Workshops
Expand your personal toolkit in our hands-on workshops designed for experiential learning. Run by established community arts practitioners who work with a wide range of communities, the workshops introduce you to critical frameworks and practical examples of social intervention.
Create an asset bank with guidance from Toride Art Project (Japan), learn about cultural mapping through case studies by Arts-ED (Malaysia), and get to know how Big hART (Australia) works with indigenous groups to shed light on invisible narratives.
These workshops will equip you with insights and useful skills, unlocking new possibilities for community building.
This programme is exclusively for participants on the Workshop/SIC Route.
Buy your Festival Pass (Workshop/SIC Route) here.
How to Open Tokuino Bank
by Fukasawa Takafumi & Yasue Habara of Toride Art Project
13 June 2025
11am – 1pm
Conceptualised by Japanese artist Fukasawa Takafumi, the Tokuino Bank is a community asset bank where people deposit and withdraw their tokui (unique ability, skill, time or life experience) instead of money. Run by community members, Tokuino Bank turns the personal strengths of individuals into the currency of their community, enabling more resilient neighbourhoods. This workshop by Toride Art Project opens with an explanation of how Tokuino Bank works, followed by a discussion where you can brainstorm what forms of the Tokuino Bank are possible, and how you can implement a Tokuino Bank within your own community.
About the Organisation
Toride Art Project (TAP) aims to develop Toride, a dormitory town in Tokyo, into a cultural city by supporting young artists and providing opportunities for residents to interact with art. TAP comprises Toride residents, Toride City, and the Tokyo University of the Arts, who have been working together since 1999. TAP hosts a Tokuino Bank in Toride, allowing residents to interact, exchange skills and pursue hobbies together.
Toride Art Project’s involvement in ICAF Hub Singapore has been made possible with support from The Japan Foundation.
Ethical Dilemmas in Community Arts Practice
by Jennifer Lee of Mekong Cultural Hub
13 June 2025
11am – 1pm
Community arts practitioners encounter many different ethical dilemmas in the course of their work, such as the ethics of engaging with a community, or questions over the ownership and crediting of artworks. This workshop will equip you with the tools and vocabulary to confidently identify and work through these challenging situations. Incorporating lessons from its ongoing training programme, Mekong Cultural Hub will introduce key principles for approaching ethics in community arts. The session will conclude with small group discussions, where participants will take real-life case studies as a starting point to explore and address ethical dilemmas in their own practices.
About the Organisation
Mekong Cultural Hub (MCH) is an independent non-profit organisation that connects artists and cultural practitioners in Southeast Asia and the Mekong Region. MCH initiates projects and works on collaborations all around Asia, with a focus on Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Since 2018, MCH has connected more than 200 practitioners from the region for professional exchange, co-creation and collaboration.
Improvisation and Sequences
by anGie seah
13 June 2025
11am – 1pm
In this two-hour workshop, multidisciplinary artist anGie seah will share her distinctive approach to developing accessible and participatory art projects. Throughout the session, she will guide you through her methodology, incorporating techniques like cues, sequences and improvisation, as well as performative elements such as vocal projection and body gestures. Drawing on her rich experience working with different communities, anGie will offer insights and anecdotes on creative thinking, showing how art can foster connection and dialogue among diverse groups.
About the Artist
anGie seah is a Singaporean artist known for her multidisciplinary practice that encompasses drawing, ceramics, performance, sound, video and social collaboration. Since 1997, anGie has exhibited her work and participated in artist residencies and art festivals across the world. Over the past two decades, she has produced both local and international art projects that engage families, seniors and communities with special needs.
Map-Design-Act: A Scaffolded Engagement Process in Community-based Arts
by Janet Pillai & Chen Yoke Pin of Arts-ED
14 June 2025
11am – 1pm
In any long-term community-based arts programme, adopting a scaffolded approach to community engagement can be an essential tool, helping to build cohesion and agency over time. In this session, Arts-ED will explore two case studies that highlight the value of scaffolding as a participatory and empowering method. The first case study examines a three-year waste management initiative with young residents in an urban area, while the second looks at a two-year heritage education programme with adults in a rural setting. You will also be guided through the stages of scaffolding, including mapping, investigation, planning, design and active implementation.
About the Organisation
Based in Penang, Malaysia, Arts-ED is a non-profit organisation providing arts and culture education programs for youth and adult communities in rural and urban areas. In collaboration with artists, schools and local agencies, Arts-ED uses creative and transformative approaches to facilitate understanding, appreciation and the sustainable use of place and community assets.
Creativity, Culture & Community - Positive Social Change with Big hART (hybrid)
14 June 2025
11am – 1pm
Australia’s leading arts and social change organisation, Big hART, has over 30 years of experience working with communities to nurture storytelling and advocacy. In this workshop, Big hART Founder and Creative Director Dr Scott Rankin will join us online from Australia and discuss how Big hART amplifies underrepresented voices and strengthens cultural identity. Scott will present a case study on Big hART’s Songs for Freedom project–an uplifting national concert series and a campaign to highlight the high incarceration rates of Aboriginal children in prisons. Together with Scott, Dr Kerrie Schafer (Professor in Community Performance at the University of Exeter and long time research partner and friend of Big hART) will join us in person to guide participants through a participatory activity to “design your own project” using Big hART’s social design tools. This hybrid session offers a compelling look at how collaborative, culturally engaged and innovative arts can drive lasting social change.
*Due to unfortunate circumstances, Big hART is unable to travel to ICAF Hub Singapore in-person, but will instead be connecting with festival participants remotely via a hybrid, participatory workshop.
About the Speakers
Big hART is Australia’s leading Arts for Social Change Organisation. Big hART’s mission is to help ensure that everyone, everywhere has the right to thrive, by elevating the stories, aspirations and opportunities of people experiencing disadvantage. Big hART’s mission is based on the guiding principle: “It’s harder to hurt someone if we know their story.”
Professor Kerrie Schaefer is based in the Department of Communications, Drama and Film at the University of Exeter in the UK. Her book Communities, Performance and Practice (Palgrave, 2022) examines community performance making processes in international contexts and explores the ways in which ‘community’ is reconceptualised and re-enacted in these processes. She has followed Big hART’s work as a researcher co-producing performance-based community cultural development projects in Australia (see Schaefer in BighART 25 Years, Volume 2, pp135-146). More recently she was awarded British Academy funding for the project, Producing Cultural Livelihoods on Resource Extraction Frontiers. This, and another grant, has enabled reconnection with Big hART’s work in Roebourne/Ieramugadu. More writing on witnessing a 15 year arc of practice in place will be forthcoming in 2026.