Abstract
Singapore, despite being a major global city, does not seem to have strong arts and culture development that match its economic growth. Its pragmatic approach in pursuing economic excellence seems to take precedence over its development for arts and culture that are deemed to be lavish to the basic needs for survival during its formative years. As the economy progresses, arts and culture are becoming increasingly important aspects of a complex and sophisticated economy. Being relatively new, the arts scene in Singapore requires government’s funding to seed its growth and cultivate the residents to appreciate arts. If arts’ contribution to the economy can be further quantified, this might encourage stronger support from the Singapore government. Most research on arts and economy are more theoretical, as the definition of arts is fuzzy and its direct impact on the economy is difficult to quantify. Hence, this research tries to study how arts can have positive socio-economic benefits using many tools, both quantitative and qualitative. The direct contribution of arts to the economy, in this study, is examined by researching if arts places can improve property’s prices. Extensive data collection with adjustments on other cofounding variables such as inflation and location are tested using both single and multivariable regressions. Geographic visualization, such as QGIS, is also adopted to illustrate the relationships between arts places and property prices. Lastly, a survey is conducted on the residents, with well-distributed demographics, to understand public opinions on arts and arts places, as well as their levels of participation. This will help to understand the drivers for the different levels of participation and their perception of arts or arts places on their well-being. This research seeks to have a comprehensive understanding on how arts place can bring socio-economic benefits to Singapore and its residents