PAssionArts Festival 2026 Turns Everyday Materials into Giant Community Artworks Across Singapore

Three heartland neighbourhoods celebrated Singapore’s 61st birthday over the National Day weekend with large scale community artworks created by residents, students and community groups as part of PAssionArts Festival 2026.

Held under this year’s theme, “Our Neighbourhood Gems”, the festival celebrates the people, places and stories that give Singapore’s communities their unique character. In Paya Lebar, Zhenghua and Punggol Coast, everyday and recycled materials were transformed into colourful installations reflecting each neighbourhood’s identity and the people who call it home.

Paya Lebar unveiled “Celebrating Paya Lebar, One Community at a Time” at Kovan Hub on 8 August. The centrepiece is a 2.1 metre-tall, four tier birthday cake made from modelling clay to mark Singapore’s 61st birthday.

The red and white cake features miniature air-dry clay replicas of familiar Paya Lebar landmarks, including Paya Lebar Kovan Community Club, the Tua Jia Kar well at Kovan City, Paya Lebar Air Base, 105 Hainanese Market & Food Centre and 209 Kovan Market.

The installation was awarded the Singapore Book of Records on 8 August for the Largest Cake Sculpture Made of Modelling Clay, measuring 2.1 metres by 1 metre.

The artwork was developed through three pre festival workshops held in July, led by artist Jesse Leong and organised by the Paya Lebar Community Arts and Culture Club. Almost 100 residents took part, with many having lived in the neighbourhood for decades.

Participants moulded the clay landmarks by hand, with each miniature creation representing a familiar location in the community. Together, the landmarks form a visual portrait of Paya Lebar and the places residents associate with home.

Over at Zhenghua Community Club, residents and students turned recycled plastic bottles into “Every Drop, Every Bloom: Small Acts, Big Blooms”, a large floral installation unveiled on 8 August during the Zhenghua PAssionArts Festival and the division’s National Day Celebration 2026.

The artwork transforms a staircase into a cascading river of flowers flowing from an oversized golden tap. The flowers were handcrafted using recycled plastic bottles collected through a community drive across the neighbourhood, with larger feature blooms made from colourful foam.

Around 80 students from Zhenghua Secondary School and West Spring Primary School took part in creating the flowers. They cut, shaped and coloured the recycled bottles by hand, turning discarded materials into a colourful community artwork while highlighting how small actions can contribute to something meaningful.

Punggol Coast presented its own large-scale artwork, “Bridging Nature, Rippling Joy”, at One Punggol on 9 August. Measuring 2 metres by 2 metres by 2.2 metres, the installation uses upcycled bottles and plastic spheres to recreate scenes inspired by Punggol’s bridges, waterways and other familiar Singapore landmarks.

The artwork was unveiled during the Punggol Coast PAssionArts Festival, held in conjunction with the National Day Observance Ceremony.

The project began with the Punggol Coast Community Arts and Culture Club and participants collecting discarded plastic bottles from across the neighbourhood between June and July. During pre-festival workshops in July, residents and students from Greendale Primary School decorated the bottles and created dioramas inside plastic spheres, depicting distinctive bridges, canals and familiar landmarks.

Members of the One Punggol Community Club’s Active Ageing Centre Crochet Interest Group also contributed by knitting flowers and hearts in Singapore’s national colours.

Together, the individually collected and decorated bottles form an artwork inspired by Punggol’s waterways and bridges, reflecting the connections between the neighbourhood’s residents and the places around them.