ASIAN ARTS MEDIA ROUNDTABLE

Introduction

The Asian Arts Media Roundtable is a meeting of arts editors, publishers, reviewers, arts journalists, critics, bloggers, podcasters, videocasters, academics and arts makers from Southeast Asia, East Asia and Asia-Pacific. The Roundtable is the first step towards establishing a network of arts media organisations and individual arts writers in the region that will have multiple impacts across the creation, discourse and consumption of the arts. 

Low hanging fruit

Arts media is often overlooked by policy makers, funders and practitioners when considering the arts ecosystem. Traditional media structures have fallen, and in this challenging, uncertain environment, arts media is the lowest hanging fruit. All around the world, across all media platforms, the theatre reviewer, the music critics, the books editor are fast disappearing. 

Shrinking arts coverage impacts the artists and the audience. It affects public discourse about our societies. Policy objectives of arts excellence, resilience, innovation and income generation need an active, independent arts media.

Objectives of the Asian Arts Media Roundtable

To bring together different stakeholders involved in arts media publishing and arts criticism for the first time to: 

  • create an open platform for peer knowledge and information sharing that is regionally-orientated and cross-genre. 
  • identify and address areas of need such as resources, infrastructure, training and education, industry development and more.
  • identify ways for collaborations, exchanges, resource sharing and cross promotions that can help build sustainability.