About this episode
What happens when a tiny city-state with tight state control becomes a hub for community-driven, arts-based transformation? Meet ArtsWok, a Singapore-based organization helping people talk about the hardest things—grief, inequality, identity, and even death—with art as the medium and hope as the missionIn a place known more for order than outspokenness, how do artists create room for deep conversation and community healing? In this episode, ArtsWok co-founder Su-Lin Ngiam takes us inside the intricate work of bridging Singapore’s diverse communities—whether that’s confronting mortality in a high-rise courtyard or staging inclusive youth theater across cultural divides. Her work invites us to reimagine activism not as confrontation, but as creative facilitation rooted in care.Listen in to hear:How ArtsWok uses everything from inflatable theaters to site-specific installations to hold space for taboo topics in the heart of tightly regulated Singapore.Why conversations about death—like in their Both Sides Now project—are actually powerful doorways to deeper, more connected lives.What it means to be an “intermediary” in art, navigating across sectors, beliefs, and disciplines to build trust, spark dialogue, and catalyze changeTune in now to hear how Su-Lin and ArtsWok are turning art into a tool for civic dialogue, human connection, and societal renewal—one courageous conversation at a time.Delicious QuotesWhat does the ArtsWok Collaborative do?I like to say that we're agents of hope. That we're really here to inject hope in society, or at least we try to, and it's about the bridging difference be it between people or ideas or uncomfortable topics.How do your very public arts practices advance your issue-based community work?…we want it to be out there where people can see, they can hear --- really bringing a taboo issue out into the open, making what's invisible, visible, unheard, heard. And the arts are great for doing that and creating spaces that can do that What is Go-Li?It's (Drama Box’s) inflatable theater … we have used that structure in our projects as well, … It's tour-able, so you can bring it to different communities, and you pop up and cause you're not allowed to be there permanently, then you deflate the structure, and you move on. And it becomes some kind of an icon as well.People recognize it, and “Oh, okay, these guys are here. The artists are here.” And it's about creating safe space as well because it's open, but it's covered, but yet you can walk in and out so you can have conversations about difficult things or people can be vulnerable.What is Both Sides Now?...we have presented this project for seven years. …essentially, we're out the
