Ushering in Our Next Chapter

After two years of searching, making, listening, and learning alongside communities, I am stepping into a new chapter with a steadier heart and deeper clarity. We are now a registered non-profit arts organisation.

This is not a loud milestone. It feels more like a gentle grounding and a reminder that this work has grown through relationship, trust, practice, and divine timing. What began as instinct and experimentation now rests on firmer roots. Yet the purpose remains the same: to create spaces where art enables connection, dignity, and understanding.

Where We Began

In February 2023, we started as Artivism, an applied theatre collective. Our maiden project, Melodies of Life: A Reminiscence Podcast, connected seniors and youths in India and Singapore through reminiscence arts to unpack experiences of the pandemic. Supported by the Singapore International Foundation, it affirmed the power of creative collaboration across cultures and contexts. That belief has stayed with me since. Debashree Das Gupta, my creative collaborator from India, played a critical role in shaping the early years of the collective, and for that, I am grateful.

As our practice grew in Singapore, we formalised the collective as a sole proprietorship with the name Artivism – Arts for Action in September 2024. This helped us build trust across sectors and deepen our work in spaces within and beyond the arts.

Along the way, I realised that language shapes perception, and perception shapes access. While well-intentioned, the name Artivism often drew assumptions about activism that did not reflect our core. Our practice is not about speaking for communities, but building space with them. Not about noise, but voice. Not about confrontation, but connection. Not about leading from the front, but walking alongside.

And so, with clarity and care, I decided to let the name Artivism go.

Introducing “Arts for Action”

Arts for Action felt right immediately. It is straightforward and clear. It centres the work, not the interpretation of it. This name does not soften the intention behind the practice; it strengthens its clarity. It allows conversations to begin without defensiveness or misinterpretation. It opens the door rather than making people second-guess whether they should walk through it.

Becoming a Non-Profit

I am grateful to share that as of 21 October 2025, we are now formally registered as Arts for Action Cares Limited, a non-profit Company Limited by Guarantee (UEN 202546785R). Publicly, we are known as Arts for Action (AFA) and online as @AFACares.

This step gives us the structure to grow responsibly. It allows us to steward resources properly, build long-term partnerships, and support emerging practitioners in this field. For me, it also feels like a commitment to do this work with greater integrity and accountability, especially in spaces where the arts have often been overlooked, misunderstood, or under-resourced.

Not a Reinvention, but a Clarification

This shift is not a new beginning. It is not a departure from who we were. It is simply language catching up with intention. The values remain the same. The practice remains rooted in people. The work remains centred in relationship-building through the arts.

We will continue to explore how the arts can enable intergenerational connection, dignity in ageing, inclusive collaboration, creative education, and community wellbeing. We will continue to show up in spaces where the arts are not always expected, but where they can make a meaningful difference. And we will continue to walk with those who believe in the quiet, steady labour of community-centred practice.

Thank You

To everyone who has been part of this journey, whether through partnerships, conversations, shared spaces, or trust given, thank you. This has never been work that happens alone.

This next chapter is shaped by all the hands and hearts who have walked alongside us, questioned with us, and believed in what this work could become. We carry on, gently and firmly, building spaces where care is a foundation, not an afterthought.