Academic leadership and faculty

MA (Arts Administration and Cultural Policy), Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK
MA (English Literature), National University of Singapore, Singapore
BA Honours (English Literature), National University of Singapore, Singapore

Audrey Wong is a cultural policy expert, civil society advocate, arts and cultural scholar and the first Nominated Member of Parliament for the Arts in Singapore. She actively organises public discussions and seminars on arts issues, launching a new online seminar series Cultural Leadership in Practice: Nourish/ Impact/ Justice in February 2025.

As an educator, Audrey was an adjunct lecturer in the MA Arts and Cultural Management Programme at LASALLE from 2006 to2009. She was also an adjunct lecturer in the Theatre Studies programme at the National University of Singapore from 2001 to2003, teaching the management of performing arts. At LASALLE, she has had a transformative impact on the BA (Hons) Arts Management and the MA Arts and Cultural Leadership programmes, where students are prepared to be reflective, critical and innovative arts managers. Audrey is also a co-ordinator of the Asia Pacific Network for Cultural Education and Research (ANCER), an initiative of LASALLE set up to stimulate and develop inquiry and research into arts/cultural management and cultural policy in the region.

Prior to joining LASALLE, Audrey was the artistic co-director of The Substation, an independent art space, from 2000 till early 2010. She was the first woman to be appointed to this role in the arts centre. With co-director Lee Weng Choy, she launched The Substation’s Associate Artists programme in 2003 to support local artists in sustaining their practice. She also curated and organised festivals, exhibitions, conferences and artists’ exchanges.

From 1996 to 1999, she worked at The Substation in various capacities, including starting the pioneering Moving Images film programme in 1997—Singapore’s first year-round film programme with a focus on local and regional filmmakers. As an arts manager, Audrey was comfortable working in both visual and performing arts (reflecting The Substation’s interdisciplinary approach), and was particularly interested in nurturing emerging artists, developing platforms for contemporary performance and cross-disciplinary collaboration by independent artists, and audience development for contemporary arts.

In 2009, Audrey was nominated by the arts community for a post and was appointed as an Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) in Singapore’s Parliament in July 2009. During her term (which ended in May 2011), she championed the cause of freelance artists in the arts and media sectors in Singapore, as they sought to improve their working conditions.

Audrey is highly sought after for her expertise and guidance on arts policy matters. She has served and continues to serve on various institutional boards and committees including the Singapore Art Museum, National Arts Council, Singapore International Foundation and the Singapore Arts Festival Advisory Committee. She also sat on the Arts and Culture Strategic Review Committee (2010–2012). She was Chair of the board of theatre company Nine Years Theatre until 2024 and was recently appointed to the board of The Substation.

Audrey’s other professional activities include co-convening a mentorship, networking and training summit for young art curators, artists and visual art managers in Southeast Asia called the HAO Summit, the brainchild of artist-curator Khairuddin Hori, which started in 2008.

In 2003, she co-founded Magdalena (Singapore) with theatre practitioner and writer Verena Tay, a society of women theatre practitioners affiliated with the global network of the Magdalena Project. They organised Singapore’s first women’s contemporary theatre festival in 2006.

‘Choosing an NMP for the Arts: A Unique Process’ (co-authored with Janice Koh), The Nominated Member of Parliament Scheme: Are Unelected Voices Still Necessary in Parliament?, ed. Anthea Ong (World Scientific) (2023)
‘Dialogue, Differences and Empathy: How Theatre Can Facilitate Deeper Engagement with Multiculturalism’, in One United People: Essays from the People Sector on Singapore’s Journey of Racial Harmony, ed. Koh Buck Song (Marshall Cavendish) (2022)
‘Emerging Stronger: Cultural Policy Highlights of Singapore’s Covid-19 Pandemic Response’, in Cultural Policy Tracker Issue No. 1 (ENCATC – European Network on Cultural Management and Policy) (2022)
Backstage: Managing Creativity and the Arts in Southeast Asia, co-authored with Sunitha Janamohanan and Sari Sasaki, UNESCO Bangkok (2021)
‘Rules of Engagement in the Global Arts City: The Case of The Substation in Singapore’ in The Routledge Companion to Arts Management, eds. William J. Byrnes and Aleksandar Brkic (Routledge) (2020)
‘The Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts’ chapter in The State and the Arts in Singapore: Policies and Institutions, ed. Terence Chong (World Scientific) (2018)
Editor, Making Space: 25 Years of The Substation, Singapore: The Substation (2015)
‘Exegetical Commentary on The Singapore Arts Landscape: Influences, Tensions, Confluences, and Possibilities for the Learning Context’ by Gene Segarra Navera, in Contextualized Practices in Arts Education: An International Dialogue on Singapore, ed. Lum Chee Hoo (Springer Verlag) (2014)
Contributor and editorial team member, Serving Artists Serves the Public: Programming Arts Festivals in Asia and Europe, Asia Europe Foundation, European Festivals Association, LASALLE College of the Arts (2013)

