of Singapore which aims to advance digital innovation within the museum sector. He currently leads the digital transformation efforts for the National Heritage Board and has a keen interest in bringing together new methods of bridging experience and understanding through contextual layering and interventions.

Ms Gaille Teo is an Analyst in the Data Science Division in Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech). She is part of a multidisciplinary data science unit that works on data problems in healthcare, transportation, fraud detection and operation management, utilising techniques such as machine learning, graph analytics, and data visualisation. As ops-tech advisor for indigenous land development projects in Newcastle, Australia, and Ifugao, Philippines, Gaille plays a leading role in using data for development. She has degrees from Harvard University and IE Business School.

Pauline Ann Tan is the Vice-Principal overseeing both the academic and student development in the School Of The Arts (SOTA). She looks into the holistic development of SOTA’s students and her work involves reviewing and refining the curriculum in order to enhance the learning experiences of students inside and outside the classroom. She also looks into the professional development of the staff to ensure that SOTA keeps up with the changes and developments taking place both in education and the arts.

Asmah Alias currently spearheads the development and implementation of heritage education programmes offered by the National Heritage Board to schools in Singapore, in collaboration with key education partners namely the Ministry of Education and Early Childhood Development Agency. She has also led her team in bagging the Best Practice Award in museum education conferred by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) Committee for Education and Cultural Action for two consecutive years for their signature heritage education programmes. Asmah also heads the Grants team which administers NHB's Heritage Grants scheme to provide funding support for interested individuals and non-profit groups seeking to develop and implement heritage-related projects that seek to preserve and promote Singaporeans' learning and appreciation of heritage. Her latest portfolios include volunteer management and HeritageCares which reaches out to the lesser-served communities through a range of heritage programmes.

Neo Phaik Hoon has over twenty years of experience working as an arts administrator. She is currently a Deputy Director with the People’s Association (PA) who facilitates the implementation of the community arts programme - PAssionArts Programme which inaugurated in 2012.
Prior to joining PA, Phaik Hoon spent 15 years with Singapore Chinese Orchestra Company Limited, from 1996 to 2011, involving in setting up and developing Singapore Chinese Orchestra into a world renowned orchestra. She was with the former Ministry of Community Development as well as PA between 1990 and 1996 where she involved in setting up and managing grassroots organisations.
Equipped with arts administration knowledge and skills as well as network in the arts circle and the grassroots knowledge acquired in her early days in managing grassroots organisations, Phaik Hoon contributes confidently and significantly to the development of the nation-wide PAssionArts Programme.

Grace Low is Head of the Community Engagement (CE) unit at Esplanade that organises some 500 activities each year, reaching out to over 10,000 Voluntary Welfare Organizations (VWOs) beneficiaries. These include vulnerable children, at-risk youth, the elderly, persons with special needs, those marginalised as well as beneficiaries from low income households.
Besides hosting VWO beneficiaries to the centre, organising off-site single-session arts workshops at VWO centres or performances in hospitals and hospices, each year, the team runs eight flagship projects based on a performing art form. Spanning 3 - 4 months per one group of VWO beneficiaries, these projects aim to improve self-esteem for participants and provide creative outlets for personal expression. Some examples include hip-hop dance projects for at-risk youths and seniors, song-writing project for troubled youths, and singing projects for seniors including dementia patients.
Grace is passionate about reaching out to communities-in-need through the arts, and goes about her work with deep conviction and purpose. She aspires to touch the lives of as many people as possible through the arts and to extend current practice into new paradigms of community arts engagement in Singapore. In her free time, Grace volunteers in social mission activities that involves the sick and the elderly.

Amanda Chan is the lead for the National Heritage Board’s Silver Hubs initiative at the Heritage Institutions. The Silver Hubs is one of the key focus areas of Our SG Heritage Plan, Singapore’s first master plan for the heritage and museum sector. Amanda has worked at the National Heritage Board since 2006, having held appointments in Visitor Services, Education and Programmes and International Relations.

Yeo Kirk Siang is currently the Director of the Heritage Research and Assessment Division (HRA) at the National Heritage Board (NHB). The division focuses on the research, documentation and commemoration of Singapore’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage. He was also involved in the development of “Our SG Heritage Plan”, a master plan that outlines the broad strategies for Singapore’s heritage sector over 2018 to 2022.
Before his current appointment, Kirk Siang worked in a wide range of portfolios in NHB, and was involved in the preservation of sites and monuments, community outreach and strategic planning. Kirk Siang was with the Ministry of National Development (MND) prior to joining NHB, and was responsible for developing policies and strategies related to the built environment, including sustainable development in Singapore.

Tan Shir Ee is the Head of Partnerships and Patronage at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) after heading up the Programmes team there for 4 years. She is a seasoned and versatile arts professional, traversing artistic disciplines and cultures. She cut her teeth at the National Arts Council and the Esplanade before joining the Akram Khan Dance Company in London. She later coordinated the United Arab Emirate's inaugural pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennale and helmed the Freedom to Create Prize festivals in Cairo and Cape Town. She has contributed to several publications and lectured at the National Institute of Education, LASALLE College of the Arts and Singapore Management University. She remains a consultant curator for Singapore’s Land Transport Authority’s Art-in-Transit programme.
Shir Ee enjoys cultivating entrepreneurial mind-sets and mutually beneficial connections.