CULTURAL MANAGEMENT EDUCATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Cultural Management could be defined as the process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling material and nonmaterial culture to meet predetermined goals and objectives. Areas under the umbrella of Cultural Management include Arts Management, Museum Management, Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Cultural and Creative Industries, and Design Management. Over the last two decades, there has also been a growing number of academic programmes befitting the umbrella of Cultural Management, offered at undergraduate and postgraduate levels by institutions of higher education in Southeast Asia. This paper explores the current state of Cultural Management education in Southeast Asia, and thereafter, highlights possible synergies to align with ASEAN’s agenda. Several qualitative research methods were adopted, including content analysis, followed by thematic analysis, participant observations, and semi-structured interviews. This paper formally documents and discusses the Cultural Management curriculum of 10 Southeast Asian nations, using three key themes top-down, bottom-up, and a combination of both top-down and bottom-up focus. Thereafter, the paper proposes two ways in which institutions of higher education in Southeast Asia could better synergize to meet the six strategies listed in the ASEAN Strategic Plan for Culture and Arts 2016-2025.


Introduction
Cultural Management could be defined by the two words that make up the term.'Cultural' relates to what is understood as a shared experience by a particular group of people, defined by common material culture such as geographical location, monuments, daily functional items, as well as intangible nonmaterial culture, which includes traditional practices, rituals, religion, social habits, and the arts (Jowett, & Lavallee, 2007).On the other hand, 'Management' involves planning, organizing, leading, and controlling resources, with intention to meet specific goals (Lewis, Goodman, Fandt, & Michlitsch, 2006).Planning often includes analysis of the micro-environment, such as resource analysis, and the macro-environment, while organizing looks into clear allocation of authority and resources for the necessary tasks to meet the mission.The leading function serves a step towards enhancing productivity through motivation, communication, and strategic management.Managers take on specific leadership traits to ensure that staff members carry out their tasks effectively and efficiently.Finally, good management requires constant review and control to ensure a working mechanism for continual improvement.Combining definitions of the two terms, Cultural Management could be defined as the process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling material and nonmaterial culture to meet predetermined goals and objectives for common communities.
As the creative economy grows significantly in Asia, there are growing demands for talents serving the cultural and creative industries (Araya, 2010).Consequently, many institutions of higher education in the region offer academic programmes in the field of Cultural Management.In South Korea, Hanyang University offers an MBA in arts, culture and entertainment, while Kyung Hee University offers both Bachelor's and Master's programmes in arts and cultural management.Other prominent programmes include Keio University's Master in Arts Management in Japan, the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Master in Cultural Management, and the National Taiwan University of Arts' Master and Doctoral programmes in Arts Management and Cultural Policy.In addition to these distinctive universities, many other institutions of higher education in Asia have also established research and education platforms to cultivate professional graduates for the rapidly developing cultural and creative industries.Zooming into Southeast Asia, there has been a growing number of academic programmes in relation to Cultural Management in the last 20 years, offered at undergraduate and postgraduate levels by institutions of higher education.Using top-down/ bottomup management approaches, this research seeks to explore the current state of Cultural Management education in Southeast Asia, and thereafter, highlights possible synergies with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agenda, especially in aligning to the initiatives listed in the ASEAN Strategic Plan for Culture andArts 2016-2025 (ASCC).

Cultural Management as an Umbrella Term
Institutions of higher education across Southeast Asia have introduced Cultural Management programmes at various qualification levels to prepare graduates for the future of the creative and cultural sectors.As an academic discipline, Cultural Management goes beyond the mere study of past and existing cultural resources.More so, Cultural Management is about managing material and nonmaterial culture of the past, present, and even the likely future.As Cultural Management is a broad discipline, it is not uncommon for respective institutions to offer academic programmes focusing on certain specific areas.Below is a list of possible areas under the umbrella of Cultural Management.It is important to stress that these areas may overlap one another at times.

