Audrey Wong (Singapore)
Despite her teacher’s recommendation to study psychology, Audrey Wong chose to pursue the less financially lucrative path of her first love — literature, which led to a masters in English Literature at NUS. It eventually dawned on her that she’s carrying on a crazy family tradition of getting involved in the arts instead of being a more economically-productive Singaporean (her mother is Cultural Medallion recipient & Chinese opera artist Joanna Wong). She joined The Substation in 1996 and the following year, launched the Moving Images film programme with then-Artistic Director T. Sasitharan. In 2000, she obtained an MA in arts administration from Goldsmiths College, and returned to The Substation as Artistic Co-director together with Lee Weng Choy.
With The Substation – a multi-disciplinary, independent arts centre – she has initiated, curated, and managed arts festivals, independent theatre productions, exhibitions, artists’ exchanges and networking. In 2003, Audrey and Co-director Lee Weng Choy launched the Associate Artists programme which aims to support independent artists’ practice and careers. She taught part-time at the Theatre Studies department of National University of Singapore from 2001 – 2004 and is currently lecturing part-time for the Masters in Arts & Cultural Management programme at Lasalle College of the Arts.
She is on the Programme Advisory Committee (Theatre) of the Singapore Arts Festival, and is a founder-member of Magdalena (Singapore), a society promoting networking and skills-sharing among women in theatre, which has affiliation with The Magdalena Project global network. With Magdalena (Singapore), she collaborated with four other theatre artists on a performance presentation “Her Space” in 2005 and co-organised the Crossroads 2006 International Festival of Women in Theatre, where she put together the community/outreach programme. She has a particular interest in working with young, emerging artists with a contemporary sensibility from all disciplines, and teaching/working with youths. She occasionally writes about the arts – in visual art, performance, and cultural policy matters.
