To commemorate the recent opening of Cantonment MRT station, a collaborative event featuring eight art spaces in Tanjong Pagar Distripark is set to take place on July 25. The districts, housed in former shipping warehouses across from Exit 4 of the new station, will host a “distri-party,” a day-long arts celebration showcasing a vibrant creative community.
The event is organized by Ashley Chiam, founder of Supper House, who aims to highlight the diverse range of artistic activities in this evolving enclave. At Supper House, Singaporean artist Hazel Lim’s installation, The Alchemical Interludes, will be on display featuring 118 handcrafted books containing poems inspired by elements of the periodic table. Later in the evening, artists Jeremy Sharma and Jerome Romulus will present a live performance at 7 p.m.
Other participating venues include Port37, offering a paid workshop titled Slow Down, Make Art; Haridas Contemporary, showcasing ongoing works by Singaporean artist Esmond Loh; and Instinc Space, hosting a group exhibition Eat The Sticky Machine. All About Art Gallery will feature Emptiness Full Of Life, a solo exhibition by Tanya Kok Zoo, while Art Agenda will preview an upcoming auction.
Prestige Gallery continues its exhibition on Southeast Asian ink painting, and the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) will host family-friendly activities in celebration of its 30th anniversary. SAM’s art carnival will include watercolor spray painting, beading workshops, and magic shows. Visitors can also access two ongoing exhibitions free of charge: Maria Taniguchi’s Afterimage, marking the Filipino artist’s first solo show in Singapore, and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Form Is Emptiness. The two exhibitions explore minimalist aesthetics, with Taniguchi’s meticulous approach highlighted through her signature “brick paintings” and hand-carved sculptures. Taniguchi will discuss her work at 2:30 p.m., followed by a curator-led tour at 4 p.m.
Elsewhere, Teater Ekamatra’s Charged returns to the stage from July 23 to August 2 at The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre in Wild Rice @ Funan. Written by Chong Tze Chien and directed by Mohd Fared Jainal, this drama explores racial tensions within an army camp during Chinese New Year, unfolding through conflicting narratives after a violent incident. The play originally won the Best Original Script at The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards in 2011. The cast includes Brendon Fernandez, Irsyad Dawood, Teoh Jun Vinh, Krish Natarajan, Ali Mazrin, Izzul Irfan, Siti Hajar Abdul Gani, and Serene Chen. Tickets start at S$45.
In addition, Poetry Festival Singapore 2026 will be held from July 24 to 26 at the National Library Building and selected offsite venues. This three-day multilingual festival centers on the theme Borders And Bridges, emphasizing translation and cross-cultural exchange. Pulitzer Prize winners Paul Muldoon and Tracy K. Smith will appear virtually for the opening ceremony. Other highlights include a keynote by Cultural Medallion recipient Wong Yoon Wah on Nanyang poetry and translation, panels on bilingual Chinese-English publishing, Singapore Malay poetry, and Irish-Malaysian poetic exchanges, as well as a migrant workers’ poetry reading. The festival also explores the intersections of poetry and film and offers a ticketed concrete poetry workshop. Most programs are free, with some workshops requiring a fee.