Patrick Corrigan (businessman)

Early life

Corrigan was born at Hangkow (now Hankou, part of the city of Wuhan), central China, to British parents Leonard and Amelie (née Wolnizer) Corrigan. Leonard Corrigan worked for the shipping conglomerate Jardine Matheson, one of the original Hong Kong trading houses or Hongs.

In 1935 the Corrigan family moved to Tientsin (now Tianjin), northern China. On 30 July 1937, Tientsin fell to Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War, but was not occupied entirely as the Japanese continued to respect foreign concessions until 1941, when the United States entered the Second World War. Following rumours of Japan's imminent entrance into the War, the local British authorities encouraged evacuation of its citizens and the Corrigan family decided to seek refuge in Australia.

Corrigan and his mother were granted a travel permit and left mainland China ahead of his father aboard the SS Fausang, which was captured in the Battle of Hong Kong on 8 December 1941, the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbor. Corrigan and his mother subsequently spent four years in the Stanley Internment Camp during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. Corrigan has reflected on his life at this time:

the movie ‘Empire of the Sun' almost duplicates my life in the camp. I was the same age as the boy … and we did things that you see in 'Empire of the Sun' … we used to go under the barbed wire and steal vegetables from the Japanese vegetable garden and come back … it's just amazing, it's like watching yourself when you watch that movie.

After the Japanese surrender in 1945, they were liberated by Australian Navy minesweeper personnel. Corrigan's father had also been interred in a POW camp on mainland China, near Beijing, and was liberated after the surrender.

After the end of World War II the Australian government established the Federal Department of Immigration. The early policies of post-war immigration to Australia favoured British and Baltic nationals. In 1946, Corrigan and his mother sailed to Australia on the SS Tamaroa along with other liberated military POWs, and the family was finally reunited.

As displaced persons the family resided in a migrant hostel in St Mary's, Sydney until their immigration paperwork was finalised. Having lost his place at Sydney's Cranbrook High School due to the war, Corrigan and his family moved initially to Springwood where he attended the Blue Mountains Grammar School. He completed his Intermediate Certificate examination in 1948 at the age of 15, after which he left school to take up employment at a Unilever subsidiary.

On 19 September 1950 Corrigan joined the Royal Australian Naval reserve and served three years. He was granted Australian citizenship in 1960.

Personal life

Corrigan is married to Barbara Lawrence and has four children: David, Kylie, Joel (deceased 1996), Ryan, and two grandchildren.

Business career

Corrigan left school in 1948 at the age of fifteen to work for a Unilever subsidiary where he was employed as a junior clerk in a freight subdivision. In a 2012 interview Corrigan reflected that he's "been stuck with it ever since". His career in freight forwarding has often led to confusion with stevedore magnate Chris Corrigan, the former CEO of Patrick Corporation. They are unrelated, and when quizzed on this point Corrigan is always keen to point out that he is the "poorer one".

In 1955 Corrigan became general manager of the Sydney customs brokering firm J N Campbell Customs Pty Ltd. He remained with the company until 1967, when he established his own freight forwarding and clearance company, Corrigan's Customs Agency Pty Ltd for a $2 registration fee and a $1,000 bank loan.

In the early years, Corrigan's freight forwarding and clearance companies specialised in shipping fashion, textiles and auxiliary machinery for clients such as Kolotex Pty Ltd, Hilton Pty Ltd and Mark Foys Ltd, as well as yachts, which reflected his personal interest in water sports. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Corrigan's companies also brokered the import/export of works of art for commercial exhibitions, as well as book and records for clients such as Hamlyn Pty Ltd, which coincided with the development of his collecting interests in these areas.

Corrigan's Customs Agency Pty Ltd changed its name to Corrigan's Express Pty Ltd in 1970, expanding its operations and profile with the opening of a large $90,000 freight clearance centre near Sydney airport and accreditation by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), membership of which was highly vetted and usually restricted to airlines. The same year it was reported in the press that Corrigan's successfully imported the largest ever painting to Australia – American Dream, an 80 x 18 ft work by Brett Whiteley weighing 2.5 tons – for exhibition at Bonython Gallery. In 1970 he also co-founded the firm Express Livestock Pty Ltd, which specialised exclusively in animal cargo.

