Nafa wants to be arts centre of choice in region

SIZE MATTERS

'Our size is an advantage though, it allows for intimate classroom settings.'

Nafa's president Choo Thiam Siew

HE chose to leave Indonesia to pursue an education in the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Nafa) two years ago.

Now a final-year student in the school's Diploma in 3D Design programme, Ryan Japsephine said he 'definitely enjoyed the experience'.

The 21-year-old added: 'Nafa held a seminar in Jakarta and I was interested in the variety of options the school provided.

'I made new friends from different countries, learnt about many cultures, which widens my scope of thinking and inspires my work. This is what I came here for.'

Foreign students like Ryan are what Nafa wants more of in the near future.

The multi-cultural environment Ryan described, said Nafa's president Choo Thiam Siew, is the result of a deliberate path the school has been building over the past three years.

Speaking at a media dialogue yesterday, he said: 'Cross-cultural exchanges are important to an arts school. In particular, we have been marketing aggressively to South-east Asian nations because we want Nafa to be the obvious choice for arts reseach and training in the region.'

Currently, about 60 per cent of the school's student population are Singaporeans or permanent residents.

The rest come mostly from China, Indonesia, Malaysia and India.

Mr Choo said foreign students are likely to make up about half of Nafa's population in the next five years.

When asked if the competition posed by the School of the Arts (Sota) and the increasing range of art and design options provided by polytechnics is another reason to attract more international students, he said: 'Of course. Sota might take away talents and polytechnics can offer arts courses; we can't offer the full range of what they have.

'Our size is an advantage though, it allows for intimate classroom settings.'

Most importantly, he added, Nafa must continue to improve their programmes. For instance, the school is in talks with several overseas universities to expand degree offerings.

The school has also been working on the quality of staff. More than 80> per cent of its academic faculty hold at least a degree and Nafa has been sponsoring more staff for further studies.

Research, said Mr Choo, is another area which Nafa will develop further.

'We are in the midst of discussing the launch of an Institute of Southeast Asian Arts Studies... Plans should be finalised in three months and we hope it will be ready this year,' he said.

Mr Choo also noted that the arts and creative industries are making gains here.

More than 90 per cent of last year's graduates have found work, with 25 per cent securing jobs before graduation, he said.

Source: Straits Times, 20 Jan 2010.