Arts Management
Generally, there are three distinct groups of people working in the artscreative (artistic), technical, and administrative.Although each has separate duties and responsibilities, they often need to work closely together in a matrix setting (Byrnes, 2014).The concept of managing the arts is not exactly new but it has certainly redefined itself over the yearsfrom church-managed performances during the medieval period, to the management of state-owned arts facilities in the 17th century, and eventually to the availability of government funding giving rise to the arts manager in the 20th century (Byrnes, 2014).Today, managing the arts could be a form of permanent employment, be it working for the government or profit/ non-profit arts organizations.Managing the arts is no simple featthe working hours are long and the remuneration is generally low, especially in Southeast Asia, where the arts have yet to be understood by many.As such, audience development becomes an important function of arts management.The arts manager also works closely with the artistic leadership team to put forward clear strategic and operational plans for the organization.For a plan to be effective, the arts manager has to consider the current state of arts and cultural policies, and the relationships between the arts, artists, and the public.. Research is also a much-needed component of strategic planning, as arts managers could gain insights into the development and shifts of the arts in the future.It also facilitates research into future audiences and the ways in which they could be exposed to the arts.The arts administrator also needs to be equipped with the knowledge of the art form(s) they are dealing with, to be more effective in their promotion, marketing, and fundraising efforts.With the arts attracting government support and/ or corporate sponsorship, arts administrators are obliged to be accountable to their stakeholders.

Museum Management
Museum Management looks into the strategic, operational planning and implementation of a museum.Besides having good management capabilities, which include marketing and fundraising, museum managers should have an awareness of current cultural policies and societal needs.Moreover, museums are ever-evolving, and getting more complex (Latham & Simmons, 2014).Many public museums started with direct subvention from the government.Most of the time, these public museums are being administered or operated to remain as an ideological institution (Harris, 2002).Today, public museums face a number of challenges.First, the decrease in public funding means that these museums will need to find alternative ways to finance their day-to-day operations (Janes, 2013).Second, there are also growing competitions from private museums, usually supported by well-endowed donors, which bring in stellar blockbuster exhibitions, with highly-priced admission tickets.Third, as a society becomes more pluralistic, there are calls for public museums to respond more adequately to the different needs of the society.Museums today, be it public or private, are being pushed into the marketplace (Stevens, 2019).More museums are starting to drive visitor numbers and initiate audience engagement activities, alongside their existing education and outreach programmes.In fact, museums are shifting towards a hybrid, showing characteristics of both public and private museums (Walker, 2019).From a management perspective, good leadership is essential to handle all these complex shifts and changes within the museum sector.

Cultural Heritage and Tourism
According to the World Travel Tourism Council's (WTTC) Economic Impact Research in 2019, travel and tourism was responsible for the creation of 319 million jobs worldwide, with an expectation to grow another 100 million in the next 10 years.The travel and tourism sector as a whole grew at 3.9%, above the average global economy of 3.2%.As one of the major pillars of the tourism industry, Cultural Heritage Tourism (a.k.a.cultural tourism or heritage tourism) is oriented towards the cultural heritage of the location where tourism activities take place.The National Trust for Historic Preservation defines cultural heritage tourism as "travelling to experience the places, artefacts and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and heritage tourism can include cultural, historic and natural resources" (Bassetta, Fatta, & Manti, 2017).According to OECD (2009), cultural tourism is one of the largest-growing global tourism markets, and is increasingly being considered when promoting destinations, and enhancing the nation's competitiveness and attractions.
As one of the most tourist-friendly destinations, Southeast Asia's tourism industry is one of the fastest-growing in the world.Tourist arrivals increased at an average of 8% per year from 2005 to 2016 (UNWTO / GTERC, 2017).Majority of these nations are relying on their rich cultural and natural resources to appeal to tourists.Cultural Heritage Tourism has been strategically manifested through a wealth of heritage sites, historical monuments, colorful festivals, exotic cuisines etc. Renowned historical locations such as Siem Reap in Cambodia, Luang Prabang in Laos, Borobudur in Indonesia, and Ayutthaya in Thailand are developing their cultural resources as a unique selling point and comparative advantages in the cultural heritage tourism markets.According to Professor Emeritus Dr. Surapone Virulrak of Chulalongkorn University (personal communication, 2018), the role of higher education in Cultural Heritage Tourism is to equip students with the knowledge of culture and heritage, including their relations and applications to promote sustainable development of both cultural and tourism sectors.Hence, every country's approach towards Cultural Heritage Tourism education must be tailor-made to accommodate the needs of cultural development in the nation's unique context.

