Ocean Futures Youth Forum

What does it mean to care for the ocean today—and who is responsible for shaping its future?

In conjunction with Youth Day, Ocean Futures Youth Forum brings together a new generation of advocates, educators, and innovators to reimagine our relationship with the ocean. This forum builds on the themes explored in Into the Ocean: Journey Beneath, extending the conversation to consider how young voices can be active contributors to marine sustainability by spotlighting forms of youth advocacy that shift beyond awareness to agency.

Through a dynamic mix of talks and open dialogue, Ocean Futures foregrounds how youth-led initiatives are responding to urgent challenges facing marine ecosystems, from biodiversity loss to marine pollution. Across presentations, the forum moves between multidisciplinary approaches of engineering technology, wildlife conservation and urban planning to examine alternative methods of care and advocacy. Situated in Singapore and connected to wider regional contexts, Ocean Futures highlights how local action can resonate at a global scale, and how young voices can engender active change.

As part of ArtScience Museum’s Future Voices strand, this forum positions young people as co-authors of the museum’s evolving practice. It invites participants to engage with new frameworks of stewardship, collaboration and responsibility, while imagining what more resilient, ocean-conscious futures might look like.

Ocean Futures features youth advocates and community leaders from Kaia Initiative, LepakInSG, NTU Mecatron, NUS Toddycats! and Our Singapore Reefs, each bringing distinct perspectives on environmental action and engagement. Collectively, these voices offer ideas and pathways that inspire us to consider how we as individuals might take part in shaping the future of our blue planet.

A note on audience:

While the forum is anchored in youth perspectives, it remains intentionally open to participants of all ages. Environmental advocacy is a shared, intergenerational effort, and Ocean Futures Youth Forum welcomes both emerging changemakers and those supporting youth-led initiatives to take part in the dialogue.