17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Billionaire's daughter launches art foundation in Singapore
Published: 7:15am, 18 Feb 2025
In January 2025 collectors, curators and artists crowded into the sleek basement of Belinda Tanoto's Singapore home. The younger daughter of Indonesian billionaire Sukanto Tanoto was hosting an intimate soirée to coincide with the city state's annual art week.
The sprawling, white-cube space was filled with monumental sculptures and large works by major Asian artists such as South Korean Mire Lee and Malaysian fibre artist Anne Samat.
While this was a private party for insiders, Tanoto also hosted a symposium open to the public earlier that day to mark the launch of the Tanoto Art Foundation (TAF), a Singapore-based non-profit organisation devoted to contemporary art in Southeast Asia.
Both events were among the highlights of Singapore's art week, and TAF is garnering attention as one of the first private foundations of its kind in the region. 'Art is about bridging cultures and building communities. So we feel like it's really important to contribute to a thriving and vibrant art ecosystem,' says Belinda Tanoto , trustee of the TAF.
'We saw that there were ways that a private institution that is more nimble, agile and flexible can play a part.'
