Become more skilled at facilitating one of life’s difficult conversations.

Time pressures, uncertainty about how to begin, and the fear of distressing patients or families often make end-of-life discussions feel daunting. These common challenges contribute to a worrying gap in care, with only 53% of doctors and 31% of nurses felt at ease discussing death. This arts-based workshop tackles those challenges head-on, building your personal readiness to navigate end-of-life conversations.

About the Workshop

How would you like to be remembered? What matters the most for you when it comes to leaving well? In a rapidly ageing society like Singapore, engaging seniors in meaningful end-of-life (EOL) conversations is more important than ever. While 81% of Singaporeans are open to end-of-life planning, a 2025 SMU study found that fewer than 13% have actually documented their final wishes.

Piece of Mine is an 8-week workshop series that encourages seniors to discuss EOL issues and take action regarding EOL planning through a mix of arts-based activities, personal reflection, and group sharing. Participants experience guided self-discovery, gain clarity on their personal preferences, and build meaningful social connections.

Each 2-hour weekly session extends on the previous to provide a safe, supportive space for seniors to explore and express what living well, and leaving well means to them. The workshop series then culminates in a final sharing session, where participants share their reflections and wishes with loved ones and fellow community members.

Currently conducted at Active Ageing Centres (AAC), Piece of Mine was designed to meet the cognitive domain goals within the Active Ageing Programme Framework. It is delivered in English or Mandarin, with other languages to be offered in the future. The workshop plans were developed by Artist Consultant Salty Xi Jie Ng.

Piece of Mine draws on our more than decade-long experience of working with seniors in community settings. Since its launch in July 2025, we have brought this workshop series to the following AACs: TOUCH Community Services, Lions Befrienders, Presbyterian Community Services, and NTUC Health.

For more information and to book, drop us an email at bsn@artswok.org.

Personal belongings such as books, jewellery, or letters hold memories of those who have passed on. Acting as captures, these objects retain the unique touch and spirit of the individual, helping us to remember their legacy.

Multidisciplinary artist Dahlia Osman created an installation of capsules, including her late father’s belongings, at an exhibition that also featured artworks created by community art-makers who responded deeply to questions on love, loss, regrets, and leaving well.

Renungan mata mencermin diri,
Ikhlasnya dari jantung ke hati.
Hulur tangan bisikan naluri,
Maaf zahir dan batin kembali.

This performance embodied stories from elders from the Malay-Muslim community. As we approach our last breath, this is a collective gesture to reflect on actions and inactions in our relationships.

Seniors are the epitome of wisdom. As such, we learn to make meaning of different life experiences and challenges of physical mobility in old age. Dance company, P7:1SMA (Prisma) engaged weekly with a group of elders from Montfort Care – GoodLife! Bedok which entailed the mutual sharing of stories about asking for forgiveness, letting go of regrets and accepting loss.

Central to respecting the processual nature of life, it was hoped that social change was possible through this performance. The time together with the community elders was a gift to reflect on our quality of life in this temporary world.

Can we reframe how we see the problems of old age? How do we “fix” what’s broken? How do we acknowledge the value and equal status of those who are the least welcome?

Artist Alecia Neo invited residents of Blk 7 Telok Blangah Crescent to share the importance of restoring dignity to the community. Over a few sessions, she learnt that some residents were seniors living in isolation or with mental illnesses. Many of whom were often “invisible” to others. Thus, they have a strong sense of wanting to reconnect with people. They also believe in the importance of human connections and relationships.

Over time, Alecia encouraged the seniors to uncover the many abilities and assets that they have – from being community organisers, great cooks, crafting, recycling and upcycling, collectors, teachers, and carers for their environment to bearing a wealth of knowledge about local history and culture.

This project is inspired by the Chinese characters 活动 : which means 活着要动 = “to live is to move around”. The under the void deck series brings together seniors in a collective effort to physically and mentally, to enhance and promote synergy, alertness and general well-being.

Using documentary footage of residents as a starting point and weaving in the images of a lifetime that were excavated from old photo albums, the media installed on site tell us how each senior has been differently dealing with the delicate issues of death and dying that are present in their daily lives.