Cultural and Creative Industries
In 1997, a newly elected government led by Prime Minister Tony Blair in the United Kingdom (UK) published the Creative Industries -Mapping Document 1998, which listed 13 areas of activity as potential for wealth creation through the generation of intellectual property (Newbigin, 2014).Since then, the Mapping Document 1998 has served as a blueprint for both the government and creative workers/ organizations to boost the development of creative industries.UK's model of creative industries has certainly influenced the adoption by many other cities and nations to develop their own Cultural and Creative Industries (Cunningham & Swift, 2019).Fiske (1992) explored the relation between culture and economics, and put forward the concept of culture economy.He thought that the intangible cultural elements of a commodity, such as its symbolic system and beauty value, are more important than the commodity itself.Creativity is the tool to input various cultural elements into commodities.The richer the cultural elements of a commodity, the greater its economic values.Simply said, the economic power of culture is focused on creative industry.The development of cultural and creative economy is now one of the major economic frontiers and political projects of many Southeast Asian nations.With the major government initiatives to develop the creative industries, the creative cluster is of great importance in the nation's economy.

Design Management
According to the Design Management Institute, Design Management is the business side of design, and the term comprises of almost every key aspect related to business development, from strategic design, products and services design, to customer engagement.Meanwhile, in the context of creative industries, Design Management could be understood as the integration between design and business management for the purpose of design-driven economic development.Although still a new area of academic study, Design Management is a promising field that gradually grew and received much attention by an increasing number of institutions of higher education in Southeast Asia.Thus, in the foreseeable future, there would be more academic programmes in design management offered by universities in the region.In recent years, with the growing impact of the design economy, several institutions of higher education in Southeast Asia have been stimulated by the need to provide education and related training in the field of Design Management.In Singapore, two private design institutes offer courses in Design Management, namely Master of Arts in Design Management by Raffles Design Institute, and a Specialist Diploma programme by Design Management by First Media Design School.

Method
In order to present the current state of Cultural Management education in Southeast Asia, several qualitative research methodologies were adopted.First, content analysis was carried out on the curriculum objectives and outlines of 30 undergraduate and postgraduate academic programmes within the umbrella of Cultural Management in Southeast Asia.Using the top-down/ bottom-up management approach, the analysed data were subjected to the six-steps thematic analysis proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006), and were eventually categorized into three key themes as the main framework for further analysis and discussions.Besides the content analysis, the researchers also visited 10 Southeast Asian nations between 2015 and 2019 to understand the arts and cultural situation of each country.Participant observation is a form of empirical studies, through the process of fieldwork in a non-intrusive manner (Perez, 2019).During each visit, the researchers also communicated informally with different stakeholders.Finally, a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews were carried out with scholars, who are familiar with the cultural developments of different Southeast Asian nations, including the role of ASEAN in these developments.A qualitative interview is a good choice when the goal is to obtain understanding through detailed examples and rich narratives (Bates, Droste, Cuba & Swingle, 2008).

Current State of Cultural Management Education in Southeast Asia
"Cultural Management is a complex and exciting discipline.With knowledge and administrative skills in managing the arts and culture, graduates of the discipline are prepared for fulfilling careers in creative enterprises and cultural organizations… the idea of cultural industries and the cultural economy has changed very quickly in the last 10 years.Therefore, Cultural Management programmes need to be updated to truly suit the needs of cultural industries and deal with the new challenges" (Interview with Virulrak, 2018) The academic focus of Cultural Management curriculum in Southeast Asia could broadly be categorized into three key themes, i.e., top-down focused, bottom-up focused, and a combination of both top-down and bottom-up.Topdown approach suggests that the Cultural Management curriculum studies explores governmental agenda and cultural policies.Usually, these academic programmes have specific social functions, and consider arts and culture as important tools to address social issues, as well as shape and build communities.On the other hand, while it is important to ensure social enhancement of its people, the government's developmental goals should also be achieved in the process.Hence, some of these top-down focused curricula in Cultural Management also covers the importance of economic impacts.A curriculum is bottom-up when the content of the programme focuses on building the necessary competencies to manage profit and non-profit non-governmental cultural activities and organizations.Most of the time, these programmes are economic-driven, preparing students to contribute effectively to the creative economy.Though economic-driven, a few bottom-up curricula also include the social functions of arts and culture to society and communities.Last but not least, some curriculum exposes students to both top-down and bottom-up perspectives.The following sections examine the current state of Cultural Management education in different Southeast Asian nations.