Corrigan's Express was sold to the British conglomerate Mitchell Cotts & Co Ltd in 1972 and Corrigan remained as chairman until 1983, when he was recruited to establish the local arm of Swiss company, Panalpina, which specialised in forwarding and logistics services. In 1987 Panalpina became the number one IATA accredited agent in NSW.

In 1988, Corrigan founded a new company, Pace Express, and became its executive chairman. In its first year the company achieved the top ranking for export freight forwarding by the IATA, which stemmed from its logistics initiatives in the fresh fruit market. In 1989 the company won the Governor of Victoria Export Awards for significant achievement by a new exporter, and was also named the Exporter of the Year for Transport and Associated Services in the Export Council of Australia's Premier's NSW Export Awards. This was the first time any company had won both major awards in one year and the first time a freight forwarder had won either.

In 1993 Pace Express was acknowledged by the IATA as being the first Australian agent to receive a settlement of more than $2 million for freight forwarding billing in a single month. In 1994 Pace Express was acquired by the American company Air Express International and Corrigan was appointed as director.

In 1998 Corrigan joined VIP Airfreight as chairman, a company that made its mark specialising in handling perishables. In 2000 Corrigan was awarded the Export Council of Australia's prestigious Export Hero award, which recognises and congratulates "the champions of Australia's export community having contributed to building modern export enterprises and helping to further develop a uniquely Australian export culture".

Corrigan was chairman and co-owner of Century Freight (2006–2009). Corrigan is chairman of UBI Logistics, which was established in 2009, and holds two public company non-executive directorships: Flagship Investments Ltd and Global Masters Fund Ltd.

Other business interests

At various periods concurrent with his business career in the freight industry, Corrigan's personal interests in art and books has led him to take on commercial ventures in these fields [also see section on art and book publishing].

During the 1980s Corrigan was a partner in the Bonython Meadmore Gallery (BMG) in Sydney and Adelaide.

From 1987 to 2002 Corrigan was a director and partner in Woollahra Art Removals, which was acquired by International Art Services. Corrigan is chairman of Corrigan's Art Express, a division of UBI Logistics.

In 2012 he acquired Better Read Than Dead, a large independent bookstore in Sydney's vibrant multi-cultural neighbourhood of Newtown, for which he is co-director.

Books

Australian art and books were the focus of Corrigan's early collecting interests, born from his shipping company's activities freighting for Bonython Galleries and Paul Hamlyn Books. Corrigan developed friendships with artists he met in the Art & Australia offices of Hamlyn publisher Kevin Weldon. He began to seriously acquire works of art in the early 1970s and by late that decade Corrigan's collecting was supported by a scholarly Australian art book collection, which began with the purchase of his first book in 1974.

Corrigan's art book collection was sold to James Hardie Industries in 1979, and he remained a consultant to the collection for the next nine years. It became the core of a donation to the State Library of Queensland in 1988, which is now known as the James Hardie Library of Australian Fine Arts and which has been described as "Australia's definitive fine arts collection". This collection includes several important 'firsts' in Australian art publishing:

Lindsay Collection

Corrigan continues to support the State Library of Queensland with donations to the Library of Australian Fine Art, along with major donations of other material. His most notable donation was the collection of letters and manuscripts by the artist Norman Lindsay and his family, which was valued in the late 1990s at well over $1 million. The Lindsay Collection of Pat Corrigan, donated 1992–1997, is one of the largest donations ever made by an individual to an Australian library. The collection includes published and unpublished material relating to the Lindsay family and, importantly, significant material purchased from Harry Chaplin's collection, a friend and bibliographer of the family.

Manuscripts

Alongside the Lindsay Collection donation, Corrigan also collected manuscripts and other material and original works of art by other artists, which were subsequently also donated to the State Library of Queensland. These include:

In addition, Corrigan has donated personal correspondence with artists he has supported over the years, including many of those assisted over twelve years as patron of the National Association for the Visual Arts Visual and Craft Artists' Grant Scheme. [see section on philanthropy]

Australian exhibition catalogues

Corrigan has also donated a major collection of Australian art exhibition catalogues, invitations and journals to the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art. Known as The Patrick Corrigan Collection of Australian Exhibition Catalogues, the collection comprises over 800 items dated 1889–2008. Highlights include:

Bookplates

An interest in art and books also led to Corrigan collecting artist bookplates, which he acquired over a twenty-year period between 1975 and 1995, following the acquisition of the collection of John Lane Mullins (1857–1939), an avid enthusiast and supporter who had commissioned the first Australian pictorial bookplate. In the late 1990s he acquired the bookplate collection of the late Harry Muir, founder of Adelaide's Wakefield Press.

