This research concerns the public art museums in Singapore (Singapore Art Museum, National Museum of Singapore and National Gallery Singapore) and their work in the visual arts in Singapore. The aim is to develop an understanding of the historical background (from 2004 to 2008) and recent developments (from 2009 to 2013) regarding the work of the public art museums in the visual arts in Singapore, and to investigate the expectations of the government and private sponsors, in reference to provision of sponsorship to the public art museums in Singapore.
In line with this, the research is guided by three research questions: What is the historical background to the public art museums’ work in the visual art in Singapore? What are the recent developments regarding the work of the public art museums in the visual arts in Singapore? What are the expectations of the government and private sponsors, in reference to provision of sponsorship to the public art museums in Singapore? For research questions one and two, data from the National Heritage Board annual reports from 2004 to 2013 was collected and analysed. For research question three, the data from in-depth semi-structured individual interviews with nine museum leaders was collected and analysed. The findings show that during the period from 2004 to 2008, the public art museums organised exhibitions and public programmes to reach out to the community to raise their awareness of heritage, culture and the visual arts in order to forge a sense of rootedness. During the more recent period from 2009 to 2013, the public art museums evolved in their strategies to cater to the artistic and aesthetic needs of the community through blockbuster exhibitions and stronger public programmes. For research question three, the major expectations of the government sponsor are national responsibility, agreement terms and communication and the major expectations of the private sponsors are extended exhibition programming, agreement terms and negotiation. Recommendations for the future work of public art museums are drawn from these findings.