ASEF launches Arts Journalism Matters Fellowship 2.0

The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), through its arts and culture website culture360.ASEF.org, is proud to collaborate with the European network on cultural management and policy (ENCATC) again, to present a 2nd edition of Arts Journalism Matters.

After a successful pilot in 2021 titled, Virtual Crossovers, 2 emerging arts journalists from Asia and Europe were brought together for a 1-month virtual residency and mentorship programme, with the objective of writing a piece on the topic of cultural diplomacy between Asia and Europe. Following from the residency, 1 journalist from Cambodia subsequently participated in covering the proceedings and happenings of the 30th ENCATC Congress in Brussels.

For this year’s edition, as part of the partnership between ASEF and ENCATC, the call was targeted only to ENCATC member universities based in Singapore, specifically at students from LASALLE College of the Arts and the Singapore Management University (SMU).

What does the work of an arts journalist involve? How do we combine an in-depth knowledge of the arts with journalism, to connect individuals within and beyond borders?

This edition of Arts Journalism Matters launches with a 4-week virtual residency, under the mentorship of Ms Audrey Wong, cultural policy expert and arts educator at LASALLE College of the Arts from Singapore. Participants will also put to practice skills and knowledge gained from the residency, to cover an on-site event, ASEF LinkUp | Asia-Europe Cultural Diplomacy Lab, taking place from 24 to 27 October in Singapore, as a journalist.

About the Mentor

Audrey Wong is the Programme Leader of the MA Arts and Cultural Leadership programme at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. She was the first Nominated Member of Parliament for the Arts in Singapore (2009 – 2011) and has been involved in arts and civil society advocacy for many years. 

Prior to joining LASALLE in 2010, Audrey was the artistic co-director of The Substation, an independent arts centre in Singapore where she had worked first as a publicity and programme manager in the 1990s. She started the Moving Images film programme – Singapore’s first year-round film programme supporting local and Asian young filmmakers. She has served and continues to serve on various institutional boards and committees including with the Singapore Art Museum and the National Arts Council and is on the board of Singapore non-profit theatre company Nine Years Theatre.

She writes and researches on arts management and cultural policy issues with an interest in Singapore’s arts policy, independent art spaces, cultural leadership and management models in Southeast Asian arts. She has had chapters published in The State and the Arts in Singapore: Institutions and Policies edited by Terence Chong (2018) and The Routledge Companion to Arts Management edited by William Byrnes and Aleksandar Brkic (2019).

The Open Call for this year's Arts Journalism Matters is now closed.

Find out more about the selected participants here and follow ASEF culture360's Instagram channel to get updates on the progress of the virtual residency.

Read more about ASEF's collaboration with ENCATC here.