PROGRAMMES /

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ILHAM Art Show 2025

 

November 2025

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Artist Walkthrough
with Ang Xia Yi, Anwar, Gan Chin Lee, Tiga Tawai and Umar Sharif

8 Nov 2025, 11:00am

Join us as we walk through the ILHAM Art Show exhibition with five participating artists.

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Talk & Staged Readings: Artist Lee Joo For

8 Nov 2025, 3:00pm – 5:30pm

Visual artist Lee Joo For was one of the most prolific playwrights in the 1960s writing over 30 plays with such eclectic titles as The Campus is Not a Baby Land, Nero Has Arisen in Malaysia, When the Sun Sets in the Shade of the Jambu Tree. Today he is best known as a boundary-pushing visual artist but in the 60s he was part of the theatre movement, writing plays, designing brochures, creating sets alongside Syed Ahmad Jamal. 

Adele Tan, Senior Curator at National Gallery Singapore, will share the work and life of the fascinating and eccentric Lee Joo For and talk about his visual and theatrical legacy. There will be a staged reading of some of his absurdist theatre after the talk.

In collaboration with the Instant Cafe Theatre as part of their month-long research & performance festival What The Elders Left Us.

 

December 2025

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Artist Walkthrough
with Afiza Abubakar, Arikwibowo Amril, Emran Beams Shaqif, Dr. Kendy Mitot and Kim Ng
moderated by Ellen Lee

6 Dec 2025, 11:00am

Join us as we walk through the ILHAM Art Show exhibition with five participating artists.

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Performance & Talk: Teenagers Eating Ice Cream Cones

6 Dec 2025, 3:00pm

Join us as a group of Malaysian teenagers perform Molly Haslund’s Teenagers Eating Ice Cream Cones which gathers young people at the entrance of an art museum, silently connecting through gestures, movements, and fleeting glances. Their shared act of eating ice cream reveals how easily bonds form-and how inclusion and exclusion unfold in social encounters. This will be followed by a talk with the artist Molly Haslund.

Ice cream provided by Sōfte.

 

February 2026

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Artist Walkthrough
with Eiffel Chong, Joshua Kane Gomes, Kimberley Boudville and Roopesh Sitharan
moderated by Ong Kar Jin

28 Feb 2026, 11:00am

Join us as we walk through the ILHAM Art Show exhibition with four participating artists.

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Good Grief

28 Feb 2026, 3:00pm

How do we make sense of grief? How do we process loss? How do we stand with it? Many of the artists currently showing their work at ILHAM Gallery are processing grief — familial, environmental, national. In Good Grief, performing artists share their pieces about loss and absence.

Featuring Jo Kukathas, Kuah Jenhan and others.

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.

 

March 2026

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Film Screenings & Panel Discussion

7 Mar 2026, 3:00pm

We will be screening two documentaries. The first documentary is directed and filmed by Albert Bansa in 2024 about the Land Rights activism and Ancestral Land Custodianship of William Aran Tinggang, Long Moh Kenyah Lepu Tau Community building up to the creation of the Nawan Nature Discovery Centre, Long Moh, Ulu Baram.
(Screening time: 21 minutes)

We will also be screening a short documentary produced and sponsored by GREENPEACE MALAYSIA in 2025. This film is a short travel log of TIGA TAWAI Collective by Green Peace Malaysia during our collaboration travels to Long Moh, Ulu Baram.
(Screening time: 10 minutes)

The screenings will be followed by a panel discussion with William Aran Tinggang of Nawan Nature Discovery Centre (NNDC), Heng Kiah Chun of Green Peace Malaysia, Albert Bansa of TIGA TAWAI Collective, and Naeem bin Mohd Nor a.k.a Laing Ngau of TIGA TAWAI Collective.

 

ILHAM Kids Programmes

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Creating conversations on death, grieving and loss with children using children’s picture books and art

1 Mar 2026, 2:00pm – 4:00pm

Good picture books and art can often simplify complex topics for children, helping them to explore key ideas, related issues and different perspectives in ways that make sense to their curious but still maturing minds. However, sometimes we too need a little help to find the right books and artwork to support them.

Come join this session hosted by Li-Hsian, one half of ILHAM’s Art Tour Mums. Li-Hsian will gently walk young participants through the topic of death, grieving and loss (themes also explored in ILHAM Gallery's latest exhibition, ILHAM Art Show 2025) using thoughtful children’s picture books that have been carefully selected at this special book reading session.

