SINGAPORE – Local art school Lasalle College of the Arts has appointed the first Singapore-born president in its 41-year history.

Dr Venka Purushothaman, 61, in February succeeded British national Professor Steve Dixon, 69, in the post.

Dr Venka will be its seventh president – a promotion from his prior roles as deputy president and provost of Lasalle.

The school in 2021 became a founding member of Singapore’s first arts university, University of the Arts Singapore, an alliance between Lasalle and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts that enrolled its first cohort in 2024.

The only other Singaporean who had been tasked at the helm was Lasalle founder Brother Joseph McNally, a sculptor born in Ireland who by the time he retired had become a citizen. He died in 2002 at the age of 79.

An internationally recognised academic, arts and cultural leader, Dr Venka is a veteran in the scene, having worked in Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, National Arts Council Singapore and the Victorian Arts Centre in Melbourne, Australia.

He is a firm believer in arts and culture’s potential to not just respond to, but lead societal change, telling his students in 2025 that “AI may process data, but it is the artist who provokes insight, the designer who humanises interaction, the writer who shapes the collective memory of a generation”.

He told The Straits Times of his dream for Lasalle: “It is a simple one: to be a future-facing institution that is audacious in its imagination and courageous in its purpose.

“Simple does not mean easy. But in Lasalle’s 41-year history, every challenge is an invitation for us to be creative.”

This means not being resistant to technology, and one of his priorities is to modernise how the school and students work through digital transformation. He also wants to develop Lasalle and Singapore’s identity as a global intellectual hub for the arts.

Professor Dixo...