Andrew Wright
Australia | Co-Founder, CEO, Artistic Director, Goat Track Theatre
Andrew Wright is the Co-Founder, CEO and Artistic Director of Goat Track Theatre, a company committed to the creation of transformational drama and theatre experiences for children and young people. He is an award-winning teacher, writer, director, community arts facilitator, actor and entrepreneur. He started his career as a drama teacher working at primary, secondary and tertiary education levels, and has been empowering young people through the arts for 26 years. He is driven by values of courage, creativity, care and connection and is passionate about ‘growing the greatness’ of his young tribe.
Anurag
India | Co-Founder, CEO, Manzil Mystics
Anurag is one of the Co-Founders and CEO of Manzil Mystics. He began his journey as a musician through Manzil back in 2010. He graduated with a Degree in Commerce from Delhi University, studied Marketing and Sales in Washington State and holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the Indira Gandhi National Open University. Other than leading the team at Manzil Mystics, he teaches more than 300 children through the Delhi government and low-income schools and represents himself as a vocalist and lyricist in a Delhi based choir band. He loves to teach children and believes that different art forms are an important part of a child’s life, especially school life.
Arsyad Azrai
Malaysia | Head of Programmes, Pusat Kreatif Kanak-Kanak Tuanku Bainun
Arsyad Azrai is the Head of Programmes for Pusat Kreatif Kanak-Kanak Tuanku Bainun (Tuanku Bainun Creative Centre for Children). He graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing from Pennsylvania State University. He had the opportunity to pursue education as a career through the Teach for Malaysia Fellowship and has been working with children ever since. During the Fellowship, he taught English and Drama and led an arts initiative called Artspire. With Pusat Kreatif Kanak-Kanak Tuanku Bainun, Arysad continues his pursuit in making good arts education available to all students in Malaysia.
Balint Komenczi
Hungary | Community Music Facilitator, Autonómia Foundation
Balint Komenczi is a sociologist and musician. He leads community music workshops for Roma youth in Hungarian segregated villages through the framework of complex community building projects organised by Autonómia Foundation. He believes in the democratisation of the rights for culture and arts creation and considers applied arts to be a great tool to enhance self-esteem and creativity. Through the methodology of collective creation, he tries to make youth aware of their own perspectives and joint interests.
Cheryl Gan
Singapore | Manager, Learning and Engagement, Playeum
Cheryl Gan is Playeum’s Manager for Learning and Engagement. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree (Honours) in Drama, Applied Theatre and Education from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (London). For the past four years at Playeum, she has worked extensively with children aged three to 12 from varying backgrounds. Her work includes curating content for children and their families, managing training for teachers, facilitating programmes and assisting in the operations of the Children’s Centre for Creativity. She strives to bring open-ended playful experiences to all children and adults who surround them.
Chhavi Khandelwal
India | Co-Founder, Saturday Art Class
Chhavi Khandelwal holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from Rachana Sansad's Academy of Architecture, Mumbai. With a strong belief in the arts as a language to transcend economic, social and political barriers, she co-founded Saturday Art Class with her partner Manasi Mehan during her Teach for India Fellowship. She has a passion for the arts and wishes to change the perception of arts in India. For six years, she worked in programmes providing arts education in orphanages and cancer speciality hospitals. She was previously working at a Mumbai-based architecture firm called White3, together with the principal architect Chaitaniya Karnik.
Clara Bloomfield
Scotland | Theatre Maker, Lecturer and Socially Engaged Artist
Clara Bloomfield is an award-winning freelance international theatre-maker, lecturer and socially-engaged artist from Scotland. She specialises in creating socio-politically engaged performances exploring the stories of the everyday, presented both in theatres and non-traditional spaces. She has created work with and for organisations such as the National Theatre of Scotland, Grande Blue, Lille France, Theatre NI (Northern Ireland), Youth Theatre Ireland, Hamilton Arts Festival New Zealand and National Theatre of Great Britain. She is also part of Scotland’s Catalyst for International Teaching Arts Collective (ITAC) that looks at advancing teaching artistry globally.
