Yellow Ribbon Community Arts Festival 2025

Singapore, 1 August 2025 - The Yellow Ribbon Project launched the month-long Yellow Ribbon Community Arts Festival 2025 with an exhibition at One Holland Village today, with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam gracing the exhibition as the Guest-of-Honour. The exhibition will be at One Holland Village from 1 to 6 August 2025. A roving arts truck displaying the art pieces will also be stationed at various malls and schools around Singapore throughout the month of August.

2.              In conjunction with the nation’s SG60 celebrations, the Yellow Ribbon Community Arts Festival 2025 will showcase 60 art pieces created by 19 male inmates and 13 women inmates participating in art programmes in prisons. Themed “We Are Each Other’s Second Chances”, these art pieces offer insights into the inmates’ emotions and hopes for a second chance, and also give them an opportunity to contribute and pay it forward to society. The art pieces showcased at the exhibition or featured in an accompanying online catalogue are available for adoption. Proceeds will go towards the Yellow Ribbon Fund which supports the rehabilitation and reintegration programmes for inmates, ex-offenders, and their families.

Highlights of the Yellow Ribbon Community Arts Festival 2025

3.          The highlights of the Yellow Ribbon Community Arts Festival this year include a nationwide Yellow Ribbon Art Competition that was held before the festival launch, a Yellow Ribbon fashion show which features wearable outfits inspired by the inmates’ artwork, and a roving arts truck.

Yellow Ribbon Art Competition 2025

4.              To engage the younger generation in showing their support for the Yellow Ribbon cause, the Yellow Ribbon Project organised an inaugural Yellow Ribbon Art Competition for students from secondary schools, Institutes of Technical Education, junior colleges, and polytechnics between February and May 2025. Based on the Festival’s theme, students were invited to create either a two-dimensional artwork or a short video clip.

5.              The nationwide art competition received a total of 294 entries from 58 secondary schools and tertiary institutions, and were assessed by judges from the LASALLE College of the Arts, Temasek Polytechnic, and CANVAS.^[1] Lew Yeng Khay, a student from the School of the Arts, emerged the top winner with her two-dimensional artwork titled “Illuminating Futures”, which aimed to raise awareness of the discrimination towards ex-offenders, and how a second chance would help give them a brighter future. Athaalaa Altaf Hafidz, a student from Ngee Ann Secondary School, emerged the top winner for his short video clip titled “Strings of Freedom”, which told the story of how an ex-offender turned his life around through music and strong community support.

Yellow Ribbon Community Arts Festival 2025 Fashion Show

6.              With the support from Ms Doreen Tan, Chief Executive, Tembusu Institute Pte Ltd, and Ms Sylvia Lim, Founder and Managing Director of Triologie, the Yellow Ribbon Community Arts Festival included, for the first time, a stylish fashion show featuring outfits inspired by artwork created by the inmates. 

7.              Volunteers, desistors and models donned these specially curated outfits for the runway at the fashion show, bringing the inmates’ creative expressions to life and showing their support for second chances.

Roving Arts Truck

8.          To bring the Yellow Ribbon Community Arts Festival closer to members of the public, a roving arts truck will travel around Singapore in the month of August. The arts truck will go to 12 secondary schools and tertiary institutions to reach out to students, and seven public venues including Discover Tanjong Pagar, One Holland Village, Our Tampines Hub, open field next to FutsalArena@Yishun, Heartbeat @ Bedok, Suntec City, and Gardens by the Bay.

9.          On weekends, apart from viewing the inmates’ artworks displayed within the arts truck, members of the public can also enjoy live music performances by ex-offenders from the Performing Arts Centre Alumni Band and Teen Challenge (Singapore). They can also participate in complimentary art workshops hosted by supervisees (inmates who are serving the tail-end of their sentence in the community) and staff members from Green Haven Halfway House, Rise Above Halfway House and Selarang Halfway House. By volunteering their time hosting art workshops for members of the public, these supervisees contribute and pay back to society in their own ways.

10.          In addition, non-profit organisation New Life Stories, has published illustrated children’s storybooks inspired by real-life inmate experiences, that teach young readers the importance of making positive choices. These storybooks have also been converted into colouring books to engage children when they visit the arts truck.

Transformation of the Yellow Ribbon Project

11.          After more than 20 years of championing second chances, the Yellow Ribbon Project is embarking on a transformation through strategic branding, high-impact collaborations, and revitalised events and initiatives to elevate its message and inspire greater community action to support the Yellow Ribbon cause.

12.          Superintendent Angeline Chua, Chairperson of the Yellow Ribbon Community Arts Festival 2025, said, “To better connect with a wider audience and inspire greater community action to support second chances, we have embraced fresh, modern approaches in the Yellow Ribbon Community Arts Festival this year. This is the first time we introduced a nationwide Yellow Ribbon Art Competition to inspire students to show their support for the Yellow Ribbon cause. We also worked closely with our community partners – Tembusu Institute Pte Ltd and Triologie – to put together a fashion show to showcase inmates’ creative expressions as fashion outfits. We look forward to continue championing the Yellow Ribbon Project movement and inspire even more people to join us in the Yellow Ribbon cause.”

Yellow Ribbon Project
1 August 2025

[1] CANVAS was founded in 2019 to provide opportunities to former inmate artists who attended arts programme in prison and would like to pursue the arts after their release.