As the academic year draws to a close, Ridge View Residential College (RVRC) Atelier's partnership with Office of Student Affairs, Centre of the Arts’ third space and NUSOne has shown how art can help build community, spark reflection, and strengthen belonging across campus.
Across eight beginner-friendly workshops, more than 130 RVRC students and staff, invited artists, and NUS participants came together to explore creative expression through hands-on art activities. What began in 2024 as an effort to open art-making to the RVRC residents grew in 2025 into a meaningful space for slowing down, connecting and creating side by side.
At the heart of this initiative was Associate Professor Sadaf Ansari’s belief that art is not a luxury but a lens: a way of examining our relationship with the natural world, sitting with complexity, and finding language for things that resist easy articulation. Several sessions explored themes of environmental sustainability through watercolour studies of the natural world and reflective sketching exercises, encouraging participants not only to create, but to notice and ask what they value, what they stand to lose and what they inspire to protect.
The workshop also offered an important pause from academic pressure. In a demanding academic environment, they created rare pockets of rest and genuine human connection.
As one participant, Lee Hai En (Year 3, Faculty of Science), reflected, “Making pipe cleaner flowers was a fun and therapeutic break from the exam stress.” She added that the activity allowed her “to be creative when I felt like it or simply switch off my brain and focus on the repetitive and calming process of folding pipe cleaners.”
Another participant, Year 3 exchange student Aastha Rajeev Malipatil, described the experience as more than just a workshop: “There were no mistakes — a seemingly wrong pipe selected just became a new colour combination!” she said. “It was so wholesome to have everyone sit around and share conversations and laugh as we made our flowers,” adding that the session gave her “not only a souvenir from Singapore but also a core memory.”
The programme also reflected the strength of peer leadership. RVRC’s student facilitators did more than organise and host the sessions; they led peers, modelled curiosity and creative risk-taking. In doing so, they strengthen their own confidence, capabilities and sense of belonging within the NUS community. Artelier’s recognition at the newly launched RVRC Student Achievement Awards 2026 in the Community Engagement category stands as a testament to that leadership.
This initiative was made possible through the support and generosity of two invited artists, Li Ching Heng and Manish Sharma.
As NUS continues to shape a vibrant visual landscape through public art and creative initiatives across campus, RVRC Artelier hopes this momentum will continue into the next semester. The invitation is simple: keep making space for art, for reflection and for community.
Contributor: RVRC
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