Daniel Dunlop
Australia | Creative Producer, Teaching Artist, Theatre Maker Theatre for Young People
With a practice in theatre and performance, Daniel Dunlop is an Australian creative producer, manager, artist, educator, consultant and creative learning specialist. He works with young people, creates arts projects and develops creative programmes nationally. He has worked for the Sydney Opera House, National Institute of Dramatic Art, Australian Institute of Music, Cirque du Soleil, Australia Council for the Arts, Brisbane Festival and Queensland Performing Arts Centre. He has also taught in many schools and toured with large commercial musical productions. He is currently the Chair of Outback Theatre for Young People, a youth arts company for regional and remote Australia. He holds Master’s Degrees in Fine Arts (Cultural Leadership) and Arts and Creative Industries Management.
Evelyn Ghozalli
Indonesia | Co-Founder, TaCita; Creative Director, Litara Foundation
Evelyn Ghozalli is an award-winning Indonesian author-illustrator-activist. She graduated with a major in Visual Design Communication from the Bandung Institute of Technology. A freelancer since 2005, she has illustrated more than 80 children’s books under the pseudonym EorG. ‘Taman Bermain dalam Lemari’, ‘The Chair’ and ‘Ahmad dan Domba Kecilnya’ are her award-winning works. She is the Creative Director of Litara Foundation, an indie publisher of local content. She founded KELIR, the Indonesian Children’s Book Illustrators Circle in 2009 and serves as the Regional Advisor in Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Indonesian chapter since 2013. She also co-founded a children’s story festival called TaCita in 2019.
Fredyl Hernandez
The Philippines | Artist-Teacher, Philippine Educational Theatre Association (PETA)
Fredyl Hernandez is a senior member of the Philippine Educational Theatre Association (PETA) and is deeply involved with theatre for development programmes. He used to be the Associate Programme Director of the Advocate Right to Safety (ARTS) zone project for children, a theatre for advocacy campaign on children’s rights and positive discipline. He joined PETA through its youth theatre programme, the Metropolitan Teen Theatre League (MTTL). He participated in several youth cultural exchanges in Norway, Greece, Netherlands and France through the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association (IDEA).
Grace Lee-Khoo
Singapore | Founder and Creative Development Director Access Path Productions
Grace Lee-Khoo is a Singaporean theatre-maker and Founder of Access Path Productions, a social enterprise that creates artistic experiences with the marginalised. Her most high-profile project to date is producing and performing in “And Suddenly I Disappear: The Singapore/UK 'd' Monologues” which toured to the Southbank Centre in September 2018 as part of the Unlimited Festival and other parts of the UK. In 2017, she served as International Artist in Residence at Graeae Theatre Company, the UK’s flagship disability led inclusive theatre company.
Habiba Insaf
India | German Chancellor Research Fellow Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
Habiba Insaf is a museum educator and learning experience designer from India. Her expertise lies in creating enquiry-based arts learning experiences that empowers individuals to think creatively, critically and courageously. She has designed and facilitated museum learning modules for 32 innovative urban schools and cultural institutions. She has worked directly with 10,000 learners and 500 educators across India. She is presently a German Chancellor Fellow researching on how teaching and learning in the 21st century can be promoted in museums and museum-like environments. She is trained in Psychology and Culture studies.
Hannah Grant
England | Founder and Director, Collective Impact Arts
Hannah Grant is the Founder of Collective Impact Arts – an organisation which grows from her years of experience in the Arts for Social Impact sector. She was the Director of Socially-Engaged Programmes at Shopfront Arts Co-op for 5 years, where she created a series of sustainable projects, working with young people using the arts as a tool for change in their schools and local communities. She has also worked with Immediate Theatre, Matriark Theatre, Leap Confronting Conflict and co-founded Theatre:Connect. Artistically, she works across storytelling, visual arts, digital arts and theatre-making with a focus on participatory practice with young people. Her work is responsive and informed by grassroots engagement. She holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Theatre from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (London).
