Light to Night Singapore 2026 shines with “The Power in Us”, celebrating the strength of communities and co-creation through art in its landmark 10th edition

SINGAPORE, 7 January 2026 – Organised by National Gallery Singapore, Light to Night Singapore marks its milestone 10th edition with the empowering theme “The Power in Us”. The festival presents a brand-new SANTAI series of interactive and exciting art installations, light projections from the lens of various communities, and electrifying programmes across the Civic District. Illuminating the precinct and beyond daily from 9 to 31 January 2026, this is the festival’s longest edition yet, unfolding across four vibrant weekends for the first time. Artists, diverse communities, and festivalgoers are invited to become active participants, shaping their own festival journeys. With day-to-night programming and novel offerings each week, visitors can enjoy multiple visits and kickstart their new year at Singapore’s crowd-favourite art festival.

Ms Ong Zhen Min, Executive Director of Light to Night Singapore 2026, says, “Light to Night Singapore 2026 draws from ‘The Power in Us' to celebrate the collective strength that emerges when artists, communities, and people share in the experience of art. By bringing together artists from Singapore and the region to collaborate with diverse communities, and inviting audiences to participate as co-creators, this edition highlights how shared authorship, dialogue, and reflection can deepen connections and foster a sense of collective ownership. We are excited to celebrate this 10th year milestone with everyone.”

Light to Night Singapore 2026 is supported by Development Partner Tote Board, Lead Partner CapitaLand Investment, National Arts Council, and matched by Cultural Matching Fund.

Ms Wendy Leo, Senior Director (Grants), Tote Board, says, “A decade ago, Tote Board supported National Gallery Singapore to launch what would become one of Singapore’s most beloved art festivals. Light to Night Singapore has grown into a powerful demonstration of how art can foster social cohesion through shared creative experiences. This year’s emphasis on collaborative and participatory art invites the public to come together to co-create experiences, strengthening the community resilience that defines Singapore.”

Gather and be inspired through art that involves and includes

Light to Night Singapore 2026: The Power in Us invites audiences to celebrate and engage with diverse perspectives through participatory and socially engaged art. From outdoor art installations to indoor performances and programmes, each experience serves as a space for people to reflect, converse, and create. Embodying this is SANTAI, a series commissioned specially for the festival’s 10th edition, located across five key gathering points around the historic Civic District – the Padang, Empress Lawn, Front Lawn at The Arts House at the Old Parliament, ACM Green, and Esplanade Park. Inspired by the Malay word ‘santai’ which means to relax, the series features interactive art installations that transform various Civic District locations into spaces for gathering and contemplation. 

Spanning the largest footprint is the Padang, which will feature two artworks from the SANTAI series. The National Monument’s layered history and enduring function as a civic gathering space lay the foundation for Rumah Laut (Coastal Home), a three-part installation at the Padang, Art Connector, and ACM Green, by Singaporean artist Firdaus Sani who is a fourth-generation Orang Laut descendant. The installation brings to life his reimagination of the legacy, displacement, and resilience of Singapore’s indigenous Orang Laut communities, including the Orang Gelam, Orang Kallang, Orang Seletar, and Orang Selat. At the Padang, visitors can enter a dialogue between past and present as they step foot into this contemporary reimagining of the coastal house, known as “rumah laut” in Malay, informed by materials traditionally integral to coastal dwellings such as “mengkuang” or “nipah” (palm) leaves and “bakau” (mangrove) wood.

On weekends, the Padang becomes a site of collective participation through Gathering on the Lawn, a site-specific work by Taiwanese artist Michael Lin. Featuring artist-designed paper lantern bags adorned with batik-inspired motifs, the work invites the public to walk, create, and gather – engaging directly with both the space and one another. Drawing on the Padang’s long-standing role as a site of convergence, the work reflects the festival’s theme by revealing how power emerges through collective agency. Participation extends beyond the moment, as audiences take home their paper lantern bags, carrying with them a shared experience and a tangible piece of collective memory. On 16, 17, 23, and 24 January, the work will be activated through a series of facilitated performance responses by The Artists Village, one of Singapore’s earliest contemporary art collectives.

Michael Lin is also known for his large-scale painting installations that draw on motifs from traditional textiles, transforming public spaces into sites of interaction and collective experience. Presented at the Singapore Courtyard at National Gallery Singapore as part of the SANTAI series, Untitled Gathering reimagines the space with hand-painted wooden furniture featuring batik-inspired motifs. Visitors are invited to sit, move, and rearrange the pieces, becoming co-creators of an ever-shifting composition while taking part in programmes and hands-on activities.

At Empress Lawn, Instar Dreaming (in slow wave) by Singaporean visual artist Weixin Quek Chong features a cluster of four sculptural pods inspired by the bio-organic curves and segmented forms of larval insects at different stages of moulting. As audiences move through and interact with the sculptures, the experience evokes continual metamorphosis – shifting between states of growth and rest. The work is also designed to respond to the facade projection at the Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall, a collaborative work titled Flower Power by visual artist Noah Tan (from ART:DIS) and award-winning pianist and music editor Dr Azariah Tan. Bringing together distinct artistic practices, the unexpected pairing explores artmaking as a space for resilience and transformation, examining how creative expression can transcend conventional sensory modalities.

At Esplanade Park, emerging artist Syahmin Huda’s Batu Ghaib (The Unseen Stone) draws on the discovery of the Singapore Stone to present a split boulder inscribed with the incantatory phrase “timbul tenggelam” (“floating sinking” in Malay), inviting viewers to see natural elements as objects with ancestral spirits and voices of their own. Over at The Arts House at the Old Parliament, The Looking Glass of Language by multidisciplinary artists Amanda Tan and Irsyad Ishak explores the written word as a shifting medium of communication, using motion-activated anagrams and evolving letterforms to invite audiences to uncover new meanings through interaction.

