The Shared Campus project, whose full partners include Taipei National University of the Arts, Zurich University of the Arts, University of the Arts London, Tokyo University of the Arts, Lasalle College of the Arts Singapore, Hong Kong Baptist University, and City University of Hong Kong’s School of Creative Media, held its first Strategy Board meeting at TNUA in Taipei on February 23-24.
The Strategy Board members gathered together at TNUA to map out a five-year development plan for Share Campus.
At the very first meeting of the two-day event, TNUA President Prof Chen Kai-Huang extended a warm welcome to all the participants.
He noted that it’s the first time that Shared Campus Strategy Board could get together following three difficult years of COVID. He expressed the hope that everyone could enjoy their stay at TNUA for the next two days.
Dr. Venka Purushothaman, Deputy President and Provost of Lassalle College of the Arts, who chaired the meeting, noted that Shared Campus puts forth the transformational potential of the arts in people’s lives, which is central to the project. Educators in the arts can shape the world, and they should continue to champion the role of the arts.
The two-day event focused on ways to sustain Shared Campus, and to develop its curriculum and teaching resources.
The project aims at developing a sustainable financing and resourcing model that demonstrates a balance of commitments with shares responsibility among its members.
For the purpose of communication, the project has already launched a website, and established two social media channels (Facebook and Instagram). In the following years, the project needs to step up communications efforts addressing the complexity and diversity of Shared Campus practices and programs. Efficient communication flows need to be designed and managed to support a growing network of diverse institutional organizations.
The project seeks to establish a structural framework and operational guidance to support the future growth of co-created and collaborative teaching outputs from Shared Campus Theme Groups. The mid- to long-term benefit will facilitate international and cross-disciplinary experiences for increasing numbers of students.
The project will attach importance of remote collaboration and online learning resources. While international exchange and transcultural learning experiences are fundamental, mobility cannot be taken for granted in the future, after what the world have witnessed during the COVID pandemic. Shared Campus aims to develops a strategic perspective on how online-based and location-agnostic pedagogical models integrate and complement vis-a-vis the prevailing studio-based in-person paradigms.
Apart from the discussions, the representatives were also shown around the TNUA campus.
The Shared Campus platform is designed around themes of international relevance with a distinct focus on transcultural issues and cross-disciplinary collaboration. It creates a broad scope of activities within education, research and cultural production, including semester programs, summer schools, courses, workshops, networking events, symposia, festivals, publications and a collaborative learning platform.