In response to the increasing mental health issues faced by today's youth, National Gallery Singapore has developed a mental wellness programme for adolescents aged 13 and up, Strength Through Art (stART), a six-session resilience-building, art exposure programme focused on developing visual and emotional literacy. During the programme, participants are guided to identify their emotions and develop strategies to cope with negativity through discussing art and artmaking. However, despite its completeness, stART has limitations such as limited accessibility and scalability since it only provides in-person and offline activities.

This studio will explore solutions that can address these limitations and reach a larger number of users with emerging technologies (e.g. Generative AI, augmented reality, and haptic technologies) to achieve scalability and accessibility. We will explore possible technologies and methods that use artworks to build emotional literacy and mental wellness for youth who experience emotional and mental health challenges and guide them to some coping strategies incorporating art to improve their mental wellness.

Designing for Youth Mental Wellness: Strength Through Art

This studio delves into the critical challenge of youth mental wellness through the lens of human-centered design and creative technology.

In a unique partnership with the National Gallery Singapore, students will focus on scaling Strength Through Art (stART) — a proven resilience-building programme that uses art to foster visual and emotional literacy in adolescents. The core challenge will be to explore innovative ways to expand the programme's reach to a wider audience while preserving its profound impact and accessibility.

This studio is for students passionate about mental health, art, community engagement, and developing meaningful, tech-enabled solutions for real-world social issues.

Project partner:

• National Gallery Singapore

Project supervisor:

• Dr Kate Sangwon Lee (katelee@nus.edu.sg)

Studio timeslot in Semester 2 AY2025/2026:

• Thursday 1 pm to 4 pm