Shaping the future of the arts

LASALLE tops rankings of specialist arts institutions in Southeast Asia

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This year, LASALLE introduced five groundbreaking new programmes to take arts education in Singapore and the region to an even higher level. Our students and alumni continue to be recognised for excellence in their creative fields, from the Young Artist Award to UOB Painting of the Year. Our achievements have been recognised in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024, where we the highest ranked specialist arts institution in Southeast Asia for performing arts, and joint top for art and design.

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Since 2021, LASALLE has been ranked within the world's top 151-200 tertiary education institutions for art and design according to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings by Subject. In 2024, the College has not only retained this ranking for the fourth consecutive year, but also for the first time entered the top 51-100 ranking for performing arts.

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This makes LASALLE the highest ranked specialist arts institution in Southeast Asia for performing arts, and joint top for art and design. Within Asia's specialist arts institutions, LASALLE is ranked among the top 5 Asia for art, design and performing arts.

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QS is the only world ranking compiled for art and design institutions. The QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024 ranked over 16,300 academic programmes in 1,559 institutions, including 64 newcomers, across various subjects.

LASALLE students and alumni continued to do us proud in 2023/24, with national and international accolades in recognition of their excellence—a testament to LASALLE's contributions to the Singapore arts scene.

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BA (Hons) Fine Arts alumna Melissa Tan was named a recipient of the Young Artist Award, Singapore’s highest award for young arts practitioners whose artistic achievements and commitment have distinguished them from their peers. A visual artist whose interest lies in a fascination with nature and different ways of mapping it, Melissa was the youngest artist to participate in the 2016 Singapore Biennale. She has also exhibited in London, Paris and Yogyakarta.

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Interdisciplinary artist, curator and BA (Hons) Fine Arts alumnus Jeremy Hiah's mixed media work Gulliver's Travels won the prestigious 42nd UOB Painting of the Year Award (Established Artist Category, Singapore), while Om Mee Ai, MA Fine Arts alumna, took home the Bronze Award in the same category for her painting R152-QUF.

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Trisha Bhardwaj, a Year 2 student from BA (Hons) Design Communication, received a prestigious Award of Excellence in the Communication Arts 65th Photography Annual Competition. Her entry Symphonic Structures was chosen and shortlisted by a panel of nine international judges from a pool of 2,210 entries, from which only 129 were accepted, making Trisha one of the six students to receive this esteemed award.

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Continuing LASALLE's winning streak at the Harper's Bazaar Asia NewGen Awards for the fourth year in a row, BA (Hons) Fashion Design and Textiles graduate Lim Su Hui took home this year's grand prize with her graduation collection 'Homeland'. Su Hui impressed judges with her innovation designs and eco-friendly approach in pattern cutting, which includes zero-waste practices. In addition to a $10,000 cash prize, Su Hui was awarded a scholarship to London’s Istituto Marangoni to further her studies.

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LASALLE's Puttnam School of Film & Animation swept seven top awards in the National Youth Film Awards, including Best Director in the student category for Hein Htut and Best Sound Design, Cinematography and Art Direction respectively for recent graduates Niranjan Bennet, Winston Hong and Tan Kee Wei. In the open category, alumni Clyde Kam and Aeryn Chong Jia Wei won Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction respectively, while alumnus Jeremy Chua received the Youth Inspiration Award.

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43 LASALLE students and graduates from BA (Hons) Design Communication and BA (Hons) Animation Art clinched multiple Golds, Silvers and Bronzes at the Singapore AdMarcom Festival Crowbar Awards, regarded as one of the most prestigious competitions for young creatives across the Asia‐Pacific region. Topping the awards list were BA (Hons) Design Communication alumni Dominic Tan, Javeen Bakshi, Ellie Lim Kai Hui, Tina Ting and Li Lian, who netted Best of Communication for their project ‘Bird Bird & Bee Bee’.

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These are just a few highlights from LASALLE's honour roll this year. Other wins for students and alumni include the Creative Conscience Global Awards, the Cosentino Design Challenge, the Golden Point Award and the Straits Times Life Theatre Awards.

On 12 September, LASALLE unveiled five new degree programmes in conjunction with the opening of the University of the Arts Singapore for its first intake in August 2024.

• BA (Hons) Art Histories and Curatorial Practices: Asia and the World
• BA (Hons) Design for Social Futures
• BA (Hons) International Contemporary Dance Practices, jointly delivered by LASALLE and the London Contemporary Dance School
• MA Arts and Ecology
• MA Music Therapy

These pioneering new programmes will prepare students to excel in the highly digitised, globalised, and eco-conscious creative industries. Launch events were organised for new programmes, including the BA (Hons) Art Histories and Curatorial Practices: Asia and the World launch symposium, as well as the Music Therapy Symposium 2024 graced by Nominated Member of Parliament Usha Chandradas and Vivian Chan, President, World Federation of Music Therapy.

