The Patron of the Arts Awards ceremony and dinner honoured a total of 302 awardees that gave to the arts in 2016. Held at the Conrad Centennial this evening, Minister for Culture, Community & Youth, Ms Grace Fu, was present at the ceremony to confer awards to a total of 116 organisations and 186 individuals at the annual event organised by the National Arts Council (NAC).

A total of $64.7 million in contributions from arts patrons were celebrated this evening, comprising $44.1 million in cash and $20.6 million in-kind to boost Singapore’s arts scene. Besides cash contributions, corporate and individual donors were also honoured, for the first time, for providing artwork loans and donations to arts organisations to enable education and facilitation of arts events. 2016 also saw the largest amount of in-kind contributions.

Compared to the year before where the arts sector saw an exceptional record of contributions, attributed to Singapore’s Jubilee Year and increased awareness of the CMF, contributions to the arts in 2016 were expectedly lower (compared to $136.1 million worth of donations in 2015). However, the total number of recipients have been steadily increasing since 2014 by almost 34% with 226 awardees in 2015 and 302 awardees this year.

This year, we also saw more individuals heeding the call for greater private investment to the arts scene. We recognised a more than two-fold increase in individual contributions at $19.4 million compared to $8.2 million last year. This year’s Awards also feted first-time Distinguished Patron of the Arts (DPOA) recipient, Mr Alexander Tedja, Chairman of Pakuwon Group.

Instituted in 1983, the Patron of the Arts Awards aim to celebrate the generous contributions of arts patrons who leave their mark on Singapore’s local arts scene in their own way. The 2017 Awards is the 34th edition and recognises contributions made between 1 January and 31 December 2016.