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Drawing With a Biologist: A Workshop on Biological Illustration

8 Mar 2026, 2:00pm – 4:00pm

Come DRAW WITH A BIOLOGIST at our special Workshop on Biological Illustration!

Art and drawing are also vital to the study of science. Many great scientists are amazing artists. Names like Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Einstein, Anna Atkins, and children’s book illustrator Beatrix Potter spring to mind. There are many more.

Come learn about biology differently, through the medium of drawing. This unique workshop is inspired by the artworks related to the natural world currently being exhibited as part of ILHAM Art Show 2025.

This special session with biologist Dr. Thary Gazi Goh, founder of Urban Biodiversity Initiative, introduces the history of scientific illustration and shows how it developed with the science of biology.

Participants will also draw along with Dr. Thary using a specimen showcase, and learn about the techniques and tools used by scientific illustrators.

Fee is RM120 per adult or child 12 years and older. One child aged 9 to 11 can attend for free with a paying parent or guardian. RM50 for the second accompanying child.

To register, please email ilhamgallerykids@gmail.com with your / your child’s (12 years and above) full name, email and mobile number, and the names and ages of accompanying children under 12 years, if any. 

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Ekphrasis Workshop: Creative Writing Inspired by Art

15 Mar 2026, 2:00pm – 4:00pm

Poetry-lovers might be familiar with John Keats’ “Ode on A Grecian Urn” or W.H. Auden’s “Musée Des Beaux Arts”, two of the most well-known poems in the English language. Did you also know that they are ekphrastic poems?

Ekphrasis, a literary or artistic term, refers to a technique in which one artist creates a work or art that engages with and responds to the work of another. Specifically, it is a verbal response to the visual arts (such as paintings, drawings and sculpture). 

Ekphrastic poetry therefore refers to poems which are inspired by a piece of visual art. The poet sees a painting that touches her or him and is moved to write a poem out of that experience. The poem can simply be a description of the painting but it can also describe the thoughts and emotions that arise in the poet as a result of looking at the painting.

Learn more about ekphrastic work, look at selected pieces currently being exhibited at ILHAM Art Show 2025, and then write your own ekphrastic poem in this special workshop facilitated by poet and experienced tutor in literature and creative writing, Alina Rastam. 

Fee is RM100 per adult or child above 12 years of age.

To register, please email ilhamgallerykids@gmail.com with your full name, email and mobile number.

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Art Discovery Tours

Ever wanted to take your child to an art gallery but didn’t know where or how to start?

Come awaken your child’s sense of wonder, as well as your own by signing up for our popular Ilham Kids’ Art Discovery Tours that are kickstarting again in March 2026 in conjunction with the latest show: ILHAM Art Show 2025 that will be exhibiting until 5 April 2026.

More than just another art class, this gentle first encounter with fine art focuses on cultivating art appreciation and creativity in children within the context of current exhibitions at ILHAM Gallery. Perfect for locals and visitors looking to connect with contemporary Malaysian art together with their kids, our play date styled tour is designed to give 7 to 12 year olds a chance to engage with the Malaysian and larger regional art scene, interpret ideas, and even create their own artworks in a facilitated environment.

To register, please drop us an email at ilhamgallerykids@gmail.com with your child’s name and age. Fee is RM65 per child (must be accompanied by a parent) or RM60 per child if coming with a sibling. The minimum number for each tour to proceed is 10 children and each tour limited to a maximum of 14 children per tour. This fee includes the tour of the current show, discussions on key selected artworks as well as a related art making activity at the end.

The public tour dates are as follows:
1. Sunday, 1 Mar 2026, 10:30am – 1:00pm
2.⁠ ⁠⁠Sunday, 8 Mar 2026, 10:30am – 1:00pm
3.⁠ ⁠⁠Sunday, 15 Mar 2026, 10:30am – 1:00pm
4.⁠ ⁠⁠Wednesday, 25 Mar 2026, 10:30am – 1:00pm
5.⁠ ⁠⁠Wednesday, 25 Mar 2026 2:30pm – 5:00pm 
6.⁠ ⁠⁠Friday, 27 Mar 2026, 2:00pm – 4:30pm 
7.⁠ ⁠⁠Wednesday, 1 Apr 2026, 10:30am – 1:00pm 
8.⁠ ⁠⁠Wednesday, 1 Apr 2026, 2:30pm – 4:30pm 
9.⁠ ⁠⁠Friday, 3 Apr 2026, 2:00pm – 4:30pm 

School group tour dates are also available for reservation, please enquire at the same email ilhamgallerykids@gmail.com.