LASALLE College of the Arts (LASALLE) announced today that distinguished academic Professor Michael Earley has joined the College as Dean, Faculty of Performing Arts. With more than 38 years of professional experience, including appointments as Chief Producer of Plays for BBC Radio Drama and teaching positions at Yale University, The Juilliard School, and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Professor Earley will now spearhead LASALLE’s Diploma and BA(Hons) offerings in acting, dance, musical theatre, music, and technical and performance management.
Professor Earley’s last appointment was at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance in London, a degree-awarding drama school which boasts an impressive industry reputation and alumni honour roll that includes Gary Oldman, Stephen Graham, Rosalie Craig and Doctor Who’s Fourth Doctor Tom Baker. As Principal, Chief Executive Officer and Professor of Drama, Professor Earley led Rose Bruford to a Gold award in the UK government’s Teaching Excellence Framework, placing the institution alongside the likes of Oxford and Cambridge for its education standard. He also led the institution in achieving its own Taught Degree Awarding Powers by decree from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s Privy Council. Over the years his work has increasingly taken him to China and other parts of Asia.
“Having lived, breathed, and taught performing arts for decades in the UK and USA, by far the most exciting development I’ve witnessed in recent years is the huge collaborative potential and gamut of international possibilities and collaborations brought on by the explosive growth of the arts and arts institutions in Asia. My professional practice has led me to research and seek out new partnerships to fuse Eastern and Western approaches to theatre, music and dance training. LASALLE’s standing in the region speaks for itself, so when the opportunity to head the Faculty of Performing Arts at LASALLE came knocking, I had no hesitation whatsoever in accepting it. I particularly look forward to exploring unique and new postgraduate MA degrees in the performing arts,” said Professor Earley.
Professor Steve Dixon, President, LASALLE College of the Arts, said, “We are delighted to welcome Professor Earley on board at this exciting time for the arts and LASALLE. Our alumni are performing all over the world from Broadway to the West End, but equally importantly, they are making an impact regionally with cutting-edge new work that advances the frontier of dance, music, and theatre. Over the past few years, we have significantly strengthened our institutional networks through Memoranda of Understanding with top performing arts schools such as Beijing Dance Academy, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, and Central Academy of Drama, Beijing. I have no doubt that Professor Earley will take the Faculty to even greater heights.”
In 2017, LASALLE appointed Southeast Asian film authority, Professor Adam Knee as Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Media and Creative Industries. Professor Knee formerly served as Head of School of International Communications at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, held a research fellowship at the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, the Netherlands, and was a Fulbright Scholar at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. Under Professor Knee’s leadership, the McNally School of Fine Arts will be presenting Southeast Asia’s first Asian Art Histories Conference in December 2018, while the Puttnam School of Film & Animation has signed a first-of-its-kind five-year partnership with Niigata University, Japan, to jointly research animation archiving.
“It is a testament to the increasing maturity of the arts here, the sophistication of our pedagogy, and the growth in recognition for our programmes that we are able to attract more and more illustrious academics to LASALLE. Going forward, we will also be introducing an option for students to go on international exchanges and internships, as well as expand their learning through interdisciplinary modules. These senior appointments and curriculum enhancements are an integral part of our roadmap for the future. We continue to look ahead, to embrace evolution, and to place LASALLE and Singapore on the world stage,” said Professor Dixon.
