ADM CELEBRATES 20 YEARS OF CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
On 14 Nov 2025, the School of Art, Design and Media (ADM) held its 20th anniversary gala dinner which saw more than 250 attendees of collaborators from academia, the arts and the creative industries, as well as alumni and staff.
Held at the InterContinental Singapore, the event was graced by Chair, ADM, Prof Hans-Martin Rall, Guest-of-Honour Ms. Goh Swee Chen, NTU Board of Trustees and Chair, National Arts Council, Singapore, Mrs Rosa Huey Daniel, Chair, College Advisory Board, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Prof Seah Hock Soon, Professor, College of Computing & Data Science and Chair of ADM Pro-tem Committee (2003–2005), and other luminaries including Emmy Award–winning ADM alumna Ms Samantha Lee.
Prof Rall, who has been with ADM since its founding in 2005, reflected on the School’s success, visible in the generations of ADM graduates who have gone on to make significant contributions to the creative industries. He also noted the gap in the landscape of art and new media education at the time when the School was launched in Singapore.
“As the first professional art, design and media programme in a research-intensive Singapore university, it was an opportunity many applicants had long awaited,” he said. “The transformative power of our alumni stretches across all the fields taught in our school including visual communication, product and interactive design, photography film and animation/games. What is different today, compared to the early 2000s, is that homegrown entrepreneurship and expertise is now forming the backbone of world-class creative production in Singapore.”
This was evident in the School’s survey of over 2000 alumni, which found them in leading positions in top international creative and technology firms, as well as those who have gone on to set up their own creative studios and agencies.
Highlighting the continued importance of the arts within a technological university, Guest-of-Honour Ms. Goh Swee Chen emphasised its essential role in an era shaped by engineering and technological innovation and the rise of AI. Said Ms. Goh, “NTU offers some of the finest engineering and science programmes in the world. But great inventions don’t live in a vacuum. They need thoughtful storytellers to communicate their value, designers to give them form and filmmakers to capture their impact. In ADM, artists learn to code; engineers learn to sketch; business students learn to tell stories. This cross‑pollination is the lifeblood of innovation.”
“Today, we see engineers who draw, designers who code and scientists who tell stories. We see students who blend technology and art to imagine worlds that are inclusive, inspiring and uniquely Singaporean.”
The ADM Gala also paid tribute to the former Chairs of ADM, which included Prof Isaac Kerlow, (Founding Dean, 2005 – 2008), Prof Suresh Sethi (Interim Chair, 2008 – 2009), Prof Vibeke Sorensen (Chair, 2009 - 2019), Prof Michael Walsh (Chair, 2019 – 2022), Assoc Prof Wong Chen-Hsi (Acting Chair, 2022 – 2024) and Prof Jesvin Yeo ( Acting Chair, 2024 – 2025).
In addition, the Global Horizons Fund was launched during the evening. This initiative by the School seeks to raise funds to enable students to engage in international exhibitions, festivals and conferences, to help them grow as creatives, and as participants in the global community. Accompanying this fund-raising effort is ADM’s inaugural Art Fundraiser, comprising works for sale by faculty, alumni and artists who have worked with ADM Gallery. The art fundraiser will run till April 2026.
The ADM Gala is part of a year-long programme celebrating the creativity emerging from ADM. Other events include film and animation screenings such as Retrospective: 20 Years of Storytelling, the feature of ADM animation at the Animation Nation festival, and the 2-part exhibition series Phenomenal: Works by ADM Faculty and Multiversal: Works by ADM Faculty.
For Ms. Goh Swee Chen’s full speech, click here
For more information about the Global Horizons Fund, click here
For more information about the ADM Art Fundraiser, click here