Described as "the most comprehensive collection of bookplates by Australian artists ever amassed", The Pat Corrigan Collection of Australian Artists' Bookplates, comprising five thousand plates and related objects, including original artwork, transitional states of the plate and original blocks, was donated to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1995, valued at $750,000.

Corrigan has also made significant bookplate donations to the National Gallery of Australia (1983), Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (2009), the State Libraries of Queensland and Victoria (which included original works of art and publications on bookplates), the Fryer Library University of Queensland (2002) and regional art galleries at Benalla (2004), Bendigo (2001), Castlemaine (1999), the Gold Coast and Lismore (2006), Maitland and MacKay (2005), Orange and Toowoomba, and New England (2001).

Corrigan also supported artists through bookplate commissions for his family. In this context, he introduced the concept of Ex Libris to many artists who would not otherwise have been represented in this genre. Corrigan's family commissions included bookplates by: Earle Backen (1927–2005), William Rubery Bennett (1893–1987), Peter Shearwin Chapman (born 1937), John Coburn (1925–2006), L. Roy Davies (1897–1979), Brian Dunlop (1938–2009), Joel Elenberg (1948–1980), Allan Allman Gamble (1907–2001), Bruce Goold (born 1948), Peter Vernon Hickey (born 1943), Robert Jacks (born 1943), Peter Kingston (born 1943), Alun Leach-Jones (born 1937), David van Nunen (born 1952), Pixie O’Harris (1903–1991), David Lloyd Preston (born 1948), Lloyd Frederic Rees (1895–1988), Irena Justina Sibley (1944–2009), Blake Lawry Twigden (born 1945), Brett Whiteley (1939–1992) and James Willem Willbrant (born 1950).

In his book on Corrigan’s collections and commissions of bookplates, Robert Littlewood describes Corrigan’s focus on Ex Libris bookplates as having “significant impact in the marketplace … on the aesthetic direction of contemporary bookplates; and … influenced curatorial consciousness and activity in relation to this aspect of the Book Arts”. The latter, in particular, is borne out in a recent article published by the magazine of the National Library of Australia, which featured several of the Corrigan family’s bookplates. In a 2013 exhibition of the New Australian Bookplate society, Corrigan was credited amongst a small and select group as rekindling Australia’s interest in the art.

Australian art and photography

Corrigan has collected Australian art from around 1970 when his company, Corrigan's Express, started freighting works of art and books. Through connections made at the offices of Hamlyn Books' publication Art in Australia, he met artists such as John Coburn, Brett Whiteley, Pro Hart and Neil Taylor, and collectors such as Neil Balnaves. His first purchase was a Paddington street (Sydney) scene by Ric Elliot. Of his approach to collecting, Corrigan has stated that he has bought works by artists and then sold them to friends for the same price, just to spread the word. Corrigan also constantly deaccessions from his collection through donations to public institutions. Since 1986 he has donated over one thousand works to more than forty-five Cultural Gift Recipients nationwide.

Artists whose works Corrigan has collected include Christian Thompson, Grace Cossington Smith, Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd, Alun Leach-Jones, Colin Lanceley, Brett Whiteley, Lloyd Rees, John Olsen, Rosalie Gascoigne, John Beard, Ben Quilty, Noel McKenna, Susan Norrie, Ken Whisson, Robert Klippel, John Coburn, Janet Laurence, Clement Meadmore, Tim Storrier, Gordon Bennett and Michael Zavros.

Corrigan's photography collection includes works by Tracey Moffatt, Bill Henson, Christian Thompson, Max Dupain, Olive Cotton, Mervyn Bishop, Harold Cazneaux, Mark Kimber, Robert McFarlane, Selina Ou, Roger Scott, Caleb Carter, Geoff Carter, Greg Weight, Jon Lewis, Graham McCarter, Lewis Morley, David Moore, Robyn Stacey, Anne Zahalka, Patricia Piccinini, Simryn Gill, Deborah Paauwe and Polixeni Papapetrou.

