25: Su-lin Ngiam-An Activist Artist in Singapore is an Agent of Hope

What happens when a tiny city-state with tight 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 there engaging community saying, "Have you thought about death?" …it's an important part of living to think about that. In fact, it's very much two sides of the same coin. …how we live our lives will determine how we end. So, it's really all quite related, but of course, it can be quite taboo, and it's a painful topic. Loss, in general, is hard to talk about, but I think that's something we really need to talk about more as societies. What role does negotiation play in the cultural life of Singapore?We are artists. We are here to question and provoke. And having said that, we have things like censorship in Singapore in terms of, so, all our scripts, plays, have to be submitted for a license. … there is a process of negotiation that, as artists, we then undergo with the state or with authorities, and it's that process of dialogue. And whether or not we choose to, to then, adapt our place or our work or choose another creative way to talk about it or present it. That's up to the artists, But I think what is meaningful is that process of negotiation and how we negotiate, and that impacts the way we practice, and it makes us more creative in a way. Then it is about finding the vocabularies and being patient. That change takes time. TranscriptBill Cleveland: New Year's 2014 in Singapore, the year of the HorseWhat is Singapore, a city-state, a very small, very well-off multi-ethnic country, an unlikely nexus of community arts innovation? For those, like me, who know the place from some personal experience and some very fine Singaporean friends, it's all of those with a promise of much, much more. And that promise, for me, has been personified by one of those friends I mentioned. I met Su-Lin Ngiam at an international community arts conference In the Spring of 2010 hosted by the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission. She was there with her long-time collaborator Ko Siew Huey. In that encounter, I came to know one of the most striking characteristics of Singapore's notable capacity to punch far above its weight. Which simply translates as "learning is sacrosanct" and "knowledge is power."The country's dramatic rise from a post-WWII, post-colonial basket case to global economic power is certainly a success story fueled by incredible discipline and a belief that Singapore's greatest asset is its people. But, the Lion City, as it is sometimes called it, does have a sketchy side. Like the US, Singapore is classified as a "flawed democracy" in the Economist Magazine's well-respected Democracy Index. One aspect of this means that Singapore keeps a pretty tight hand on internal criticism.  Nevertheless, over the past decade and a half, it has spawned a robust community of artists who are very committed to nurturing the incredibly wide range of Singapore's stories. Su-Lin heads an arts-based community development organization called ArtsWok, whose work she describes as being "agents of hope." That agency has made an indelible mark on the Singapore community in dozens of neighborhoods and venues. She shared the ArtsWok story with me in the Spring of 2021, just as the Covid cobwebs were beginning to melt.  This is Change the Story / Change the World: A Chronicle of art and community transformation. My name is Bill Cleveland. Part 1: Making Space in the Wok BC: [00:00:00] Okay. Hello, this morning.Su-Lin Ngiam: [00:00:02] I think it's way too early for you. Isn't it? BC: [00:00:04] Actually, I normally wake up at that time. To do my writing, S-L N: [00:00:08] you have coffee, right? BC: [00:00:09] I do. Yes, I'm going to be jumping up and down here. Yeah. I'm just gonna dive in with my questions. My understanding is that Singapore has handled the world pandemic catastrophe better than most. Is that a true thing?S-L N: [00:00:25] I guess if you're looking at it, in terms of numbers, then yeah. We have a fairly low infection rate and very few deaths compared to many countries. So in that sense, yes. But we did have a situation with the migrant workers and the dormitories here. About 105,000 were infected because of the kind of living arrangements, the virus spread really fast.So that was our crisis. It was contained to a particular kind of population or demographic. But it also surfaced a lot of issues with regards to how we how we treat our migrant workers, their living conditions, and so on and so forth.So yeah.BC: [00:01:03] so I remember when I was there, that was one of the just beneath the surface issues that was there. And as has happened all over the world, the stress test of the pandemic has surfaced. The cracks in society, the places that aren't, aren't working as well as they should. My first question is really one of self-definition. You've been at this work for the past seven years. Very intensely. So when you're sitting across the table from people who are new to Arts Wok, how do you describe your work in the world?S-L N: [00:01:42] So we would generally say that we're intermediaries. So that's the word that we use. We work in the field of art space, community development, so I'm ABCD as you know it. And essentially, we're here to bridge people, ideas, resources; a lot of the work is about facilitation and bridge-building.And Apart from that, we also do creative producing work. So, we actually design projects and programs with communities, with stakeholders. We implement them with artists, and then we look at evaluating them. In a nutshell, that's what we do, but it doesn't sound very Romantic, or it's not.So I guess it really depends on who I'm meeting. But 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...