The National Arts Council (NAC) commemorates 40 years of giving to Singapore’s arts with the Patron of the Arts Awards (POAA) 2023. This year’s edition honours more than 400 patrons comprising a total of 313 individuals and 91 organisations. Collectively they contributed over $45 million in 2022 towards advancing our local arts ecosystem. The patrons’ contributions were recognised at the awards ceremony held on 12 September 2023 at Equarius Hotel, officiated by Mr Edwin Tong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth & Second Minister for Law. 

The past year saw an upward trend in arts giving, with a 29% increase of total contributions by patrons since 2020, the highest in three years. There was also an increase of 25% in the number of awardees since 2021, reaching an all-time high since the inception of POAA in 1983.

This year also marks the introduction of the inaugural Honorary Patron of the Arts Awards. This award recognises patrons for their long-term commitment in giving to the arts and is given to patrons who have received the Distinguished Patron of the Arts Award at least 20 times. 

UOB and SPH Media are the recipients of the inaugural Honorary Patron of the Arts Award. They have supported the holistic development of our local arts landscape by providing artists with more avenues to create quality and accessible arts initiatives, to local and international audiences. Examples of such initiatives include UOB’s metaverse platform, SkyArtverse, which provides our artists with a platform to showcase their works to a wider audience, while enhancing accessibility to the arts. UOB also contributed to The Business Times Budding Artists Fund, managed by The Rice Company Limited, which provides arts education to financially disadvantaged children and youth. SPH Media has supported the National Gallery Singapore in their curatorial research, assisted the Esplanade with in-kind sponsorship for their programmes such as Home Grooves and Lights On, and provided Jazz Association (Singapore) and The Theatre Practice Ltd with media and publicity support. 

Founding awardees of POAA, ExxonMobil and Singapore International Airlines (SIA), have also continued to give to the arts over the years, whether it is through supporting concerts in parks and school campuses, or flying artists around the world to facilitate artistic exchange and presentations. Their contributions were honoured at POAA 2023 with the Friends of the Arts Awards.

Singapore’s arts sector has also benefited from an influx of first-time patrons, which has increased by 45% since 2021. New awardees provided diverse support to elevate the arts scene, such as The Liu Kuo-Sung Foundation, which donated 20 artworks by Chinese artist Liu Kuo-Sung to National Gallery Singapore. For example, in the visual arts space, Velox Digital Singapore Pte Ltd, Friend of the Arts Award recipient, provided Gojek ride vouchers for visitors to the Singapore Biennale. This is a testament to the increased capability of arts institutions and companies in fundraising, assuring tangible long-term impact on the arts and signalling a maturing arts philanthropy landscape.

Patrons continue to showcase the versatility of arts philanthropy, from cash donations to contribution of skills, space and other forms of giving-in-kind. In the past year, cash donations were contributed by a diversity of corporate profiles, from SMEs to MNCs, as well as family offices. At POAA 2023, Pacific Eagle Group Pte Ltd and Unisource SG Family Office Pte Ltd were recognised as Friends of the Arts for their cash donations to Singapore Symphonia Company Limited and Ding Yi Music Company respectively.

Other forms of giving, such as in-kind donations, valued at $19.3 million, have tripled over the past year. For example, Patron of the Arts Award recipient JPL Consultants provided their expertise in engineering services and supported Singapore Art Museum (SAM) in the construction of infrastructure for the Singapore Biennale 2022. Frasers Hospitality was recognised as a Friend of the Arts by providing accommodations to Wild Rice for international performers and creative personnel of the play Animal Farm in 2022. 

Giving back to communities lies at the heart of arts philanthropy. Patrons leveraged the arts to empower persons with disabilities and vulnerable groups, and to inspire a more inclusive society by finding greater opportunities for conversations and connections among diverse audiences. ION Orchard, a Patron of the Arts Award recipient, helped raise awareness on breast cancer by supporting Breast Cancer Foundation’s arts exhibition Ahead of Time. 

The steadfast commitment of donors to arts education helped to nurture the growth of young artistic talents in Singapore. Among these notable contributions is the Tan Chay Bing Education Fund, a Patron of the Arts Award recipient, which supported new students at LASALLE College of the Arts with the Tan Chay Bing Scholarship and Bursary, providing them with the means to pursue higher education in the arts. Others include Distinguished Patron of the Arts recipient The Ngee Ann Kongsi, who has been supporting the extension of LASALLE’s campus, Andreas Toh, whose Contemporary Asian Art Programme supported teaching and research in the field of modern or contemporary Asian Art, and Patron of the Arts Tan Kah Tee funded the purchase of grand pianos for arts groups at the National University of Singapore Centre for the Arts.

Over the past 40 years, Singapore’s strong belief in the arts is demonstrated through the growing pool of patrons’ and their unwavering support in the form of donations and in-kind sponsorships. The rise in contributions is aligned with the NAC Arts Philanthropy Corporate Giving Research 2022, which found that 1 in 3 corporations are now actively looking to give to the arts. 

In partnership with the private sector, NAC’s Sustain the Arts (stART) Fund has given small arts organisations a boost in capability development, helping beneficiaries futureproof themselves. For example, Art Photography Centre (DECK) received support from the stART Fund, which allowed them to achieve IPC status and fundraise more effectively as a charity. Distinguished Patron of the Arts, Dr Cheryl Loh, is one of the patrons who have supported DECK, through their Building Fund.

Since its inception in 2020, the stART Fund has disbursed over $1 million across 31 arts organisations, and will continue to do so with the support of new major donors, such as Mr Tsai Eng-Rung. Support for the sector is further encouraged by the recent top up of the Cultural Matching Fund (CMF) by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY). The consistent support by individuals and corporations has helped nurture a thriving arts community, backing passionate artists, talented arts groups and organisations to create an even more vibrant cultural landscape. 

The launch of Our SG Arts Plan (2023 – 2027) marks a new milestone for Singapore’s arts, as NAC invites the public, artists and stakeholders to join the making of an even more inclusive, vibrant arts scene that is filled with opportunity. 

With partnerships underpinning our efforts for the next five years, strong support from arts patrons will continue to be important to our arts community in artistic pursuits that showcase Singapore as a distinctive city of the arts. Mr Low Eng Teong, Chief Executive Officer of NAC, said, “Singapore’s arts have inspired and uplifted our communities across generations, with arts giving enabling the growth of the sector over the past 40 years. We hope for more individuals and corporations to come forward, so that we can harness the resources of the public, people and private sectors in the making of a strong and sustainable arts ecosystem for all to enjoy.”

POAA 2023 recognises contributions made between 1 January and 31 December 2022 and is a celebration of our arts patrons. Come and join the making of a vibrant art ecosystem here