Corrigan's enthusiasm for collecting art is paralleled with his enthusiasm for sharing it with the broader public. His total collection is estimated to be around two thousand works and at the time of publication of his third book on his Indigenous art collection (2015) he had over six hundred and fifty works on long-term loan to multiple public institutions and universities in states where he has residences, including Bond University, Brisbane (QLD), the University of Technology, University of NSW Art & Design, and SBS Television in Sydney (NSW), as well as Monash University and Asialink in Melbourne (VIC) and the Australian National University (ACT).

Corrigan's donations to Bond University's Medical School are now being publicly showcased in The Corrigan Walk, an on-campus guided tour of a selection of the donations and 400-strong works in the loan collection, led by indigenous students.

At any given time, Corrigan also has works pending and/or already on loan to public exhibitions around the country.

Public exhibitions dedicated to works from the Corrigan collection:

Since the 1990s Corrigan committed to only buying works by living artists, where he could enjoy the support he was giving the artist as well as the works themselves. Since 2000, he has concentrated on contemporary Indigenous and non-Indigenous art and photography, the former being the subject of two books on the collection.

Corrigan is also a supporter of institutions fostering photography, and is a "Supporting Sponsor" of the Salon, an open entry exhibition and competition organised by Melbourne's Centre for Contemporary Photography .

Indigenous art

Corrigan's Indigenous art collection is developed exclusively from works painted from 2000. An extensive component of his total collection, numbering around 1,000 works, it has been the subject of three books:

Select public exhibitions featuring works from the Indigenous collection:

Art and book publishing

Corrigan's love of art and books led him to venture into publishing, in tandem with his freight business interests. He supported Richard Griffin (1937–1991), the Sydney bookseller, publisher and owner of Gryphon Press, with financial guarantees for the publication of his Private Press' limited edition art books on the work of Brett Whiteley: Zoo (1979), Another Way of Looking at Vincent Van Gogh (1983) and Native Rose (1986), which was based upon Ernest Giles's story of his explorations in Central Australia. Each book contained an original print by the artist. His company, Southern Cross Books, also published Carmen by Prosper Mérimée, with illustrations by Lionel Lindsay (1984). He also supported Port Jackson Press for a time.

Corrigan continues to support independent publications through sponsorship, the most recent being Brushes with History: Masters of Watercolour, produced by the Australian Watercolour Institute in March 2015 to celebrate its ninetieth anniversary.

Corrigan's printmaking ventures date to the same period. He shared an office/studio/gallery with Storrier for three years in Sydney's Rushcutters Bay, during which time he met many leading Australian artists. Over the course of this period Corrigan published Tim Storrier's limited edition 'Time Site Suite' (1981), which was a portfolio of seven lithographs, colour photographs and mixed media works in a limited edition of sixty. Corrigan also published a suite of hand coloured etchings titled 'Birds from a Woollahra Garden' by Blake Twigden (1982), and produced four silkscreen prints and the soft ground etching, 'Bay at Northwood' (1984) by Lloyd Rees.

In a period in the late 1980s Corrigan was also part owner of Craftsman House and was instrumental in the publication of books on the work of several artists: Colin Lanceley (1987), Lloyd Rees, An Artist Remembers (1987), Point to Point, the Art of Tim Storrier (1987), John Coburn, Paintings (1988), and Alun Leach-Jones (1988).

Philanthropy

In addition to major donations of art, books and material heritage collections to public institutions [see Collecting Activities section], Corrigan has donated more than one thousand works of art to over forty-five regional galleries, cultural institutions and charitable organisations across the country.

Recipient Institutions

Queensland: Bond University; Gold Coast Art Centre; Gold Coast City Art Gallery; Queensland Art Gallery; Queensland Library Foundation; State Library of Queensland; University of Queensland; University of Queensland Art Museum

New South Wales: Artbank; Art Gallery of New South Wales; Art Gallery Society of New South Wales; Australian Business Arts Foundation; Australian National Maritime Museum; Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery; Cessnock Regional Art Gallery; Kedumba Trust for the Kedumba Collection of Australian Drawings; Lismore Regional Art Gallery; Maitland Regional Art Gallery; Mosman Art Gallery; Museum of Contemporary Art; National Art School; National Association for the Visual Arts,; New England Regional Art Museum; Newcastle Regional Art Gallery; Orange Regional Gallery; Power Institute, University of Sydney; Powerhouse Museum; Sculpture by the Sea; St Vincent's Curran Foundation; State Library of NSW; Tweed River Valley Regional Art Gallery; University of New South Wales; University of Technology, Sydney; Variety, the Children's Charity