Hui Ling Lee
Malaysia | Educator and Co-founder, Cai Hong Designs
Hailing from a family of artists, Hui Ling Lee is an educator and the Co-Founder of Cai Hong Designs with her architect sister Hui Lian Lee. Cai Hong Designs is a design studio providing consultancy services for low cost, high impact social innovation projects for youth development, empowerment and capacity building through strategic partnerships with government agencies, NGOs and educational institutions in Malaysia, Japan and ASEAN. A lecturer at the University of Nottingham, she is an advocate and trainer for disaster preparedness. She attended the Sarah Lawrence College on scholarship from the Board of Trustees and Center for Humans and Nature.
Kristin Dwek
United States of America | Project Manager, ArtBeatz
Kristin Dwek is an artist, educator, manager and community arts facilitator. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Studio Art and Education from the University of Georgia and a Master’s Degree in Arts Pedagogy and Practice from LASALLE College of the Arts. Working with ArtBeatz, she leads large scale projects where people from all ages and backgrounds can participate in meaningful art projects. She believes the arts is a common language that can connect and inspire people. She hopes to cultivate an appreciation of the arts while inviting interactions and dialogues from the community.
Lakshmi Karunakaran
India | Programme Director, Hasiru Dala
Lakshmi Karunakaran is an educator based in Bengaluru. She currently runs Buguri Community Libraries through her work at Hasiru Dala, an organisation working for the betterment of informal waste workers. Through her work over the past seven years, she has worked with children from diverse backgrounds using literature and the arts. She writes for ‘Teacher Plus’, a magazine for contemporary teachers. In 2017, she was an artist in residence at the Center for Contemporary Arts Warsaw, working on a project about children from abandoned mines in Poland.
Linh Valerie Pham
Vietnam | Founder, Artistic Director, Mat Tran Ensemble
Linh Valerie Pham is a contemporary theatre and puppet artist. Her work has been showcased at Ago Hub (Hanoi), Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (Hanoi), The Factory (Ho Chi Minh City), Soul Live Project (Ho Chi Minh City), Institute Francais Indonesia (Yogyakarta), Brick Theatre (New York), Center for Performance Research (New York) and HERE Arts Center (New York). Using puppetry as an artistic language, she organises and facilitates storytelling workshops for different communities across the country. Mat Tran Ensemble has received support from the Japan Foundation, Prince Claus Fund, FRIDA – The Young Feminist Fund amongst others. She is currently a resident artist at Rimbun Dahan, Malaysia.
Loh Wan Ting
Singapore | Founder, Red Balloon Therapy
Loh Wan Ting is an artist and trained art therapist with a Master’s Degree in Art Therapy. She believes in the healing process of creating art. The essence of her work lies in the belief that every person has the inherent capacity to heal and transform. Using art-making to foster interactive experiences and elicit reflection and insights, she facilitates art therapy sessions and conceptualises art workshops to improve the psychosocial well-being of individuals. She is constantly exploring ways to integrate her experiences in design with art therapy to create a communicative therapeutic approach through community projects that facilitate change and self-discovery.
Neil Chan
Malaysia | Musician, Neil Chan Music
Neil Chan is a world musician with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music (Recording Arts and Sciences) from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore. His work with music focuses on four pillars: artistry, education, research, and outreach. His passion for music and community service gave rise to his 'music for well-being initiatives’ where he actively gathers musicians and non-musicians to reach out to communities with the goal of inspiring participants to continue good work and initiate outreach activities on their own.
Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy
Vietnam | Art-based Facilitator
Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy is an art-based facilitator and storyteller in a school who enjoys creating opportunities for children to explore their inner artistry. She is also a member of Vietnam Dance Movement Therapy and Mat Tran Ensemble where she uses the arts to make people reconnect with themselves. Since 2011, she has organised many art festivals for ethnic minority students with the belief that the arts can be a tool for empowerment. She also a gardener who enjoys observing nature.
