International Conference on the Cultural Industry and the Education of Art and Design: The Future of Design Education in Different Cultural Contexts

From December 16 to 19, 2005, Shantou University Cheung Kong School of Art and Design hosted an international conference titled “International Conference on the Cultural Industry and the Education of Arts and Design,” sponsored by the Hong Kong Li Ka Shing Foundation. The conference was the third of its kind, and by far the most ambitious such conference to be held at the University. Its goal was to facilitate discussion and dialogue in order to investigate the relationship between design and the cultural industries, private enterprise, government, and other social organizations from a global perspective. Experts and academics from the U.S., the UK, Korea, New Zealand, Japan, Denmark, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and many other countries and regions attended. More than forty keynote speakers were invited including Richard Buchanan, Professor of Design and former Head of the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University; John Heskett, Chair and Professor of Design, School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Lee Kunpyo, Professor and Head of the Department of Industrial Design, Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology; Freeman Lau, International Academic Advisor, Shantou University Cheung Kong School of Art and Design; Thomas Sehested, Design Manager, Kontrapunkt; Nicholas Rhodes, Director of Studies in Product Design, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design; Matthew Turner, Director/Academic Head, The Art School, Hong Kong Arts Center; and Wei Shaonong, Vice Dean, Fine Arts College of Shanghai Normal University. The three-day conference focused on three central themes: (1) Changing design for an age of knowledge economy; (2) Mode and structure for the education of arts and design from a perspective of cultural creativity; and (3) Regional development of cultural industries and education of arts and design. International figures such as Richard Buchanan and John Heskett mainly addressed the first theme. Professor Buchanan urged us to find new forms for design in this age of information. In