ABOUT
OBJECTIVES
Create a greater consciousness of the meaning and practice of geragogy as a professional form of arts practice with seniors.
Establish basic guiding principles in facilitating seniors through the arts.
Discuss strengths and challenges in working with seniors, using the Person-centered Pedagogical Framework in Arts Practices with Communities.
Emphasize the need to work in partnership with senior organisations in sustaining quality programmes for seniors.
CONFERENCE FRAMEWORK
Geragogy involves managing teaching and learning for older adults. Among the various geragogy concepts that have emerged, this conference will explore critical and integrative geragogical concepts and their alignment with the Person-centered Pedagogical Framework for Arts Practices with Communities.
Critical geragogy aims to foster seniors' self-actualization, social relationships, well-being, and talent development, emphasizing autonomy and self-fulfillment. Integrative geragogy focuses on teaching strategies for seniors facing mobility, communicative, and cognitive challenges.
The overall emphasis will be on sustained arts practices with seniors, highlighting facilitation aspects crucial to their work.
ABOUT THE ORGANISERS
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Dr Felicia Low
Director, Community Cultural Dimensions Ltd.
Dr. Felicia Low, a graduate of Goldsmith’s College, is a visual artist, art educator and applied arts researcher. A Lee Kong Chian scholar of the National University of Singapore, Felicia obtained a PhD in Cultural Studies in Asia in 2015. She has also written a pedagogical guide and trains artists-facilitators on Person-centred Arts Practices with Communities, with support from the National Arts Council. Since 2000, she has worked with various arts and social institutions and organisations, such as National Gallery Singapore, The Necessary Stage, Singapore Cancer Society and Dementia Singapore, to conceptualise, conduct and coordinate arts programmes and research.
Felicia was the recipient of the Outstanding Youth In Education Award 2005 and was selected for the President’s Young Talent Show 2009 organized by the Singapore Art Museum. She received the Teaching Merit Award from the Singapore University of Social Sciences in 2019. Felicia is the founding director of Community Cultural Dimensions, which aims to provide a critical discursive platform for artistic practices that engage with communities in the region. She is also a part-time supervisor at Lasalle (BA Arts Management, MA Arts Pedagogies and Practice), associate lecturer at NTU (BA Public Policy & Global Affairs) and at the NUS (MA in Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship). More info about Felicia’s work can be found at https://ccd.sg/
Peggy Ferroa
Community Theatre Artist
Peggy Ferroa is a community theatre artist who helps individuals build new relationships with themselves, their community and their audience. With her extensive experience from stage, screen and radio, Peggy has created performances with corporations, local residents, individuals with special needs, older adults, hospice residents, inmates, and cultural communities like the Peranakans. These performances take the form of personal narratives, plays, musicals, short films, or even radio plays. Her productions have been featured at the Singapore International Festival of Arts, Singapore’s Silver Arts Festival, Japan’s World Gold Theatre Festival and Malaysia’s George Town Festival.
Her conference presentations on the elderly include This Is My Song: a music programme for hospice patients (5th International Teaching Artist Conference, Seoul, Korea), A New Pulse for Seniors in Community Theatre, (LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore) and “Is it My Turn?” Co-creating with Seniors (Chinese University of Hong Kong). She has also written a chapter in Routledge’s Companion to Applied Performance entitled Glowing with Age. Apart from her independent practice, Peggy is Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the National University of Singapore where she teaches for the module, Theatre and Community Engagement. More information on Peggy’s work can be found at https://peggyferroa.wixsite.com/peggyferroa
Xin Xiaochang
Head, Special Projects Unit, Planning and Projects Office
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Art and Design, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Singapore
Xin Xiaochang leads the Special Projects Unit (SPU) at NAFA-UAS, focusing on talent development and cultivating synergies between disciplines and organisations. In addition to her leadership role, she teaches service design in the BA(Hons) Design Practice course.
With a background in interior architecture and applied arts, Xin's cross-disciplinary expertise extends to her artistic practice in ceramics and mixed-media sculptures. Her artwork is featured in private and corporate collections internationally. Driven by a passion for creative education, Xin has taught art to students from kindergarten to secondary school before joining NAFA-UAS. Currently pursuing a Master of Science (MSc) in Applied Gerontology at National Technological University (NTU), she envisions integrating the arts into the ageing sector, recognising the value of design in contributing to the social care sector through a multi-disciplinary lens.
