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Acceleration
Programme for the
Arts 2023

The Acceleration Programme for the Arts 2023, by UOB FinLab and National Arts Council, aims to help arts organisations strengthen their business and digital capabilities to achieve their vision for growth and development.

With the 4-week programme, participants will get to learn from industry experts, engage in curated workshops and learn through peer discussions. This programme will enable arts organisations to leverage digital solutions to build up their business and financial competencies.

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How will you benefit from this programme?

Programme Highlights 1 - Acceleration Programme For The Arts 2023

Programme Outline

Programme Outline 3 - Acceleration Programme For The Arts 2023

Week 1 - Reimagine your Business with Value Proposition

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony began with Janet Young, Managing Director and Head of Group Channels and Digitalisation, Strategic Communications and Brand, UOB, and Lynette Pang, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, National Arts Council, delivering the opening address.

This was followed by a panel discussion on “Navigating the Intersection of Arts, Business and Digitalisation” moderated by Ning Chong, Co-Founder, The Culture Story, with panelists Goh Beng Kwan, UOB Painting of the Year Artist, Hazeleen Goh, Founder and CEO, ArtAF, Kevin Lim, Director of Digital Innovation and Transformation, National Gallery Singapore, and Kuo Jian Hong, Artistic Director, The Theatre Practice, who shared their insights on the topic.

Acceleration Programme For The Arts (Opening)
Janet Young delivers the opening address
Acceleration Programme For The Arts (Opening)
Lynette Pang delivers  the opening address
Acceleration Programme For The Arts (Opening)
Janet Young with panelists
Acceleration Programme For The Arts (Opening)
Opening Ceremony Group Picture

Business Model Canvas Workshop

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Participants then took part in a Business Model Canvas workshop led by Felix Tan, Mentor-In-Residence at UOB FinLab.

Felix first shared about the nine components of the Business Model Canvas and guided participants in creating one for their own business.

Afterwards, participants took part in one-on-one mentoring sessions with Felix to address their questions about their business ideas.

Week 2 - Grow your Business with Digital and Content Marketing

Business and Marketing Strategies Fundamentals for Creatives

The second week of the programme was a learning session conducted by Luke B. a lecturer at Media, Arts & Design School, Singapore Polytechnic and OKJ (Ong Ka Jing), a Documentary Storyteller at OKJ Works. 

OKJ conducted various activities to teach participants to persevere with their marketing strategies while Luke B facilitated a brand audit on each art group and shared insights into maintaining consistency in branding. 

Afterwards, Tan Jia Yee, Director, Creative and Social at Tate Anzur, shared her experience working for an arts programme with participants and how they can get the most out of their marketing strategies. 

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Luke B sharing his insights on branding consistency
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OKJ teaching participants about the importance of perseverance
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Tan Jia Yee shares insights from her working experience

Week 3 - Improving Your Business Operations

Sharing Session

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The third week of the programme began with a sharing session by Sharon Ong, Vice-President of Design and Communications at Inmagine. 

Sharon shared on how arts organisations can leverage AI-powered content creation tools to save time when creating digital marketing creatives.

A panel discussion on “Innovation in the Arts Industry: Leveraging Digital Tools to Reshape Business Operation” was then conducted by moderator William Phuan, Executive Director at Singapore Book Council.

The panel discussed various topics such as omni-channel marketing, data analytics, the importance of engaging the younger audience, and the power of Web 3.0 technologies such as AI chatbots and NFTs.

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The panel gathered insights from Benedict Tay, Head of CED & Partnership, Business Banking, UOB, Candice Zin Ni Chua, Branch Manager, UOB, Jasdeep Sandhu, Founder, Gajah Gallery, and Chan Kee Siak, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Exabytes

Week 4 - Closing Ceremony: Tech Meets Art

The Future of Arts, Business and Technology

The closing ceremony began with a sharing session by Damian Kim, Managing Director, Singapore at Meta and Clarence Chan, Founder of Bandwagon. 

Damian spoke to participants about how the metaverse is the next step in internet and social technologies while Clarence shared about the opportunities that metaverse and VR technologies bring to art practitioners. 

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Damian shares about the evolution of internet and social technologies
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Clarence gives insights into leveraging Web 3.0 technologies for art
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Closing Ceremony Group Picture

UOB and National Arts Council launch an Acceleration Programme to help artists expand their influence

This is the first Acceleration Programme for art practitioners, and through the 4-week programme, participants will be exposed to business thinking and digital skills. They will also learn how to use these tools to expand their audience reach, visibility and influence through in-depth workshops with industry experts.

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This programme is brought to you by

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Tan Jia Yee

Jia Yee honed her skills and capabilities through a diverse career in marketing communications – she started her career at Ogilvy as a strategist, then left to build-from-scratch an award-winning creative agency for six years, before moving to an in-house role at a precision health company where she was part of the leadership team. Jia Yee’s currently the Director of Creative and Social at Tate Anzur, an integrated strategic communications agency.