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"The five new programmes from LASALLE signify a bold step forward for arts education. This is to situate arts higher education within the context of wider global, digital and social issues and respond to demographically different learners. Against this complex but exciting backdrop, there has never been a better time to pursue an arts education in Singapore as we seek to respond, expand and redefine the creative sector."

— Dr Venka Purushothaman, Deputy President and Provost

LASALLE continues to play an important role in driving change and thought leadership in Singapore's creative industries.

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Thought leadership

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LASALLE MA Arts and Cultural Leadership Programme Leader Audrey Wong, former arts NMP and cultural policy expert, weighed in on Our SG Arts Plan 2.0 in an Focus on continuity, more than change, in updated arts plan, an opinion editorial published by The Business Times. Audrey noted that much of the language of the new plan recalls that of earlier plans, and there are many areas of similarity. However, though repetitive, the reiteration of these concepts underscores their ongoing importance, and the fact that they remain works in progress.

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In Bird cage chairs and buddy benches: how design changes lives, Nur Hidayah, Dean, Faculty of Design, shares her thoughts on the importance of empathy in design. Highlighting examples from LASALLE student work as well as Singaporean design projects on mental wellness, sustainability and active ageing, the piece, published in The Straits Times, argues that design has a role to play in helping Singapore tackle future challenges and shape the way we live.

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Industry leadership

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In July 2023, LASALLE MA Asian Art Histories alumna Usha Chandradas was appointed one of nine new Nominated Members of Parliament (NMP). In her position as arts NMP over the past year, Usha has advocated for the inclusion of arts therapies and arts-related wellness initiatives in Singapore's national mental wellness strategies, and spoken on issues such as greater support and recognition for the work of artists, the availability of arts spaces and the implementation of Our SG Arts Plan 2.0.

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Other industry appointments include BA (Hons) Film alumnus Jeremy Chua's appointment as General Manager of the Singapore International Film Festival, and the extension of BA (Hons) Acting alumna Natalie Hennedige's tenure as Artistic Director of Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) till 2025, after helming three successful editions. Meanwhile, LASALLE BA (Hons) Design Programme Leader Nathan Yong was selected to be part of the jury for the prestigious Singapore Good Design (SG Mark) 2024.

Research at LASALLE flourished in 2023/24, with the launch of a digital edition for Singapore's first and only critical art journal, the formation of a new design alliance, as well as numerous conferences, symposia and innovative research projects.

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Since 2012, LASALLE has published ISSUE, an international peer-reviewed art journal focused on exploring issues in contemporary art and culture. Previously available only in a limited print run and a PDF version, the digital edition of ISSUE was launched in November 2023. Through the website, visitors can access the full text and images of all previous volumes of ISSUE, with searchable articles and consolidated footnotes and references. ISSUE's new digital edition represents the culmination of efforts to reach out and make this important research accessible to a wider readership across the globe.

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In May 2024, LASALLE became a part of the Design Alliance led by the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)—a global alliance of 13 Institutes of Higher Learning that promotes design as a driver of change and education. Launched at the SUTD Design Innovation Forum, the alliance kicked off the first of many roundtable discussions on the future of education with Guest of Honour Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Education and LASALLE representative Dr Venka Purushothaman, Deputy President & Provost among the panellists.

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Conferences and symposia

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In this academic year, LASALLE organised a number of conferences and symposia to bring together practitioners, policymakers, researchers and students, advancing scholarship in a wide range of disciplines across the region.

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Our pioneering postgraduate programme MA Asian Art Histories celebrated its 15th anniversary this year with a commemoration event that gathered alumni and art historians for a series of panel discussions. Launched in 2010, MA Asian Art Histories is the world’s first MA programme to focus on Asian modern and contemporary art histories. Over a hundred students have graduated from the programme, having gone on to make an imprint on the field in their roles as art historians, curators, writers, gallerists and researchers.

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Continuing our work with international partners, we hosted the 2024 edition of the Global Design Initiative and examined the concept of unlearning in Unlearning realities - Reimagining futures, an initiative of Shared Campus. In collaboration with the National University of Singapore, we organised the Performance and Health Symposium to explore the multifaceted intersection of performance and health and create opportunities for greater synergies between disciplines. We also held the Music Research in Singapore 2024 symposium at LASALLE, while this year's edition of ANCER Lab saw arts managers from around the region gather in Yogyakarta to focus on what “management” means in a changing arts landscape.

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In addition, LASALLE also organised numerous talks and seminars on topics from Swiftonomics to alternative techno-futures in Southeast Asia, providing a space for robust, vibrant discussion and sharing throughout the year.