On Saturday, 18 November 2017, the Office of Alumni Relations (OAR) and SMU Alumni Association (SMUAA) launched the SMU Alumni Collective (for Artists & Designers), making this the 40th niche community alumni group to be formed under the University’s alumni umbrella.
The event began with Ms. Jasmine Teh, President of the SMU Alumni Collective and Principal Photographer at Lovorth, shared the stage with Ms. Brenda Er, co-Founder of Lovorth, to share their experience on the latest video project entitled “When the Stars Aligned” featuring Singapore’s first three women Olympians. Within two weeks, the video went viral with more than 2 million viewers watching the video on various social media.
Beyond the artistic and technical details, both Jasmine and Brenda (pictured above) shared on how they were personally impacted by their stories. They added that projects like this allow them to creatively reveal untold stories in a free, candid and life-changing manner that truly expresses how these Olympians now lead an ordinary Singaporean life as compared to the past.
The audience also had the opportunity to watch the Director’s Cut version of this video.
Thereafter, Jasmine, together with the remaining Executive Committee (EXCO, pictured below) members Andrew Ang, Hong Huazheng and Hendry Poh, shared on the mission and purpose of starting the SMU Alumni Collective. With SMU’s strong focus on business management-related courses and careers like finance and economics, the team strongly believes that business management can also be merged with arts & culture via academia.
That, however, takes time to evolve; “but it has to start somewhere, so why not now?” says the EXCO.
The SMU Alumni Collective is also the mastermind behind the annual SMU Emerging Artist Award that seeks to identify passionate and talented artists and recognize their past work and accomplishments in the SMU undergraduate community, and raise the awareness of the arts within the University.
This launch event also took place in conjunction with SMU’s artist & photography student group, SMUSAIC, conducting its 16th Annual General Meeting. Started in 2001, the student club has evolved and expanded from an interest-based group who were passionate about photography to becoming a visual arts group involving videography, exhibitions, and much more. In 2018, the club hopes to embark on workshops and trainings in the area of visual arts, leading up to the display the “soul” and creative spirit of the University via an art exhibition.
If you are interested to explore a collaboration in the area of visual arts, please feel free to contact the EXCO at collective@smuaa.org.sg.