From Punggol mini-mart to HDB void deck: Five arts groups taking their work into unusual spaces

SINGAPORE – 2026 could be the banner year for what can be loosely termed “social arts” or “community arts”, with several groups making major moves. These replace the traditional painting or theatre production with more long-term projects in residential areas or with underprivileged communities.

This changing practice more explicitly tackles community issues like youth mental health and disability.

Singapore artist Woong Soak Teng says: “Art practice can sometimes be very isolated and irrelevant to the average person. With community projects, we can be that active person to break down barriers, introducing art as a disruptor of routine and a way of thinking about life.”

Here are five groups to check out in your neighbourhood.

1. OH! Open House

OH! Open House is in Punggol for three years and has come up with some of the most dynamic programmes to get residents in on the act.

Residents have been asked to share their stories. And at specific blocks, OH! has organised 10 “gatherings” to get people to meet their neighbours, with invitations handed out the old-school way, via fliers.

In the past year, the group has supported five culture projects pitched by Punggol residents with $3,000 each, including a diorama exhibition capturing memories of Punggol’s erstwhile pig farms. Another three projects will get $8,000 each in the next open call.

Six artists, including two from abroad, are participating in a six-month “residency” to create Punggol-specific projects, culminating in art experiences for Punggol residents in March 2027.

Artist Woong Soak Teng, for example, is exploring the neighbourhood’s identity as Singapore’s “baby town”, in line with her personal dilemma in her 30s of whether to have children. Fellow artist Genevieve Ang – with her interests in clay, geography and the built environment – asks what gives Punggol its identity despite its infrastructure being almost completely overhauled in the building of a new town.

2. Drama Box

Drama Box’s involvement in Cassia Crescent began in 2022, but in this field, it is a bona fide veteran.

Its turn to community spaces began in the early 2000s when it started staging well-attended theatre shows in outdoor spaces with heavy footfall. From 2014 to 2016, it experimented with community co-creation in Dakota Crescent.

The Ground Unit at Cassia Crescent has, by Drama Box’s own estimation, evolved into something more, no longer about artistic output but relationship-building.

It is now fund-raising for a permanent, open art studio in a void deck. The relationships it has built with the residents have given it the confidence that they will come to collaborate on projects they themselves are interested in.

In the past four years, Drama Box has staged theatre shows, workshops, block parties, town hall sessions and “community mapping exercises” with more than 1,000 residents of Cassia Crescent. These participants now ask for Drama Box practitioners by name and wonder what the next project is.

3. Tak Takut Kids Club

In January, Tak Takut Kids Club, which wants to create a safe space for low-income children to hang out and maybe create art, cut the ribbon on its second facility in Lengkok Bahru.

Its first space is in Boon Lay Drive, near rental estates with a good number of transnational families. Founded by arts producer Lin Shiyun in 2019 with her own “pocket money”, it was initially an open-ended art project that became a local fixture.

“Tak takut” is Malay for no fear, and Lin hopes that through the carving out of space, children who have experienced family violence and misunderstanding will regain confidence.

Activities range from getai performances to working with children to create healthy snacks that steer clear of processed foods. “It’s about discovering what this place means to the kids,” Lin says of her methodology.

4. ART:DIS

ART:DIS, which began as Very Special Arts Singapore in 1993 before its 2021 rebrand, is a non-profit organisation that has worked to increase access to the arts for people with disabilities.

It has three centres – in Bedok, Changi and Bukit Merah – where it holds community programmes. Over three decades, it has also cultivated a pipeline of excellent artists who are now recognised by the mainstream, with aspirations to tackle topics that go beyond their disability.

It is a standard port of call for most high-profile arts platforms, from Singapore Art Week to the Singapore International Festival of Arts. Singer-songwriter Sky Shen, who trained with ART:DIS in its theatre programme and whose first EP ART:DIS helped launch, was a key act at the National Day Parade 2026.

Come end-September, ART:DIS is also organising a solo exhibition for UOL x ART:DIS Art Prize winner Christian Tan Wen Siang, which executive director Angela Tan promises is “going to be the most avant-garde exhibition ever done in Singapore for disabled artists”.

The organisation is working with the National Arts Council on Singapore’s first national grant for artists with disabilities, including mentorship support and residency space.

5. Gateway Arts

Founded in 2016, Gateway Arts began with a focus on children and youth but increasingly came to scope its plays around themes of mental health.

Its productions frequently involve talkback or discussion sessions that allow troubled young people – and sometimes their families – to approach issues with critical distance and the support of trained counsellors.

In May, its Scaredy Kat Presents, which discussed panic attacks and anxiety, was seen by 1,800 school students, who comprise some 60 per cent of Gateway Arts’ audience. It also works with charities like Singapore Children’s Society and Touch Community Services to invite those from underprivileged communities.

Gateway Arts is a commissioned artist of Healing Arts Singapore, Asia’s first national-level arts and health initiative, launched in 2025. The consortium makes explicit the link between art and the tackling of practical health issues, and is co-founded by the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Music and Health and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.