BW Monastery held its inaugural art competition on 16 Jul 2017 at the Monastery's new premise in Woodlands. This was the first time the Monastery was open to the public after obtaining its TOP permit. 

The themes of the art competition centered on two areas – to promote racial harmony and provide a platform for artistic talents to shine through still-life drawings. The competition was split into three categories targeting different age groups. The youngest eligible age was 4 years old and the oldest at 12 years old.

The overall participant’s turnout rate was very positive. There were more than 170 participants in total, completely filling up all corners of the multi-purpose hall within the Monastery.

As the children waited for the results to be announced, they were kept entertained by a magic show. They also visited the snack bar that was set up for the event, had fun creating crafts from balloons or got themselves plastered with temporary floral tattoos from the arts station.

Guest-of-honour, Mr Vikram Nair, Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC mentioned that there is a large community of Buddhists living in the area where the monastery is situated. With the addition of BW Monastery, this will serve the needs of the community further. As for holding an art competition, besides serving its primary aim, the event is also an avenue to deepen family ties as parents spend meaningful time with their children. Into the future, Mr Nair commented that having more of such events would contribute to strengthening the community bonds further. Other activities like the sharing of Buddhism would also contribute to enhancing deeper understanding of different religions across the various races and nationalities. Mr Nair attended the event together with his wife and daughter. Both of them were invited to present a total of 39 prizes to the winners of the art competition. They were also chaperoned around by members of the organizing committee and given a tour and detailed explanation of the spanking new Monastery grounds and its various facilities. 

While the competition was taking place, some participants also shared their thoughts and comments about the event. Ms Claudia, a doctor from Germany was visiting friends in Singapore. Her friend who was from BW Monastery shared with her about this competition. She then decided to enroll her daughter in the event. She felt that BW Monastery was different as there was a sense of openness about the whole approach which the monastery undertook the event.

Another participant’s father, Mr Xu said that his son had been taking art lessons for sometime already. He came to know about this event through his son’s art teacher who advised that this was a good opportunity to learn differently. His son could get exposure to drawing and painting under a different environment from the usual. He felt that this was a very meaningful event and thanked the organizers for organising the event. 

As the morning came to an end, the winning art pieces were put up along one part of the inner walls of the hall so that all participants could view the creative artworks. These would continue to be available for view in the monastery for a period of time, especially during the Monastery's grand-opening ceremony week which was coming up in August.