Dr Jeffery Tan
Dean, Centre for Lifelong Education
Acting Director, Research Division
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Singapore
As a theatre practitioner, Jeffery is often described as the enfant terrible of Singapore theatre. Under the moniker “Jeff Chen”, he has directed numerous productions that have generated enthusiastic discussion in the theatre industry since 1998. His latest projects include LIFT: Love is Flower The (2013) which was a recipient of the National Arts Council’s Art Creation Fund and presented by Theatreworks. In 2015, at the invitation of Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay, Jeffery directed a restaging of Kuo Pao Kun’s Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral to critical acclaim.
In addition to his role as a theatre director, Jeffery is a committed and experienced educator and academic administrator. He has developed syllabi and taught arts management, arts policy, theatre, film and cultural studies at National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, National Institute of Education, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and various secondary schools. In 2020, Jeffery was appointed the Dean of Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts’ Centre for Lifelong Education. Since then he has reinvented himself as an advocate for continuing education and training for the creative industries.
As a past beneficiary of study grants from Lee Foundation, University of Cambridge and British Council, Jeffery believes that it is his duty to contribute towards the development of Singapore’s creative industries.
THIS CONFERENCE IS SUPPORTED BY
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Tan Li Ching Winnie
Programme Leader (Administrative), Centre for Lifelong Education, NAFA
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Art and Design, School of Design and Media, NAFA
Winnie Tan serves as the Programme Leader at Centre for Lifelong Education (CLE) where she develops art and design programmes with industry partners for lifelong learning and training. Prior to the current role, she was also the Programme Leader with the Diploma of Advertising and Graphic Design at NAFA.
With a background in graphic design and typography, Winnie has created several typefaces and received international accolades that served both global and local clients in Singapore. As an artist, her typography revolves around bilingualism and the utilization of type as both image and text that spans from print to screen. Winnie has also served as judge and speaker at events such as The Crowbar Award and Singapore Writers Festival. In her current role with CLE, she endeavours to develop art and design programmes to a wider audience for an inclusive skills-based digital economy.
Amy Jane Fitzgerald
Website Coordinator | Public Policy & Global Affairs Major at NTU
Amy is an NTU-USP Scholar majoring in Public Policy & Global Affairs at Nanyang Technological University. She holds a Diploma with Merit in Arts Business Management, receiving the Temenggong Artists-in-Residence Gold Medal & Prize for outstanding performance. Amy's passion for policy and the arts is evident from her diverse experiences, including roles at Singapore Grand Prix, Playeum Ltd, People’s Association, and Workforce Singapore. Currently, her academic focus is on cultural policy, crisis management, and public administration at NTU.
Geraldine Ang
Publicity Designer and Coordinator
Geraldine has been working in theatre for more than 12 years. Her love for theatre and the arts started since the age of 15 when she participated in M1 youth connection with a performance art and installation piece with The Necessary Stage.
Since then she has worked with the likes of The Finger Players, Singapore Repertory Theatre, The Esplanade amongst others and even on bigger platform shows like LKY the Musical and the touring version of The Lion King.
Melia Sin
Conference Administrator
Melia is a graduate from the National University of Singapore, where she studied Sociology and Southeast Asian Studies. Prior to that, she completed the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (Theatre) at School of the Arts, Singapore.
A curious generalist by nature, Melia has dabbled in many fields, all of which are motivated by her interest in understanding the human condition and working towards better ways for people to connect. She has conducted ethnographic research on Cambodia’s diasporic youth, stage-managed theatre productions, amplified social causes through digital marketing and promoted arts education with The Human Expression Dance Company and Nine Years Theatre.
Having recently attained her early childhood education diploma, Melia is looking forward to integrating her passion for theatre, research, and education to create meaningful and transformative experiences for children and their communities.
ABOUT THE ORGANISATIONS
About Community Cultural Dimensions Ltd.
Established in 2010, Community Cultural Dimensions (CCD) CCD aims to Support professional development for artists who work with communities. It also supports volunteer welfare organisations in the conducting and evaluating arts programmes for the communities they serve, such as seniors, youth, those with special needs and the incarcerated.
It does so by encouraging applied research methods as a means of critical evaluation and improvement of arts programmes conducted by artists. It also advocates for a person-centered approach in the planning, conduct and evaluation of arts programmes with communities.
About Centre for Lifelong Education.
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Singapore.
Established in 2005, Centre for Lifelong Education is Singapore’s leading institute for continuing education and training in arts, design and media. Every year, thousands of adult learners, including many senior citizens, learn new skills and reignite their imagination through the Centre’s innovative course offerings.