She’s blessed to be doing what she loves, particularly in bridging understanding, connecting communities, and in achieving measurable business outcomes. Some of the clients she has worked with include AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, GIC, the National Arts Council, and the Singapore Tourism Board.

Jia Yee is very active in the arts and community – she continues to write for stage, and currently sits on the Board of Diverse Abilities Dance Collective, and the Prayoon for Art Foundation (Thailand). She is also an Advisor (Arts) for the National Youth Council’s Young ChangeMakers, and a Citizen Ambassador with the Singapore International Foundation.

Damian Kim (Meta)

Damian Kim is the Managing Director at Meta, Singapore, where he is responsible for leading the company’s efforts to build communities and support businesses on platforms.

Prior to his current role, Damian was the Head of Gaming for the Greater China Region responsible for industry development of mobile gaming companies focused on the global market and established it as one of the largest businesses worldwide.

As a co-Chapter Advisor for [email protected] SG, Damian has always been impressed with the long-standing efforts of [email protected] across the company and, in particular, the direct experience he’s had within APAC and also as part of the Global Gaming team.

Before joining Meta, Damian held several positions at Microsoft – both in the APAC regional headquarters in Singapore and the global headquarters in the United States. He was responsible for multiple partnerships – including Hewlett-Packard and Samsung – and also led the launch and growth of the Surface product category for APAC.

Damian received his B.B.A from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. While originally from the US, he has been based in Singapore for over a decade where he currently resides with his wife and two children.

Sharon Ong

Sharon is currently Vice-President of Design and Communications at Inmagine. As a member of the senior leadership team, Sharon leads the Creative and Communication Department across the Group.

She has held senior positions in companies such as J. Walter Thompson, Publicis, Havas Worldwide, Chiel Worldwide, Bray Leino Splash before joining Inmagine. She is strategic and results-driven with over 15 years of working experience building brands across various industries.

With a First Class Honours degree in Visual Communication Design from Middlesex University, Sharon has led multiple teams through her career with her strong leadership skills and is well-known in her industry as a change catalyst, and a hybrid creative with a “can-do” attitude.

OKJ (Ong Kar Jing)

OKJ (Ong Kah Jing, 王傢靖) is redefining the value of short documentaries as well as how they can impact society.

He pushes the boundaries as deemed necessary to do justice to stories by trying new storytelling methods and platforms.

His earnest approach to documentary storytelling led to commissions with Singaporean government agencies such as Sport Singapore and National Environmental Agency as well as international organisations such as Young Sustainable Impact Global based in Norway.

His independent documentary works were recognised at the National Youth Film awards, where he is a 4-time nominee and 2-time winner, along with engagements with brands such as SanDisk Professional and Canon Singapore as well as being involved in a nation-wide campaign with National University of Singapore.

His work had also been shared by mainstream media as well as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Clarence Chan

Clarence is the founder of Bandwagon Labs, whose goal is to help brands create their shopfronts in the interoperable web3 metaverse. He and his team are the 1st in Singapore to be a verified partner of Decentraland (#1 ranked web3 metaverse based on market cap), and the 1st globally to hold wedding in Sandbox Game as featured in CoinTelegraph, CNA, front page of ST life, and the team behind Capitaland’s metaverse activation, Capitaverse.

He is currently building BWLAND, a metaverse tech stack for enterprises. Clarence is in the founding team of TheGreatWave.io, a web3 music collective which funds music collaborations via DeFi. Clarence has been an invited speaker by National Marketing Office, IMDA, and was in Prestige’s 40 under 40 in 2022. He is an alumni of the 1st Solana Hacker House SG, holder of Solana Monkey Business #1297 and early Bitcoin ordinals holder of PixelPepes #1147.

Candice Zin Ni Chua

Candice’s first two years with UOB started with service roles at the Marina Bay Financial Centre and Main branches of the bank. She subsequently moved on to the Self-Serving Banking department and the FinTech and Innovation department (Strategy and Projects), before moving on to her current role as the youngest west region branch manager in UOB (Clementi Branch). To date, Candice has donned UOB colours for 12 years.

During her tenure, Candice was also UOB’s Committee Lead for 3 consecutive years for the Singapore FinTech Festival. Her background in theatre arts and filmmaking, coupled with her friendliness, relatability and passion for people and innovation, were fundamental in her managing the [email protected] learning lab, a space where students can co-create and engage with the UOB staff, a space where both parties can learn and understand each other better.