Brunei Darussalam
Brunei is the least populated nation with the second highest GDP per capita in Southeast Asia.The University of Brunei Darussalam (UBD) is the largest and most reputable university in the country, and offers a comprehensive list of programmes via its 19 faculties and institutes.In 2017, UBD launches Brunei's first Bachelor programme in Design and Creative Industries.As the programme name suggests, it focuses on the strategic management of design outputs that contribute to the diversification of the Bruneian economy, social cohesion, and human capital development through job creation.The existence of a Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports is a sign of Brunei's recognition of the importance of cultural policies, especially the upkeep and promotion of Brunei Malay and Islamic culture, as informed by the monarchy.The ministry also manages several museums under the Department of Museum, with the mission to preserve the nation's cultural heritage.Yet, with no programmes focusing on cultural policies and museum management, there seems to be a lack of top-down focused Cultural Management programmes in Brunei.While the Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University of Brunei currently prepares students adequately on the contextual knowledge of Brunei's heritage through its programmes in Islamic History and Civilisation, these programmes do not prepare students to frame discourses on cultural policies and to undertake studies in curatorial, conservation, educational programmes, and other management/ administrative work in the museum context.Given Brunei's rich cultural resources, it seems like a missed opportunity that no institutions offer academic studies in Cultural Heritage Tourism.

Cambodia
Established in 1917, the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh has been a key educational institution designed to provide professional training for the arts and cultural sectors in Cambodia, The university develops its curriculum in line with the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts initiatives to develop talents for the arts and cultural industries.The College of Archaeology offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in cultural heritage conservation and development.These programmes educate students in the management of cultural heritage and prepare students for practice in the field of heritage conservation.Meanwhile, the Royal University of Phnom Penh is another tertiary educational institution that offers a Cultural Management related programme.Under its Social Sciences and Humanities faculty, the Department of Tourism offers an interdisciplinary postgraduate programme in Tourism and Resource Management.This top-down programme covers various aspects of tourism studies, and specific considerations have been given to rural development, culture and heritage management, natural resource management, as well as community and sustainable development.According to Dolla Soy, Senior Lecturer of the University of Cambodia, the country is home to two world-famous UNESCO World Heritage Sites, namely Angkor Wat and Preah Vihear.It comes as no surprise that Cultural Management education in Cambodia is geared toward heritage conservation and development.Soy also added that education in Cultural Management is still a very new concept to Cambodia, and is currently focused on producing culturalists with contextual knowledge of cultural heritage, rather than preparing managerial professionals for the arts and cultural industries.

Indonesia
Indonesia is the biggest country with the largest economy in Southeast Asia.Since President Jokowi took office in 2014, several initiatives on creative industries have been rolled out.The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy was renamed as the Ministry of Tourism, and matters on Indonesia's creative industries was moved out of the ministry.It is worth mentioning that the separation of the creative sectors from the Ministry of Tourism did not include cultural tourism, which remains an important function of the Ministry.On the other hand, a separate directorate, Indonesia Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf), was formed to specifically manage the creative industries.The agency's mission is to ensure that the creative industries contribute to the economy effectively and efficiently.A total of 16 sub-sectors have been identified by the agency to be managed and developed, amongst which includes arts, performing arts, design, movies and animation, culinary, and so forth (Santoso, 2018).Indonesia Institute of the Arts in Yogyakarta (ISI) is the most comprehensive arts institution in Indonesia, and offers a postgraduate qualification in Arts and Cultural Management with three very specific concentrations -Culture and Tourism Management, Performing Arts Management, and Visual Arts Management, covering two out of the 16 sub-sectors identified by Bekraf, as well as Cultural Tourism.This programme strikes a good balance between top-down and bottomup perspectives.Another relevant programme is the MBA in Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship offered by the Institute of Technology Bandung.As an MBA programme, it has a strong focus on business and return of investments This is evident in their pool of industry experts as faculty members and advisers.This bottom-up programme is driven mainly by business management modules, alongside several arts, design, and creativity subjects.