Nilisha Mohapatra
India| Lead Trainer, Partners For Youth Empowerment
For 10 years, Nilisha Mohapatra has been using arts-based practices to change how everyone learns. As a trainer and learning designer, she leads experiential, inclusive trainings to build 21st century skills that rewire routine ways of thinking and doing. In education sectors across India and USA, she has trained youth workers in creating imaginative and safe learning spaces. She has empowered youths with skills such as resilience, empathy, creativity and strengthened their agency to thrive. Since 2016, she has expanded her work to corporate a vision to leverage the arts in creating systemic shifts that can refresh the culture of human interactions.
Pia G. Ortiz-Luis
The Philippines | Executive Director, Cartwheel Foundation Inc.
Pia G. Ortiz-Luis is a development professional who believes in harnessing the power of expressive arts in her practice. She has over two decades of experiences in the development and delivery of social programmes focused on education, children’s welfare, youth leadership and community empowerment in various development contexts. She is currently the Executive Director of Cartwheel Foundation Inc., where she leads in nurturing safe spaces for marginalised indigenous children and communities through context-based education that draws from culture and the arts. She considers it her vocation to contribute to building thriving organisations and communities through expressive approaches.
Rebekah Lin
Singapore | Co-Founder, The Social Co.
Rebekah Lin is the Co-Founder of The Social Co., the team that initiated the ‘50 For 50’, ‘Pledge It Forward’ and ‘Power To Progress’ movements over the last five years. Her team has brought together more than 100 individuals, 90 corporations and more than 250 partners to raise awareness and approximately $5 million dollars for more than 50 lesser-known charities in Singapore. She loves documentaries and has hosted one for Channel NewsAsia, and worked with the good people at Doc Society and InDocs to bring GoodPitch, a platform that brings documentary filmmakers and changemakers together to create change, to Asia in 2017.
Samnang Chea
Cambodia | Psychologist, Mango Tree Garden Organisation
Samnang Chea graduated with a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology and Trauma Treatment from the University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She is an experienced psychologist who has been providing therapeutic services for children, their families and communities in Cambodia for over 30 years. In her interventions, she integrates different methods to support children and their families to overcome obstacles. She is passionate about creativity and the usage of arts when it comes to these methods. Every Sunday, Samnang and her volunteer team organise creative play including music, painting, story-telling and dance for children in Pagoda near Phnom Penh.
Shaza Ishak
Singapore | General Manager, Teater Ekamatra
Shaza Ishak is the Company Director and General Manager of Teater Ekamatra, a Singaporean ethnic minority theatre company. Aside from her commitment to producing theatre that inspires and effects social change, she is dedicated to incubating emerging talents and expanding diversity within the industry. She is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Creative Producing at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (London) with support from the Goh Chok Tong Youth Promise Award 2017, Li Siong Tay Postgraduate Scholarship 2018 and the National Arts Council Arts Postgraduate Scholarship 2018. She is also a Fellow at the International Society for the Performing Arts (USA).
Shoaib Iqbal
Pakistan | Founder, The Little Art
Shoaib Iqbal is an arts manager who has worked as a curator, director and arts educator since 2000. He founded The Little Art, a non-profit arts education organisation that uses the arts to promote positive social values through innovative learning opportunities among children and young adults. He founded the Lahore International Children’s Film Festival organised annually in various cities since 2008. He holds a Diploma in International Development from East Side Institute New York and graduated from DeVos Institute of Arts Management (Kennedy Centre). He was an Asia21 Fellow with Asia Society, ArtThink South Asia Fellow and New Zealand Edmund Hillary Fellow. He was the British Council Pakistan’s Head of Arts for 2017-18.
