Light to Night Singapore 2026 returns bigger than ever - celebrating the strength of communities and collective creativity through immersive art, light and shared experiences across the Civic District.
Venue: Civic District & select malls (National Gallery Singapore, Asian Civilisations Museum, The Arts House, Esplanade Park, CQ @ Clarke Quay, Funan & more)
Date: 9 – 31 Jan 2026
Time: Daily from evening; extended opening till 11pm on festival weekends (Fri–Sun)
Fee: Free Admission (selected programmes are ticketed)
Light to Night Singapore 2026
Organised by National Gallery Singapore, Light to Night Singapore 2026 celebrates its milestone 10th edition with the empowering theme “The Power in Us”. Spanning an unprecedented four weekends, this is the festival’s longest edition yet, inviting artists, communities and festivalgoers to actively shape their own journeys through art.
Illuminating the Civic District from 9 to 31 January 2026, the festival presents interactive art installations, striking facade projections, performances and day-to-night programmes that reflect the shared strength found in collaboration, diversity and co-creation. Supported by Development Partner Tote Board, Lead Partner CapitaLand Investment, the National Arts Council and the Cultural Matching Fund, this edition reinforces art’s role in bringing people together.
Gather & Be Inspired Through Art That
Involves & Includes
SANTAI
At the heart of the 10th edition is SANTAI, a brand-new series of interactive art installations specially commissioned for the festival. Inspired by the Malay word “santai” (to relax), the series transforms public spaces into welcoming places for gathering, contemplation and connection.
SANTAI installations are spread across five key locations: The Padang, Empress Lawn, The Arts House at the Old Parliament (Front Lawn), ACM Green and Esplanade Park.
The Padang hosts two major SANTAI artworks, beginning with Rumah Laut (Coastal Home) by Singaporean artist Firdaus Sani, a fourth-generation Orang Laut descendant. This three-part installation (also extending to the Art Connector and ACM Green) reimagines the legacy, displacement and resilience of Singapore’s indigenous Orang Laut communities. Constructed using materials traditionally found in coastal dwellings, visitors are invited to step into a contemporary interpretation of the rumah laut, bridging past and present.
On weekends, the Padang transforms into a lively site of participation with Gathering on the Lawn by renowned Taiwanese artist Michael Lin. Featuring batik-inspired paper lantern bags, the work encourages visitors to walk, gather and create together. Participants can take their paper lantern bags home, carrying a shared memory of collective experience. On 16, 17, 23 and 24 January, the installation comes alive through performance responses by The Artists Village, one of Singapore’s pioneering contemporary art collectives.
Interactive Art
Michael Lin’s exploration of communal space continues at the Singapore Courtyard at National Gallery Singapore with Untitled Gathering. Hand-painted wooden furniture adorned with textile motifs invites visitors to sit, rearrange and co-create an ever-changing composition, while taking part in programmes and hands-on activities.
At Empress Lawn, Instar Dreaming (in slow wave) by Weixin Quek Chong features sculptural pods inspired by the bio-organic curves and segmented forms of larval insects at different stages of moulting. As audiences move through the work, it evokes continual metamorphosis – shifting between states of growth and rest. This installation is also designed to respond visually to Flower Power, a facade projection at Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall by visual artist Noah Tan (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 presents Batu Ghaib (The Unseen Stone), drawn on the discovery of the Singapore Stone. The 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
Light to Night Singapore 2026 expands its celebrated Art Skins on Monuments series, illuminating iconic buildings with stories from diverse communities across the region.
Highlights include:
- Larut’s Tears at The Arts House at the Old Parliament, a 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.
- stART Here: From Every Vantage Point, 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.
- Projection mappings on the National Gallery Singapore facade by two multidisciplinary artists:
- Singapore artist fyerool darma presents Ⱥn§ibℓøm∞ (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
Beyond visual art, the festival offers a packed calendar of outdoor and in-gallery programmes with novel art encounters for all.
- Art X Social: Festival Village stretches from St Andrew’s Road to Empress Lawn with food, drinks, roving performances, games and DJ sets.
- A special Pets Weekend (final festival 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
- Sundays: Power in Community which presents a vibrant line-up of performances by community groups, schools, and performing arts collectives.
- Outdoor programmes spotlighting the Civic District and its monuments, including guided tours and a mass sketching event.
- Visitors can also explore 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.
Plan Your Visit
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 here.
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.