Luke B

Luke B’s passion for photography started at a young age. Upon completing his Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering course at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, he chose to be an apprentice with prominent local photographers for many years before embarking on his career as a professional photographer. His works has been collected in Kiyosato Museum in Photographics Arts in Japan. He was an active committee member in Professional Photographers Association of Singapore, leading the outreach and education team.

In his role as adjunct lecturer with Singapore Polytechnic 10 years ago, Luke found his calling in teaching and mentoring. He now holds a full time lecturer position in the Media, Arts & Design School (SP), sharing his passion for photography, video content creation and mentoring the young people in creative entrepreneurship.

With close to 7 years of teaching in the field of design, entrepreneurship, photography and video production. He has inspired and groomed many youth winning the Crowbar Awards and other accolades with some successfully created their startup in the creative industry.

Janet Young

Ms Young leads the Channels and Digitalisation teams to build customer engagement and connectivity across online and physical channels in key Asia markets to support all customer segments across the Group.  Working with business and technology partners internally, and Fintechs and ecosystem partners externally, Ms Young champions innovation to create digital solutions and collaborative business models that benefit the bank and the bank’s customers.

She also leads the Brand management, Communications, Corporate Social Responsibility teams across the group to achieve UOB’s brand vision, supported by impactful communication with all stakeholder groups and strong community relationships.

Ms Young is a Board Member of the Singapore National Council of Social Service (NCSS), National Environmental Agency (NEA), InnoVen Capital (a venture debt JV between UOB and Temasek Holdings), The FinLab and Accuron Technologies. She also serves Advisory Councils of Nanyang Business School, NTU Singapore and Elevandi.

Ms Young has more than 25 years of banking and corporate experience. Prior to joining UOB, she held senior roles at global banks and European MNC.

Felix Tan

With almost 30 years of business and entrepreneurial experience, Felix is The FinLab’s “Mentor-in-Residence” after having helmed it from November 2015 to July 2020 as its Managing Director.

He is also an Independent Director on 2 listed companies – Y Ventures Group in Singapore, and Eggriculture Foods Ltd in Hong Kong.

Kevin Lim

Working at National Gallery Singapore for the past decade, Kevin Lim has evolved through diverse roles in Visitor Experience, to Corporate Planning, to Innovation at the Gallery.

The Innovation & Technology group is aimed at developing new ways for visitors to experience the Gallery:

  1. Y-Lab looks at proof of problem, and scans the horizon for startups to collaborate with
  2. Co:Lab X looks at proof of market, through viable in-house innovations
  3. DevOps look at proof of scale, by growing technology solutions resiliently and sustainably

Kevin Lim graduated with a doctorate in Communication theory from the State University at Buffalo, New York and his work has revolved around the reflexive architecture of society and online social networks.

Kuo Jian Hong

Artistic Director of The Theatre Practice (Practice), award-winning theatre director, lighting and set designer, and independent film-maker, Kuo has always taken on multi-faceted creative roles within the arts. Her extensive career spans over three decades, making her one of the key contributors to the development of the Singapore arts scene.

Mr Goh Beng Kwan

Goh Beng Kwan, who turns 86 this year, is a pioneer Singapore modern artist known for his distinctive approach to abstraction and collage. He studied under Singaporean pioneer artists Chen Wen Hsi and Cheong Soo Pieng before moving to the US, where he studied at the Arts Students League of New York City. During his time in NYC, Goh was awarded multiple art scholarships, as well as mentorship from acclaimed painter Sidney Gross and Leo Manso. For over half a century, Goh has been an influential artist in Singapore – contributing significantly to the development of local contemporary art. He was awarded first prize at the inaugural UOB Painting of the Year Competition in 1982 and received the Cultural Medallion for Visual Arts in 1989. His work has been featured in over 120 exhibitions across Asia, Europe and the United States, and is in private collections locally and throughout Asia.

Hazeleen Goh

Hazeleen Goh is the youngest daughter of Singaporean artist Mr. Goh Beng Kwan. ArtAF (also known as Art Affairs) is a homage to her father’s legacy and a dedication to her family. Hazeleen’s childhood was often spent gazing at her father at work as he created paintings and collages out of what she thought was a mess of smelly paints and hanging out at art galleries with him and his artist friends. Her gratitude and love for her parents, and deep respect for her father’s work today is a result of those childhood memories. Hazeleen’s personal mission is keeping Singapore’s history of art alive by honouring the work created by her father and his peers and connecting them with younger generation of collectors and emerging artists.

Ning Chong

Ms Ning Chong has more than fifteen years of experience working in the professional art world. She received a BSc in Economics and Economic History from the London School of Economics, and a Masters in Modern and Contemporary Art from Christie’s Education in London.

In 2017, Ms Chong co-founded The Culture Story with her father Mr Chong, with a vision to create a boutique art consultancy that delivers exciting programmes centred around art. She is also a patron of the National Gallery Singapore and Singapore Art Museum.

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