Della Butcher

Della Butcher (24 April 192211 January 1993) was an art gallery owner and an avid patron of Singapore art, noted for her lifetime of work supporting Singaporean artists and making it an international name.

Biography Born and raised in London, Della studied art at London College of Art (now Royal College of Art). After her graduation from college in 1939, she joined a fashion house as a designer, but did not stay with the house for long as she had disagreements with work ethics found with the management. She dabbled in auto racing, and joined the British Police Division in Reigate, Surrey at the outbreak of World War II, becoming the first woman constable in the history of that county.

When the war ended, Della took on various jobs such as a telephone operator, before landing herself with a job as a stewardess on the Hunting Clan Airlines. Being a wanderlust by nature, she was enthralled with flying to various parts of Europe and Africa and seeing different cultures and places. She was especially fond of the life and culture of Africa.

In 1953, Della took an office job as a manager for Skyways Aircraft Corporation in Cyprus,

Jesselton was a logging town, with a thriving community of white expatriate loggers and local Iban and Kenyah tribespeople interacting. Often these tribespeople would emerge from the jungles with their traditional handicrafts to sell for money, and to buy tobacco and colored calico. Della saw the opportunity to sell Iban and Kenyah crafts and jewellery by exporting these traditional wares to Singapore. This gallery was set up with help from the then-Minister for Culture Jek Yuen Thong, Minister for Finance Goh Keng Swee, the Chairman of National Theatre Trust Dr. Goh Poh Seng, the High Commissioner of Malaysia Dr. Lien Ying Chow and the US Ambassador to Singapore, Mr. Francis J. Galbraith.

The new gallery sold both Singapore art, and tribal handicrafts. When Constance migrated to Australia, Della later renamed her gallery The Gallery of Fine Art. Now as a sole proprietor, running the gallery became more challenging for her, and had to take on other freelance jobs like organizing film documentary sessions for multinational corporations, and designing and making 33 pairs of uniforms for Saber Air Private Limited within 3 weeks. As her business grew in the late-1970s, Della relocated The Gallery to the Orchard Towers, where she began her headway to bring Singapore art to the rest of the world.

In 1977, Della found her first opportunity to showcase 22 Singaporean artworks to showcase at the Royal Overseas Art Exhibition in London, with transportation costs sponsored by the Singapore Airlines, and with the help of the Art Society of Brussels, a major 5-gallery art exhibition in Belgium. In January 1979, she clinched another sponsorship from the Airlines to put up a series of art exhibitions featuring 150 paintings by 8 Singaporean artists – Ang Ah Tee, Nai Swee Leng, Ong Kim Seng, Tang Juey Lee, Tay Bak Koi, Wan Soon Kam, and sibling artists Henry and Karen Hoisington – in the Middle Eastern cities of Bahrain, Dubai and Kuwait. The exhibition tour began in the city of Bahrain on 9 January 1979, and lasted for 5 days at each city.

In 1982, The Gallery of Fine Art opened a new branch at the newly opened Changi Airport. It was claimed as the world's first art gallery to be found in an airport. The Gallery was unique as it had no walls, and the paintings were displayed on mobile revolving screens. In the study of the Singapore art culture between 2 May and 8 May 1980, Duncan noted Della's uniqueness in making use of Mandarin Hotel's premises to launch her ambitious series of exhibitions, in contrast to peer art galleries which normally had art exhibitions within their own premises. In fact, this uniqueness went one step further in the 1986 Arts Festival fringe art effort held between 31 May and 15 June. During the Festival Della showcased an exhibition of orchid paintings by Tang Juey Lee at the Hilton Hotel Music Room. At the same time, an exhibition of Choy Moo Kheong's paintings was advised to, and curated at the rival Low Pine Gallery in Ming Court Hotel, also as part of the Festival programme. Though both Tang and Choy were represented by Della's gallery, she had no qualms to Choy exhibiting with a competitor, and even providing aid to setting up the exhibition at the location. This not only demonstrated flexibility in running her arts business, it also showed her generosity to work with, and share with her peers.

Tang And Choy's exhibition was the last show she had organized with the Gallery of Fine Arts. With her poor health she ended the gallery business at the end of the Arts Festival in 1986. She returned to business again in 1988 with a new Della Butcher Gallery located in Cuppage Terrace.

Della's hands-on approach in running her art gallery and her devotion to the artists she represents, continued to be her formula for success. With her artistic experience and appreciation of the paintings' unique personalities she would personally deliver and hang the paintings for her clients, to bring out the best for her clients' homes.

The Mother of Singapore Artists In all the 24 years Della's big heart was open to every Singaporean artist she had met and her larger-than-life personality was ready to reach out to more – artists or non-artists alike. Stephens remembered her penchant for picking up strays and let them stay in her house. And true enough, you would often find an eclectic mix of people living in her home on No. 1 Preston Road. Whenever foreign artists visit Singapore, she would also gladly provide them with accommodation at her place.

By 1992 Della had mounted more than 300 exhibitions involving 100 artists in Singapore and abroad. As a tribute to her, 24 Singaporean artists who had all worked with her at some stage in their careers, held The Mother of the Artists exhibition in honour of her 70th birthday on 24 April 1992. It was held at the Riverwalk Galleria Exhibition Hall, and a 60 cm by 72 cm portrait of Della painted by Beijing artist Li GuiHua, was presented at the opening of the exhibition.

Besides championing for the arts, her friends remember her for her sense of righteousness, and her willingness to fight for it. Mrs Ros Lovell, owner of lifestyle shop Cho Lon in Holland village and Della's neighbour remembered that she once spent several days chained to a tree, in order to protest and save it from being cut down. Friends took meals to her in support of her cause, and eventually saved the tree.

Della Butcher died in her sleep on Monday morning at her home in 1 Preston Road.

Della Butcher Award In recognition of her lifetime commitment to championing for Singaporean art, Professor Tommy Koh had made a formal request to the Rotary Club of Orchard, Singapore to create an award and to be given to the best graduate painter from Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts in her honour. This request was made on the formal installation ceremony of the club's third President, Professor Val Winslow on 15 June 1993. The trophy was designed by Temasek Polytechnic, with a S$2,000 prize money sponsored by MasterCard.

The Club invited Lasalle to select five outstanding students with consistently high performances as nominees for the award, and presented to the best art student with the first Della Butcher Award at a closed-door ceremony in 1994. In 1995, this Award opened its doors to 5 other nominated students from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). But unlike the inaugural Award, all 10 nominees from the academy and Lasalle were recognized for their unique artistic expression. The fourth President of the Rotary Club Orchard Vijay Krishnan believed that recognizing a wide spectrum of artistic expression would be ideal in honouring Della's spirit and her open-ness to supporting all forms of Singaporean art in her lifetime. In 1996, the Award continued to expand its recognition of art forms, and presented to a graduating art student from the National Institute of Education.

In November 1995, Friends of Della Butcher and the Club held an exhibition-cum-auction of Della's personal trove of art prints and 75 paintings. These works of art were by artist-friends like Ong Kim Seng, Tay Bak Koi, Nai Swee Leng, Prabhakara Jimmy Quek and Ang Ah Tee, and bought with Della's own pocket as her support for these artists in their struggling years. The total collection valued at S$87,000, was displayed and auctioned at the Regent Hotel. After the three-day event all the money raised was used to fund the Della Butcher Foundation, ensuring the Della Butcher Award can continue to be awarded to promising young artists. At the same time, the Foundation had intentions to give out art scholarships for promising young artists in Singapore in the future.