Far East Organization founder Ng Teng Fong’s family made a $20 million donation to National Gallery Singapore in Ng’s name to help support the arts. It is the latest large donation from corporate partners to the upcoming gallery, showing a willingness from large businesses to help boost the nation’s artistic image. Once the gallery opens, it will act as the host to the largest number of masterpieces from the Southeast Asian region.
In the Ng family’s case, a roof garden exhibit space will be named for the Far East Organization founder. The space will be dedicated to outdoor artwork. The first exhibition will be created by Danh Vo, an artist born in Vietnam. His body of work explores societal and political themes from the viewpoint of his personal experience. Vo is just the first of what will be many artists leading the exhibition space. Future artists will help the works chosen for the space reflect and relate to the rest of the masterpieces on display throughout the gallery.
The roof garden is an important exhibition space because of the new context being outdoors, set against nature, being brought to art, said National Gallery Singapore’s chief executive, Chong Siak Ching. In this vein, the gallery hopes to inspire and excite more visitors to the space by presenting art outside instead of in a traditional indoor gallery space. This challenges viewers’ imaginations and preconceptions about what art should be and where it should be seen.
The roof garden came about by National Gallery Singapore staff’s efforts to preserve the outer façade of the building that will house the art. The building used to be the nation’s Supreme Court and City Hall. The roof garden encompasses several thousand square feet and features a green wall with the Civic District in the background. It will surely be a popular space with visitors of all ages.
Besides enabling exciting and fresh art exhibits in the roof garden gallery space, the Ng family’s donation will also help to fund research and other exhibition efforts throughout the entire National Gallery Singapore — though the main focus will be on the outdoor art presented in the roof garden.
With the November opening of National Gallery Singapore, there is no better time than to start learning about art and immersing yourself in the creative world. Think about enrolling in an art class today via SGArtClass.com, the leading website for bringing art students and art teachers together. All art classes can be tailored to students’ interests, so you can even pursue outdoor art and what it entails for artwork to interact and be viewed outside, in changing weather and seasons, and set to a background of flora and fauna.
For more information about the donation to National Gallery Singapore, go to http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/ng-teng-fongs-family-donates-20-million-to-national-gallery-singapore.