Laos
The National University of Laos was founded in 1996, with aims to be an institution of excellence in higher education, contributing to nation building through research and cultural preservation.Within the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Department of History and Anthropology offers a Bachelor programme in Archaeology and Cultural Resources Management.The top-down curriculum prepares graduates for the cultural resource management sector in Laos.The programme also offers a package of courses, including Laos Studies, History and Religion, History of Arts, Mapping Map, and Dhramma Letters to provide knowledge, skills, and experiences needed in the field of archaeology and cultural resource management.Currently, the ancient city of Luang Prabang and the pre-Angkorian temple complex of Wat Phou were listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1995 and 2001 respectively.Since 2011, Laos has taken part in the regional capacity-building programme on intangible cultural heritage, supervised by UNESCO to collect, research, and safeguard Laos intangible cultural heritage.According to Hommala Phensisanavong, Senior Lecturer of the university, Laos has rich culture, traditions, religions and ethnic diversity.These elements are cultural resources that have a great attraction for cultural tourism.Moving forward, preparing students to advance in the field of cultural resource management could be pivotal in the eventual development of Cultural Heritage and Tourism in Laos.Malaysia Malaysia has incorporated arts, culture and tourism into one Ministry, namely the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC), with specific departments managing different aspects, such as museums, tourism, cultural heritage and arts.It is worth noting that one of the Ministry's objectives is to synergize arts, culture and heritage as a catalyst for Malaysia's tourism.Yet, there are very few actual initiatives at the ministerial level promoting this synergy.The unavailability of academic training and research in Cultural Heritage Tourism in higher education further weakens the focus on cultural tourism.
MOTAC also runs the Istana Budaya, the national theatre of Malaysia with over 1400 seats.Despite the existence of a national theatre, most of performing arts events are held in smaller-sized private venues, such as the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre and the Damansara Performing Arts Centre.One possible reason for this phenomenon could be the lack of arts audience in Malaysia, which poses a challenge for performing arts organizers to present their shows in a 1400seat theatre.
Currently, there are two public institutions, namely University of Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) and National Academy of Arts Culture and Heritage (ASWARA), offering academic programmes in arts management from both topdown and bottom-up approaches.However, Unimas is located in East Malaysia, which is a two-hour flight away from the main hubs of artistic activities -Klang Valley (which includes the capital city, Kuala Lumpur, and the areas surrounding it) and Penang.While ASWARA is located in Kuala Lumpur, its programme in Arts and Cultural Management is relatively new.Its actual impacts on the arts scene has to be further observed.In May 2010, the Sixth World Islamic Economic Forum hosted the Marketplace of Creative Arts in Malaysia.This forum was one of the first few landmark events in Malaysia that relates creative arts as a contributing factor to the economy (Lim, 2014).The Malaysian government has since put in place processes and strategies to nurture its creative content industry, with design and digital technology as key focus areas.Yet, design education in the early 2010s focused mainly on the production stage, with little considerations for post-production, i.e.Design Management potential in contributing to the creative economy (Lim, 2015).First City University College's Master of Design Management is the first graduate programme in Malaysia specialized in managing design.KDU University College's Diploma in Entrepreneurial Design is the first design studies in Malaysia that blended the creative design education with entrepreneurship training.

