Singapore’s Leading Arts Hub Appoints New Director

The NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore), the city-state’s leading arts hub, has new leadership effective July 1. After serving as the Centre’s founding director for over a decade, German curator and educator Ute Meta Bauer has passed the leadership torch to Singapore-based American curator, author, and educator Karin G. Oen.

Oen joined the NTU CCA in 2019 and through 2021 was deputy director of curatorial programs. She brings a wealth of curatorial experience from her previous positions at the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts, the Crow Museum of Asian Art in Dallas, and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Alongside her new role, Oen will retain her affiliations as a senior lecturer and the head of the art history department at NTU’s School of Humanities.

Bauer and Oen have a longstanding partnership that began with their initial meeting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There, Oen completed her PhD in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Art and Architecture (2006–12) while Bauer served as director of the visual arts program (2005–09) and founding director of the Art, Culture, and Technology program (2009–12). Since 2019, they have worked at NTU’s School of Art, Design, and Media (ADM), and have collaborated on NTU CCA exhibitions, programs, and publications.

Speaking about the change in leadership, Bauer said: “I could not imagine a better-suited successor as Dr Karin Oen, who endorses CCA in all its components, knowing it from the inside yet bringing a basket of fresh ideas to the table.” Following her departure, Bauer will continue to teach in the master’s program for museum and curatorial studies at ADM, and serve as the principal investigator for the Ministry of Education’s research project titled “Climate Crisis and Cultural Loss.”

In a press statement, Oen affirmed that it is an honor “to return to CCA to continue the work of this important and unique research center.” As its new director, she is committed to elevating the Centre’s transdisciplinary and transnational art projects, including “Spaces of the Curatorial”, “Curating the City,” and “Climates. Habitats. Environments” (2017– ).

NTU CCA opened in October 2013 as a multidisciplinary nonprofit institution in Singapore’s arts district Gillman Barracks. As a national research center of Nanyang Technological University, developed with the support of the Economic Development Board, the Centre is distinguished by its threefold focus on exhibitions, residencies, and research and academic education. The Centre launched programs on urbanism, marine ecology, environmentalism, and the island country’s colonial past, serving as a gateway to the Southeast Asian art world.

The change in leadership comes amid wavering government support for Singapore’s contemporary art scene. After funding cuts in 2021, NTU CCA was forced to close down its primary exhibition and cut the number of residency spaces, to the dismay of myriad artists and curators in the region.

Annette Meier is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.

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