Sovereign Art Foundation

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The Sovereign Art Foundation (SAF) is a non-profit organisation established in 2003 by Howard Bilton, a tax lawyer and today's chairman of the Sovereign Group.

Originally a charity, the SAF works towards raising money to help disadvantaged children in Asia and using the arts as a form of rehabilitation, education and therapy. In 2013, the SAF set up the Make It Better project^[1] (MIB) that allows for weekly art therapy workshops to take place across Hong Kong and Asia, mostly focusing on under-privileged families' children.^[1]

In 2003, Howard Bilton transformed his art-collecting hobby into what is now Asia's largest art prize: The Sovereign Asian Art Prize.^[2] This prize, hosted annually in Hong Kong, is a visual arts competition among 30 finalists whose work is then auctioned to raise funds for the MIB project and other charities. The prize initially focused on artists working in the medium of painting only but have since expanded to include other 2D media, including photography, drawing, and print, as well as 3D sculptures.

The Sovereign Art Foundation invites a network of experts from either Europe, Asia or Africa to nominate artists to participate in the prizes. During the exhibition the final judging is performed live and the winner of the US$30,000 first prize is announced and an additional US$1,000 is given to the artist with the public vote for best work. At the culmination of the exhibition there is a charity gala auction where the finalists' works, excluding the first prize winner, are auctioned, with half the proceeds going to the foundation and the other half going back to the artist.

Since 2007, the SAF have expanded their work towards Europe with The Sovereign European Art Prize (held in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011), the Middle East with The Sovereign Middle East and North Africa Art Prize in 2016 and the rest of Africa with The 2011 African Art Prize.

In addition, Sovereign Art Foundation Students Art Prizes are awarded in a number of countries including Hong Kong, Bahrain, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Malta, Mauritius, Portugal and Singapore.^[3]