1. LIFE – SCORE: An instructional exercise
Medium: Cushion, paper, rattan cane, water spray

2. WARM-UP ACTIVITY WITH A FRIEND

Medium: A paper poster with instructions

3. IN THE HOME SERIES: THE LIVING TABLES by Chiu Kim Ho and Miss Soo Yin Fung
Medium: Sound art, container of 2 soundscapes with a player and headphones. Each table contains a photo book and objects from the participants

4. THE UNDER THE VOID DECK SERIES
A live demonstration with 15 seniors who participated in sound, voice and body movement activities with the artist

Why do we take portraits? Do portraits present you as you are now, captured in the present for the present, or for the unknown future when you are not present? The project invited residents to have their portraits taken and share what they might use these for. Some might want these to be a passport photo. Others might eventually use them for their wake, obituary, or for the tablet of their columbarium niche.

Some might just want to gaze on themselves at a time when not many others take a glance at them. Some might culturally not be accustomed to taking portraits – but might use this as an opportunity to share how else they might use this, and also share why portraits are not common for them – and how else they remember loved ones, long-passed. Through this process of photo-taking, residents were invited to share these thoughts.

The video portraits were projected in their void deck – at the actual spaces that they use each day, and now with their expressions mapped onto the humble walls of their living spaces, to then see themselves in a different light.

The project also invited neighbours and visitors to be present, to gaze upon these portraits of their resident-friends, AND receive the gazes back, as the team reflected along with them.

This cooking series looks at food as a remembrance of a person’s life and asks people to select recipes they would like to be remembered by.

Not only have they selected their favoured recipes, they also show how to cook the dish.

The project encompassed four films and they are:

1. Junah’s Ikan Bakar & Pucuk Ubi Masak Lemak
A widow, Junah lives with her dependent son who was disabled from an accident 20 years ago. She learnt to cook from volunteering for the Muslim community and the mosque, raising funds and providing food for events.

2. Mas’ Laksa Johor

Mas migrated and lived in Johor for a good while but returned to live in Singapore 3 years ago. Her mother, a great cook, still lives in Johor and Mas calls her regularly for cooking advice.

3. Mr Tan’s Moringa Omelette, Moringa Fish Soup

The guerilla gardener of Telok Blangah, Kee Seng tends to his garden of vegetables and medicinal plants every day. He was a professional cook all through his life, from his first job at one of Singapore’s chilli crab restaurants to his last job at Marina Bay Sands.

4. Yip Hoy’s Chicken Curry
A triple bypass heart surgery 3 years ago has stopped Yip Hoy from working mainly as a dishwasher and also from regular cooking, except for her chicken curry, still a family favourite and a must-have on special occasions.

This site-specific installation featured portraits of and photographs made by Chong Pang residents who delved into the world of relationships and intimacy during their artmaking journey. They spoke about the process of ageing, living and dying, love and grief, wishes and regrets. Through posing for a studio photograph, they performed memories that they hold dear. Like murals, these portraits became part of the heartland’s void deck landscape.

Strategically placed texts invite the viewer to observe the interaction of the images with each other and their surroundings. With their cameras, they are looking and asking, “What does it mean to grow old?” The images that emerged are revealing in their humour, curiosity, and hope, as well as the shifting presence and silence of human interaction.

We hold blankets close to our body, to keep us warm and safe. Those that are painstakingly quilted and lovingly gifted within the family become intimate keepsakes. Ten cotton blankets with printed images and calligraphy text, some with embroidery were made and showcased for this artist-led project.

Artwork 1 – To Cherish and to Hold – For this first blanket series, personal images and text express what the participant artists hold dear of their life experience as a legacy for when they leave the world. Some blankets remember family and loved ones; some remember happy pastimes and favourite activities; and some are simple positive values about living life well.

Artwork 2 – Wind Blankets – In the second blanket series, the participant artists focused more directly on the end-of-life and how they have come to terms with death. They do this by imagining what they hope will be their last position when they die. The blankets carry these images: some are lying, some sitting, some praying, and all in their individual imagined desired worlds. Open skies, trees, flowers, and nature in general, are dominant themes. The wind blankets are hung out in the open to interact, come rain or shine, with the elements, as a reminder of the last journey in life returning symbolically to nature. Called wind blankets, their messages and wishes are hopefully blown around by the wind to be shared with all.

Overall, the artwork marries this unique funerary custom with the craft of quilt making which is often elaborate in the design and which can take months, sometimes years, to complete.The same group of participant art-makers created the blankets after spending time in a workshop contemplating the end-of-life and how to come to terms with death.