Myanmar
In Myanmar, Cultural Management curriculum is top-down in nature, with a strong focus on socio-economic development.According to the Myanmar's Ministry of Culture, the academic objectives of the National University of Arts and Culture is to preserve, promote and disseminate Myanmar cultural heritage, to provide research and training for the development of fine arts in Myanmar, and to help strengthen the spirit of nationalism and patriotism.The university offers a postgraduate diploma in Applied Archaeology and Museology.Meanwhile, in the University of Yangon, the Department of Archaeology offers both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, with courses catering to archaeology, museology, cultural heritage conservation, and cultural tourism.Shi (2018) indicates that Myanmar's Hotels and Tourism Ministry is striving to promote eco-tourism, cultural tourism and community-based tourism in areas with rich cultural resources, including historical landscapes, rivers, lakes, beaches, islands and forests.With this new policy inducing the growth of cultural tourism, the demand for quality top-down Cultural Management education in Myanmar will certainly increase over time, especially in the field of cultural and natural resource management.

Philippines
The Department of Trade and Industry in the Philippines is committed to promoting the creative industries to the rest of Southeast Asia.Therefore, it is no surprise that many higher educational institutions are providing Cultural Management or relevant academic programmes to fulfil the needs of the rapidly changing creative industries.The Department of Fine Arts at Ateneo de Manila University offers a Bachelor programme in Arts Management, which caters specifically to visual arts management.This top-down programme prepares graduates to work in museums and art institutions as curators, exhibition designers, and education administrators.The De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde Manila offers a balance of both top-down and bottom-up curriculum in Arts Management, in order to prepare students to be proficient in arts management techniques and technologies.The country is also blessed with cultural and natural resources for tourism, which are crucial for sustainable social and economic growth and income distribution (Catibog-Sinha, 2015).Students could pursue a Minor in Cultural Heritage Studies with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of Ateneo de Manila University.The University of Santo Tomas also offers a postgraduate programme in Cultural Heritage Studies.Apart from universities, the Cultural Center of the Philippines has also been actively involved in the development of cultural management education.Since 1969, many educational programs related to the arts and cultural management have been administered by the center.

Singapore
Being the richest and most developed nation in Southeast Asia, Singapore has always enjoyed the reputation of a cosmopolitan city with global outlook.The city-state has thrived on almost no natural resources, depending on innovation and services of its highly skilled labor force.Since its independence in 1965, Singapore has undergone constant gentrification and renewal, where a lot of old buildings and structures have to make way for its rapid development (Lim, 2017).Today, Singapore is moving towards becoming a smart city with high-rise, intelligent buildings.Singapore has continually strived to become a creative city with global arts events, alongside a developed arts scene.Museums are well managed with strong collections and well-known touring exhibitions.Despite being the smallest country in the region, it should come as no surprise that Singapore has the most number of academic programmes related to Cultural Management, with a total of eight such programmes.Singapore's arts colleges, LASALLE College of the Arts (LASALLE) and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) were the first institutions that developed full-fledged academic programmes in Arts Management, way before the polytechnics and universities came onboard.Both NAFA and Republic Polytechnic (RP) have included technical theatre into their Arts Management curriculum.This could be due to the growing number of newer and smaller arts organizations in Singapore, where arts managers are required to also take on the roles of production and stage management.
RP's programme is the only programme that is bottom-up in its curriculum, while the remaining programmes combine both top-down and bottom-up perspectives.The introduction of NTU's programme in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices could be attributed to the rise of heritage projects within the museums, as well as the growing professionalism of the museum staff.With the exception of this programme, the rest of seven programmes focus mainly on Arts Management, albeit with different approaches.Singapore Management University's (SMU) Arts and Culture Management programme is an optional second major for Business, Law and Social Sciences students.The programme focuses mainly on the management aspects of arts and culture, as well as discourses of arts and its management in relation to culture and society-at-large.Yet, students are actually free to choose from the limited modules on the list.Hence, it is possible that students might not be exposed to both top-down and bottom-up approaches in their actual curriculum.On the other hand, NAFA's Bachelor programme is a one-year top up programme, validated by the University of Essex (UK).This top-up programme focused mainly on management modules as well as industry and research projects, which adequately balance the strong focus on professional practice of NAFA's Diploma in Arts Management programme.LASALLE's Master of Arts in Arts and Cultural Management remains the only postgraduate programme in Arts Management in Singapore, with a strong focus on future trends and policies in the arts and cultural sectors.

