The inaugural Southeast Asian Arts Forum at NAFA will take the shape of presentation, practice and performance, with a lively discussion and exchange to promote awareness in the spirit of collaboration and discovery.

In Southeast Asia today, contemporary society acknowledges the primacy of economic activity and return; of sustainability to drive us toward productive outcomes and prosperity not for pride, but to thrive as living and evolved citizens of our own countries and of the world. We seek knowledge and history; but we also desire what is new and inspirational.

The aesthetic of how to offer our artistic and cultural identities is hence one which we are always seeking. The beautiful is in everything around us; yet we note the changes and chaos that threaten our sensibilities and the quest for new knowledge and learning. Art education, encompassing all art and design as we have inherited through formal institutions, have advocated for what we refer to as a foundation, to receive technical skills in both fine and applied art. The making of a painting, a drawing, a sculpture; the execution of design, graphics or a dance, a body movement or a pantomime; the creation of harmonic sound through the use of instruments – the teaching and learning of such have long adhered to study to produce competence and excellence. These were blended with indigenous traditions that remain vital to the living cultures through time.

What is the School of Art but a space for learning, discussing and perhaps thinking? It is also a space of making, remaking; invention and reinvention. It implies no time separate us from our past or our future. And recognises that we move on a sliding scale between zones in order to fully grasp and draw from what we know, and want to know, in order to create new artistic experiences.

Here is where art and education might meet; where tradition and newness find confluence; where history makes its meaningfulness ever fresh and relevant.