The Singapore Prize is an biennial award presented to individuals and organizations for outstanding artistic contributions. It serves as recognition by the government of Singapore while simultaneously helping to celebrate arts and culture within Singapore.
The prizes are presented by the National Arts Council of Singapore with sponsorship provided by private individuals. Prize recipients are chosen by an impartial committee comprising representatives from public, private and voluntary sectors; prizes are then officially presented by President of Singapore in an elaborate ceremony to recognize Singaporeans for their achievements and encourage those pursuing artistic endeavours.
At an elegant Awards Ceremony hosted by actor Sterling K. Brown and actress Hannah Waddingham at Mediacorp Campus theatre in Singapore, 2023 winners of the Earthshot Prize were unveiled during a star-studded Awards Ceremony. A night of celebration and innovation, it included performances by bands One Republic, Bastille, Bebe Rexha as well as singer Bebe Rexha – as part of its sustainability theme, presenters wore sustainable attire such as actor William wearing a 10-year-old dark green suit from fashion house Alexander McQueen while singer/songwriter Yen wore a blue dress from local label The Fifth Collection; attendees walked a “green carpet,” featuring recycled or biodegradable materials scattered about.
Dr Alan HJ Chan was a long-standing supporter of SIFAS. This prize was established with his donation and honors an exceptional book on Singapore art and cultural history written by an individual from either Singapore or abroad, receiving a cash award of S$30,000.
The NUS Singapore History Prize was established to commemorate Singapore’s 50th anniversary of independence. As the inaugural book prize in English that specifically covers national histories, this prize awards works written about Singapore by either non-fiction or fiction works published between 2014 and 2017 that seek to raise awareness of Singaporean successes through history. A five-member Jury Panel led by Kishore Mahbubani from NUS Asia Research Institute awards it, with works that highlight Singapore history making up part of their consideration. It welcomes both non-fiction as well as fiction works that explore Singaporean histories in English in order to create greater national understanding among citizens as a collective memory of unique success stories within their history – thus helping increase collective memory within society itself!
Prize money comes from contributions by various stakeholders such as the government of Singapore, Nanyang Girls’ High School and Hwa Chong Institute. The next draw will take place on July 17 and has an expected prize pool of $10 million; previous draws had prize pools of $1.2 million and $5.8 million, but did not produce a winning ticket.