Thailand
According to Professor Virulrak, Thai universities saw the need to offer studies in the field of Cultural Management since the 1990s.Particular attention was given to the management of Cultural Heritage Tourism and Cultural and Creative Industries in Thailand, and the Southeast Asian region.The Thailand 4.0 Blueprint launched in 2017 is an engine to propel new economic growth to move Thailand into becoming one of Southeast Asia's creative hubs within the next ten years.At present, there are five Thai universities offering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in arts and cultural management, and when combined, covers all the areas under the umbrella of Cultural Management.With the exception of the top-down focused of Chulalongkorn University's Master of Arts in Cultural Management (MACM) programme, as well as Silpakorn University's Master's and Doctoral programmes in Architectural Heritage Management and Tourism, the remaining programmes maintain a balance between top-down and bottom-up contexts in its Cultural Management curriculum.Established in 1999, Chulalongkorn's MACM programme is the only international postgraduate program in Cultural Management to be taught in English.In 2010, the equivalent MACM programme taught in Thai was introduced to provide more opportunities for students from rural areas to pursue a postgraduate qualification in Cultural Management.Silpakorn's programmes aim to produce scholars of architectural conservation and related fields in cultural conservation and management.

Vietnam
Established in 1971, Vietnam National Institute of Culture and Arts Studies (VICAS) is a scientific institution under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.VICAS conducts research and scientific activities and provides topdown postgraduate training in arts and culture (ICHCAP, 2018).Over the years, VICAS has been one of the leading institutions in theoretical research and cultural policy development in Vietnam.According to the institute's Vice Director, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Thi Hien, VICAS's projects have more or less covered all aspects of cultural studies in Vietnam.In particular, the institute has collaborated with many international institutions, such as China Institute of Arts, University of Toronto, University of South Australia, and the Korea Institute of Culture and Tourism, to develop research projects and graduate programmes.At present, the institute offers the largest number of doctoral degrees in arts, culture, and cultural tourism in accordance to state apportionment.In the course of just over a decade, more than a hundred VICAS's doctoral candidates have successfully defended their work, representing an outstanding achievement of Vietnamese higher education in providing important contributions to the cultural development of Vietnam.In 2016, the government of Vietnam identified 12 cultural sectors, namely advertising, architecture, software and entertaining games, handicrafts and fine arts, design, cinematography, publishing, fashion, performing arts, arts, photography and exhibitions, television and radio, as well as cultural tourism to foster the nation's cultural industries development.This development could give rise to more bottom-up programmes, focusing on economic prospects of Cultural Management.