Empowering diverse voices across Southeast Asia    

The representation of diverse communities and inclusion of multiple perspectives are further expressed through an expanded series of Art Skins on Monuments facade projections, which illuminate iconic buildings across the Civic District. At The Arts House at the Old Parliament, Larut’s Tears draws from long-term collaborative research on ecological grief undertaken by Malaysia’s Gerimis Art Project, London-based artist and researcher Youngsook Choi, and the Semai communities in Pahang and Perak. The work reimagines the story of Larut the elephant as a symbolic link to the discovery of tin-rich land in Perak, reflecting the layered histories and consequences of nature’s exploitation.

Another projection showcase, stART Here: From Every Vantage Point presents a visual storytelling experience drawn from artworks created by youth beneficiaries of Fei Yue Community Services who participated in the Gallery’s Strength Through Art (stART) programme. 

Overlooking the Padang, entanglements and intersections take over the facade of National Gallery Singapore in projection mappings by two multidisciplinary artists. Singapore artist fyerool darma presents (Ansiblomoo), a four-minute digital meditation and projection performance where a synthetic thread expands to form entangled fibre-optic ecosystems, in an interrogation of digital resistance. In Memory Gesture, Vietnamese artist Ngoc Nau is inspired by the changing agricultural landscape of her homeland and speaks about the resilience of farmers as they navigate the changes that affect their lives and the nation.

A monumental commission by internationally acclaimed Thai artist Navin Rawanchaikul titled SINGAPORAMA brings colour and a panoramic multiplicity of voices to the Gallery’s Padang Atrium. Developed through a year-long research and engagement, SINGAPORAMA draws on encounters with the diverse communities that make up Singapore, including migrant workers, artists and cultural producers, indigenous groups, Peranakans, social advocacy groups, and faith organisations. It unfolds as a spectacular panoramic display of stories and perspectives of these communities, realised through two large billboard paintings in the style of old cinema posters, which is representative of the artist’s signature style, and interwoven with video elements.

Light up your festival weekends with novel art encounters 

A power-packed line-up of outdoor and in-gallery programmes fills the festival calendar with novel art encounters for all.

• This year, Art X Social: Festival Village extends from St Andrew’s Road to Empress Lawn, offering festivalgoers an expanded line-up of food and beverage options to enjoy alongside roving performances, games, and DJ sets. For the final festival weekend, the Empress Lawn will also host a special Pets Weekend, curated in collaboration with Good Pet Fair, featuring pet-friendly vendors, activities, and experiences for animal lovers.        
• Fresh programmes will enliven Gallery spaces, from power card reading sessions and a live prep experience where movement, food, and art come together in a multi-sensory format, to art-filled programmes led by popular cultural icons Sing Song Social Club and Zaki Hussain. Weekend performances take the stage with The Return of Funny Fridays, anchored by local stand-up comedians; Gallery Gigs x Padang Atrium featuring homegrown voices with the likes of Charlie Lim, Iman Fandi, and Linying; and Sundays: Power in Community which presents a vibrant line-up of performances by community groups, schools, and performing arts collectives. Festivalgoers can also look forward to outdoor programmes that spotlight the Civic District and its monuments, including guided tours and a mass sketching event.
• The festival introduces four self-guided themed trails designed for visitors of different interest to navigate their festival journey – the social explorer, families, art lovers and photography enthusiasts – with each route presenting tailored highlights and recommended durations. 
• Extending the festival’s outreach beyond the Civic District, Void (Deck) The Walls by Arterly Obsessed will travel across multiple city locations for the first time, presented at CQ @ Clarke Quay, Raffles City Singapore, and Plaza Singapura in partnership with CapitaLand Investment. The installation transforms mall environments into illuminated void decks through glowing acrylic reconstructions of familiar icons such as game tables, benches, and a mama shop, celebrating shared communal spaces. Over at the Funan Underground Pedestrian Link, visitors can also encounter Burrows, a playful and whimsical mural by Tell Your Children.

Ms June Tan, Head, Digital Platforms, Strategic Marketing & Business Partnerships, Commercial Management (Singapore), CapitaLand Investment, says, “We are excited to renew our partnership with National Gallery Singapore for another two years till 2027. Since 2023, our collaboration has reflected a shared commitment to making the arts more accessible and reimagining our malls as vibrant, relatable cultural spaces for the community. As Lead Partner of Light to Night’s 10th Anniversary this year, CLI is thrilled to host Void (Deck) The Walls by Arterly Obsessed across three of our malls for the very first time, an exciting milestone that underscores the depth of our partnership.”

Light to Night Singapore 2026: The Power in Us

Light to Night Singapore 2026 runs from 9 to 31 January across the Civic District and other select locations, with activations at National Gallery Singapore, Asian Civilisations Museum, Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall, The Arts House at the Old Parliament, CQ @ Clarke Quay, Funan, Plaza Singapura and Raffles City Singapore. Entry is free, with ticketed programmes available for pre-booking on the festival website at http://lighttonight.sg.

As part of the Gallery’s Open House, opening hours will be extended to 11pm on festival weekends (Friday to Sunday), with free admission to all exhibitions except Into the Modern: Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Promotional tickets for Into the Modern will be available for purchase during the festival period.

Stay updated on Light to Night Singapore 2026 by visiting the website or by following National Gallery Singapore on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. You may also connect with the Festival on its dedicated Facebook and Instagram pages. The media kit can be accessed at bit.ly/LTN2026.

• Annex A: Festival Artworks and Programmes, and Artist Bios
• Annex B: About the theme, ‘The Power in Us’

– END –