Established in September 1999, Arts Network Asia is a group of independent artists and arts activists, primarily from South East Asia, which seeks to encourage and support regional artistic collaboration as well as to develop managerial and administrative skills in the creative arts of Asia. Arts Network Asia is motivated by the philosophy of meaningful collaboration, distinguished by mutual respect, initiated in Asia and carried out primarily by Asian artists. In particular, the network aims to promote artistic exchanges that are primarily process-oriented, with a focus on South East Asia including its relationship with East and South Asia. Of particular interest are issues of dialogue, empowerment and autonomy among the different cultures of Asia. The Network is presently hosted and managed by TheatreWorks (Singapore) with initial funding from the Ford Foundation. It is currently made up of: Marion D'Cruz (Malaysia), Anuradha Kapur (India), Krishen Jit (Malaysia), Amna Kusumo (Indonesia), Ong Keng Sen (Singapore), Teresa Rances (Philippines) and Santi Chitrachinda (Thailand). This group serves as a policy-making network and as a board of trustees for the Arts Network Asia Inter-Asian Fund (see below), which has been set up to foster dialogue between Asian countries. Arts Network Asia also organises regional workshops which aim to provide a platform for meaningful dialogue between artists of different countries and disciplines. To date two such workshops have been held - the ANA Shanghai Workshop (September 2000 in Shanghai) and the ANA Hà Nội Workshop 'Windows of Asia' (November 2002 in Hà Nội).