Synergies with ASEAN's Objectives
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, was first established in 1967 with five member states.With the inclusion of Cambodia in 1999, the number of member states in ASEAN has since increased to ten.ASEAN is guided by the motto "One Vision, One Identity, One Community", which suggests its aims towards connectivity.This is evident in the rolling out of the ASCC, gearing towards a vision of common identity, through the preservation and conservation of ASEAN's cultural heritage and the promotion of culture for creativity, innovation and livelihood creation.Six key strategies were highlighted in the ASCC, namely, appreciation of ASEAN's histories, cultures, arts, traditions and values; emphasis on cultural threads that bind ASEAN; ensure cultural rights of all people in ASEAN; enhancement of economy through culture; dialogues between key stakeholders; being a proactive member of the global community.Cultural Management education could play an important role in affecting and shaping ASEAN's cultural development, including the cultural-led economic development.While it is impossible and meaningless to propose a singular ASEAN Cultural Management programme to respond to these six strategies, there are a couple of ways in which institutions of higher education in Southeast Asia could synergize to achieve these strategies.
One possible way to allow for appreciation of ASEAN's histories and cultures is for the institutions to collaborate on knowledge transfer projects, where the cultural ecology of each member state is consolidated and shared.Each national report should ideally cover all areas of focus, i.e., top-down and/ or bottom-up curriculum development, considering social and economic drivers.The combination of the 10 national reports, written or filmed, would provide academics and students with a good understanding of culture ecologies in ASEAN.The report could be updated biannually or once every three years.Another project would be a regular multidisciplinary cultural event/ festival organized by different host institution(s) of one ASEAN member state annually (or biannually).The festival will be completely managed by the students in the host institution(s).At the same time, students from the other non-host institutions should also participate in managing and facilitating their home country's artists/ arts organizations' participation in the festival.Organizing a festival has several advantages.First and foremost, it allows cultural management students to build up various management capabilities through experiential learning.Next, it also builds students' networks with artists and other stakeholders in their home country and from around the region.Last but not least, a regular festival, not unlike the Southeast Asian Games, would become a capstone project that not only facilitates cultural democracy, but also binds the culture stakeholders in ASEAN, and eventually push forward a common ASEAN identity.
In 2017, the ASEAN University Network on Culture and the Arts (AUNCA) was officially established to serve as a platform for member institutions to foster cultural understanding, promote creativity and the arts among students in the ASEAN region, and develop policies in harnessing the creative industries in the region.In 2018, the first and second annual meeting of the thematic network was held at De La Salle University in the Philippines.The meetings received positive responses from representatives from 23 universities in ASEAN+3 network.As a result, an AUNCA's work plan 2018-2020 was drafted to foster the network development.In the third annual meeting in June 2019 at Guangxi University in China, 17 universities were involved and laid out a more comprehensive work plan that focused on five main areas, which comprised of (1) membership development, (2) policy development, (3) program development, (4) research development, and (5) cultural exchange and community engagement projects With the secretariat based at De La Salle University in the Philippines, AUNCA members hail from 30 member universities.Affiliate membership is also open to individuals, universities, businesses, and organizations, who are committed to supporting the network in its mission.As a young network, AUNCA still has a long way to go, before it could demonstrate its impact on the region's arts and cultural development.
From the rise of China in the last decade, to the more recent trade war between the world superpowers, it seems more crucial now than ever for Southeast Asian nations to come together as a united front to jointly face the issues and challenges caused by these global happenings.In this regard, ASEAN could play a major role in uniting these nations.Yet, the interviews with scholars researching into Southeast Asia's arts and culture presented alternative views.First, these scholars feel that ASEAN is a political construct and any efforts towards a common ASEAN identity would just be wishful thinking.While the scattering of different racial groups is transborder, the current tendency is for people of similar racial groups to collaborate.In the arts, it is not uncommon to see Malay artists in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei forming some form of network of collaborations and movements that is independent of other races.Second, the economic conditions of ASEAN member states are way apart, which leads to a significant difference in their respective power to resist major threats.For instance, Singapore's GDP per capita is almost 50 times that of Myanmar (The World Bank, 2018).

Conclusion
This paper serves as the first formal documentation of the current state of Cultural Management education offered by institutions of higher learning in Southeast Asia.Through evaluating the focus areas of each programme using top-down/ bottom-up management approach, this research offers critical perspectives into the current offerings, and proposes possible initiatives and collaborations that could lead to the fulfillment of ASEAN's cultural initiatives.It could be observed that the Cultural Management programmes of the four Southeast Asian nations with the lowest GDP per capita, namely, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam, respond mainly to national cultural policies, with aims to train cultural managers to support cultural development at the national level, and at the same time, develop and build communities.This suggests the importance of accumulating cultural capital before venturing into economic prospects.Nevertheless, the research is not without limitations.It offers opportunities for future studies.First, Timor Leste is completely excluded from this research, as this project intended to align current academic programmes development to ASEAN, and Timor Leste has yet to gain membership.Second, it is next to impossible for this project to also document interdisciplinary postgraduate research programmes across Southeast Asia.For instance, a Ph.D. in Management programme from a business school may allow students to explore relevant areas such as creativity and creative industries.Last but not least, Design Management is definitely an up and coming area within Cultural Management, and is not given due justice in this paper.At the time of research, academic programmes in Design Management in Southeast Asia are rather new.It might be too early to evaluate the impacts of Design Management in the larger discourse of Cultural Management.