The Institute of Southeast Asian Arts is pleased to host the 2nd SEArch alliance roundtable meeting, where representatives from member institutions convened to provide updates and engage in discussion on further collaborations.

With the focus key areas of empowering communities, improving visibility and optics of knowledge and exchange within the Southeast Asian region, exploring more cross-cultural exchanges, and expanding on existing synergies in research through joint research projects and touchpoints, the alliance's member institutions are committed to expanding and strengthening this partnership.

You may access our 2025 digital pre-event pack here. 

This year, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts welcomed a new partner, Institut Teknologi Bandung, with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding at the opening of the UOB-NAFA Southeast Asian Arts Forum 2025. 

Furthermore, NAFA has collaborated with Silpakorn University's Faculty of Decorative Arts on two exhibitions, Streams of Change: Art, Agency and the Environment, and Sentient Being, Virtual World: Revelations in Digital Ethnographies, each with a corresponding student masterclass workshop. In addition, an immersive metaverse game Seeking Chimera: Myths in Southeast Asia was jointly developed by the Institute of Southeast Asian Art and Cyberrex Design with the support and expertise from Silpakorn University principals. Find out more about the game here. 

Concurrently with this roundtable meeting, a pilot student exchange workshop was held in conjunction with the UOB-NAFA Southeast Asian Arts Forum 2025, with 11 students from SEArch founding members: Vietnam University of Fine Arts, Taylor's College, Taylor's University (Malaysia) and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. The students' final works were later shown in the exhibition Streams of Change.