Arts education has received generous financial boosts recently. The Ngee Ann Kongsi pledged $50 million to help Lasalle College of the Arts build a new 12-storey block at its McNally Street campus. News of the donation came on the heels of another financial gift last month. The Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI) received $1 million from real estate company OUE's executive chairman Stephen Riady, which along with dollar-for-dollar matching from the Government's Cultural Matching Fund, means the performing arts school will have $2 million to fund its training programmes. Such donations are an encouraging sign of the broadening nature of arts appreciation in Singapore. Traditionally, the arts have been a poorer cousin in the donation stakes as patrons prefer more practical causes such as education, healthcare and the elderly.

That donors are starting to give more generously to build software for the arts industry is a welcome development, especially as the resources are evidently much needed. Lasalle's McNally campus, for example, was meant for 1,850 students, but the school population currently numbers about 2,700. The ITI, a much more specialised institution, has trained 64 graduates from 17 countries since 2000, including Golden Horse-nominated actress Yeo Yann Yann.