‘Cities For People’ is the pilot edition of NTU CCA Ideas Fest, an annual platform to catalyse critical exchange of ideas and encourage thinking ‘out of the box’. It is a bottom-up approach linking the artistic and academic communities with grassroots initiatives. This pilot edition expands artistic interventions and engages contemporary issues such as air, water, food, environment, and social interaction, in connection to artistic and cultural fields, academic research, and design applications.

The 10-day programme, from January 13 to 22, coinciding with Singapore Art Week 2017 and Art After Dark at Gillman Barracks, comprises a conglomerate of performances, public installations, participatory projects and social experiments, urban farming initiatives, public dialogues, and a variety of workshops. It cumulates in a three-day Public Summit that brings together a prominent group of architects, theorists, researchers, curators, and community groups from around the world to discuss and exchange ideas about urbanism, environment, modes of exchange, critical spatial practices, and to envision a future city. ‘Cities For People’ offers a platform to contemplate the possibilities for our shared space, reformulate our demands accordingly and project solutions and desires for the future.

This article was first published in Art Republik Issue 13.