Duy Hung Tran

After graduating from the MA Arts Administration & Cultural Policy program I returned to my home country (Vietnam) and currently continue running The Onion Cellar, an arts initiative that I co-founded and have been coordinating and curating events for (from another continent at times) since 2011. Through the event medium, we seek to champion leftfield / underground music and visual arts, to transcend boundaries and strengthen exchanges between the Vietnamese alternative cultural scene and those further afield. So far, more than eighty film screenings and concerts have been organised in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, thematically and aesthetically covering a large variety of ground, with participation and involvement from artists as diverse as Vincent Moon, Zeni Geva, Kangding Ray, Jonas Mekas, Don Hertzfeldt, amongst many others.

My Goldsmiths year has definitely made a positive impact on me and the way my organisation is now operated. Thanks to Gerald, Sian and other lecturers (including industry professionals who gave very informative guest-talks) I obtained a great deal of new insights and at the same time many of the practices I applied prior into my work were put into proper perspectives.

On a personal level, getting to know my fellow Goldsmiths students (those in my program or otherwise) has been most inspiring. I became good friends with a number of people who - though coming from different backgrounds and aspiring to work in different things - had the same independent / non-corporate / community-centric approach to the arts. This has had the welcoming effect of improving my self-confidence to persevere in the path I've chosen to pursue.

Another aspect I really enjoyed about the program is the combination of practical and intellectual discourses it engendered. The experiences of researching and working on my assessments (especially the final dissertation) - and in general having a chance to intellectually engage with such a wealth of knowledge (through discussions with the departmental staff and through the vast catalogue of the Goldsmiths Library) - have been greatly stimulating and rewarding. Over the course of the program those experiences made me seriously consider the prospect of exploring even further the academia avenue, which I should hope to revisit in the future.