Conferences and other presentations

‘From Global City of the Arts to Liveable and Loveable City: Planning and Delivering the “Creative City” in Singapore’, conference paper presented at the Social Theory, Politics and the Arts Conference, Escuela Universitaria de Osuna, University of Seville; Spain (2024)
‘The Paradox of Survival: Governance Drivers in Traditional Chinese Opera Organisations in Singapore’, conference paper presented at the AIMAC International Conference on Arts and Cultural Management, ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa; Portugal (2024)
‘The Grassroots and the State in Community Public Art in Singapore: Emerging Models of Collaboration’, conference paper presented at the 7th Anyang Public Art Project International Academic Conference, Anyang; South Korea (2023)
Presentation on Singapore’s cultural policy, at ANCER Lab: Cultural Policy, Artist Communities and Cultural Democracy, Universiti Malaya; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2019)
‘Collaborative and Cross-Sectoral Approaches to the Arts in Singapore: Two Case Studies’, conference paper presented at the Social Theory, Politics and the Arts Conference, University of Manchester; UK (2018)
Presenter and co-convenor, ‘Towards Meaningful KPIs? Capturing the Multidimensional Impacts of the Arts in Bang for the Funding Buck: KPIs and Capturing the Impact of the Arts’, Institute of Policy Studies (Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy) Roundtable on Cultural Policy Series; Singapore (June 2018)
Invited respondent, ‘The Future of Cultural Leadership in Singapore’, Institute of Policy Studies (Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy) Roundtable on Cultural Policy Series; Singapore (2017)
Lecture, ‘Dissonance in the Global Creative City’, Institute of Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship, Goldsmiths University of London; UK (2017)
Presenter, ‘On Social and Cultural Entrepreneurship and Its Applicability to Socially Engaged Art, Working with People-Centred Processes: Art, Education and Cross-Sector Collaboration’, IFIMA and Think Centre; Bangkok, Thailand (2016)
Presenter, ‘From Individual to Networks: The ‘Networked’ Arts Curator & Cultural Worker in Southeast Asia’, ENCATC and Taiwan Cultural Policy Studies Association Academy on International Cultural Relations: New Initiatives in Taiwan, East Asia, US and Europe, National Taiwan University of the Arts; Taiwan (2015)

Other professional practice activities

Conference Committee, Shaping Asia’s Creative Futures: Cultural Relations, Technologies, and the Commons, 6th ANCER Conference; Hong Kong (forthcoming, 2025)
Co-convenor, ANCER Research Camp: Arts and Advocacy, Singapore (2025)
Panelist, Pedagogy of Internationalism in Arts Management, organised by AAAE – Association of Arts Administration Educators, online (2025)
Panelist, Future Proof: Cultural Leadership in the Creative Industries, The Idea of North: Singapore-Brunei Darussalam exchange, organised by Global Cultural Alliance Singapore; Singapore (2024)
Selection Committee, National Library Creative Residency (2023–present)
Mentor, Arts Journalism Matters Fellowship, organised by the Asia-Europe Foundation and ENCATC – The European Network on Cultural Management and Policy (2023)
Conference Committee, Sustainable Futures, New Creative Economies and the Management of Arts and Culture, 5th ANCER Conference; Singapore (2022)
Co-investigator, Financing Cultural and Creative Industries in Southeast Asia, UNESCO; Bangkok, Thailand (2019)
Co-convener, Future Forward: Emerging Issues in Arts Management in Asia, ANCER Annual Meeting (2018)
Co-convener, New Voices, Current Perspectives: Arts Management, Policy and Development in Asia, ANCER Conference Singapore; Singapore (2014)

Cultural governance in Singapore
Arts management challenges for non-profit arts organisations in Singapore
The state of the creative and cultural industries in Southeast Asia
Ground-up arts collectives and collaborative art-making practices

Recipient of the National Arts Council’s Cultural Fellowship (2013)

Academic leadership and faculty

Programme Leaders

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Alan P Rudge

Andreas Schlegel

Audrey Wong

Dayal Gian Singh

Dr Diego Celi

Dr Ronald P.M.H. Lay, MA, AThS-HF, AThR, ATR-BC

Dr Emilio Molina

Erzan Adam

Dr Francis Maravillas

Ginette Chittick

Hazel Lim-Schlegel

Dr Ian Woo

Dr Indra Selvarajah

Jay Loo Dexian

Jaygo Bloom

Jeffrey Say

Joselyn Sim

Justin Hegburg

Kathryn Shannon Sim

Khalid Almkhlaafy

Matt Grey

Michael Budmani

Dr Natalia Grincheva

Nathan Yong

Dr Rosslyn Prosser

Dr Subashini K Rajanthran

Victoria Elizabeth Ho

Wendy Chua

Associate Professor Woo Yen Yen

Senior Lecturers

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Adeline Kueh

Brian O’Reilly

Dr Darren Moore

Dirk Johan Stromberg

Hideho Urata

Jeremy Sharma

Kelley Cheng

Dr S Chandrasekaran

Salleh Japar

Urich Lau Wai-Yuen

Lecturers

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Aloysius Foong

Alvin Chiam

Ang Qing Sheng

Dr Aprille Chua Jia Qi

Chen Chin Tyng

Chris Yee

Christina Low Yung Chyuan

Dr Damaris D E Carlisle

Daniela Monasterios Tan

David Lee Siew Bing

Edmund Chia

Emylia Safian

Eta Lauw

Eugene Lee

Fanny Bratahalim

Dr Gan Sheuo Hui

Goh Hiro Toshi

Hera

Hillary Yeo

Janet Teoh

Jason Vitorillo

Jessica Olivia Chua

Dr Joel Gn

Dr Leela Alaniz

Lidya Chrisfens

Lim Shu Min

Lim Teng Hong

Dr Mardhiah Osman

Michael Charles Daniel Rezandi

Michelle Loh

Muhammad Fairul Azreen Bin Mohd Zahid

Nadia Oh Sueh Peng

Nicholas Ooi Wei Siong

Dr Nicholas Teo