Soonufat Supramaniam
Malaysia | Founder, Leadspire Academy
As the Founder of Leadspire Academy and Teach for Malaysia’s alumnus, Soonufat Supramaniam believes that mapping the creative potential of all children in Malaysia through performing arts education is the core for positive social transformation. In the past five years, Soonufat has been invited to conferences championed by educators in Abu Dhabi, Cambodia, London and India. Two of his students’ theatrical productions titled ‘Find Your Light’ and ‘Singing To The Lions’ were featured as youth productions in George Town Festival 2017 and 2018 respectively. ‘Find Your Light’ won the Best English Language Programme 2018 in ASEAN region.
Sous Sinath
Cambodia| Director of HR and Community Engagement Phare Performing Social Enterprise
Sous Sinath has been working with Phare Ponleu Selpak and Phare Performing Social Enterprise for 15 years, creating strong bonds with the staff, artists and arts community. Her best experiences are working with professional actors and creating the Phare culture. As she supervises local and international teams in Cambodia, she has made significant contributions including strengthening the social impact of Phare’s projects and organising events and festivals. She was also a curator and producer of ‘Arts and Environment Festival’ in 2018 and 2019.
Sunniva Ramsay
Scotland | Creative Producer, Traverse Theatre
Sunniva Ramsay is the Creative Producer at the Traverse Theatre and has worked with the organisation for six years. As the Creative Producer, she works regularly as a dramaturg and workshop leader for emerging writers programmes, with a focus on young people. She has led international exchanges of the Traverse Theatre's Class Act programme and believes passionately in the potential of the arts to inspire creative ambition in young people. She holds a Master’s Degree in Theatre Studies (First Class Honours) from the University of Glasgow and has worked as an engagement artist, facilitator and director in venues including The Arches (Glasgow), The Lyceum (Edinburgh) and North Edinburgh Arts.
Tan Heng Yeng
Singapore| Senior Executive (Community and Access), National Gallery Singapore
Tan Heng Yeng graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the Yale-NUS College. As a recipient of the Singapore Industry Scholarship, she has been working in Community and Access at National Gallery Singapore, with a secondary portfolio co-chairing the Youth Engagement Taskforce. She has also been actively involved in various arts and justice projects, most recently with the Singapore Climate Rally movement. As a young person, she hopes to help build an arts landscape that is meaningful for and relevant to the contemporary concerns and politics of upcoming generations.
Teng Zi Ying
Singapore| Senior Youth Worker, Boys' Town
Teng Zi Ying trusts fully in the power of the expressive arts to educate, intervene and heal. She topped her cohort in the Singapore Polytechnic’s Diploma course in Applied Drama and Psychology and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Drama, Applied Theatre and Education (First Class Honours) from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (London). Her current role at Boys’ Town takes her to the streets where she engages youth-in-need through outreach and designs expressive arts programmes for intervention. She has also developed Applied Theatre projects with the Institute of Mental Health’s Community Health Assessment Team and HM Prison Thameside.
V Balakrishnan
India | Artistic Director, Theatre Nisha
V Balakrishnan is an alumnus of the Sri Ram Centre for Performing Arts and National School of Drama, New Delhi. He was awarded the Charles Wallace Scholarship to attend an International Residency with the Royal Court Theatre, London. He founded his company Theatre Nisha in 2000. He has been a theatre educator for over 20 years and is associated with more than 25 schools and colleges. He was awarded the Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching 2017 by the United States-India Educational Foundation and Dronacharya Award in 2018 by the Rotary Club, Madras East, for exemplary services in education.
Zankhana Joshi
India | Founder, Tatvamasi
Zankhana Joshi is a Counselling Psychologist and Dance Movement Therapist (DMT). With a decade of experiences in investment banking, she found her calling in working in the area of mental health. She combines cognitive talk, dance and expressive arts-based interventions for individuals and groups at her private practice at Tatvamasi, and with various community projects like youth leadership initiatives, gender labs, survivors of sex-trafficking, patients with palliative care and mental illness. She is also a visiting faculty at Tata Institute of Social Sciences teaching DMT. She believes in exploring the mind-body connection to facilitate healing and transformation of the self and society.