Australian Capital Territory: Australian National University; National Gallery of Australia; National Library of Australia; National Portrait Gallery

Victoria: Bendigo Art Gallery; Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum; Centre for Contemporary Photography; Horsham Regional Art Gallery; La Trobe University Library; Monash Gallery of Art; National Gallery of Victoria; Peter MacCullum Cancer Centre; State Library of Victoria

South Australia: Art Gallery of South Australia

In his role as Board member and Chairman of the Gold Coast City Art Gallery (QLD), Corrigan has encouraged many other major collectors to donate to the gallery in the guise of a self-termed "sophisticated beggar", which has significantly increased the worth of the gallery's art collection and earned him the status of 'Life Benefactor', bestowed in 2007. Many of these donations were showcased in the exhibition Gifted in the same year. In addition, Corrigan was instrumental in the expansion of loans to the Gallery's Evandale Sculpture Walk, a sculpture park on the gallery's grounds on the site of the old Evandale farm. Corrigan has also applied his influence to secure philanthropic donations for Bond University, which was recognised by an Honorary Doctorate conferred in 2007.

Student scholarships

Corrigan has initiated and funded many philanthropic causes to support the career possibilities of artists, musicians and Indigenous students with scholarships and grant programs.

Corrigan initiated the Mitchell Cotts Art Awards, City Art Institute (now College of Fine Arts, Sydney) in 1982, which bestowed two annual awards to the value of $10–15,000 enabling young artists to continue their studies and to travel to broaden their experience.

In 1997 Corrigan inaugurated the Pat Corrigan Travelling Art Scholarship for painting students at Sydney's National Art School. The inaugural winner was Alan Jones, who referenced the importance of this support in his artist's statement for his 2013 Archibald Prize entry, a portrait of Patrick Corrigan called "Corro". Since 1997 Corrigan has also been principal sponsor of the National Art School's annual photographic prize (the Joel Corrigan Memorial Photography Award), which is awarded to third year graduates in the medium.

Corrigan is Co-Patron of the National Association for the Visual Arts along with Janet Holmes à Court and supported an artists' grant scheme bestowed in his name from 1990–2005. Over this time he donated $12,500 per annum to support a program that subsidised exhibition costs for more than 1,000 emerging artists and craftspeople. In 2012/2013, an exhibition of work of art by select recipients of the grant called Inspiring artists: recipients of the Pat Corrigan Artists' Grant was held at Maitland Regional Art Gallery (NSW).

Since 2007 the Pat Corrigan Musicians and Arts Fund has supported two emerging jazz musicians per annum. Young musicians attending the Generations in Jazz annual music festival in Mount Gambier, South Australia are eligible for a grant of $3,500, and the Pat Corrigan Scholarship, awarded through the Sydney-based Jazz Workshop Australia, includes the production of a professional recording for the recipient.

Indigenous

Corrigan is the patron of the annual Bond University Indigenous Art Auction, which raises funds to expand the range of Indigenous scholarships available at the university. From its inception in 2010 through 2016, the Indigenous Gala raised over $1.3 million dollars towards Indigenous scholarships and supporting the university’s work with the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience.

Corrigan also served on the board of the Aboriginal Benefits Foundation, which works to benefit the welfare of Aboriginal communities throughout Australia, in particular with regard to supporting youth, the aged and others who suffer disadvantages.

Art industry acknowledgment

Corrigan's philanthropy has earned him entry to The Art Life's annual list of the most powerful people in Australian art, "The Power Trip" in 2015, 2016 and 2017. A portrait of Corrigan also featured in the 2015 Mosman Art Gallery exhibition, "Art - Maker, Patron, Lover: Photographs by Gary Grearly".

Since receiving his AM in 2000, Corrigan has been a regular sitter for the Archibald Prize, and has had his portrait make the finals three times: in 2006(artist Paul Newton), 2013 and 2016 (artist Alan Jones). The Prize, administered by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, stipulates that the subject must be a person 'distinguished in Art, Letters, Science or Politics', painted from life.

Other interests

Sports

Corrigan has had a lifelong passion for Rugby union, terming himself a "rugby tragic", and is the sole sponsor of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia's annual photography commission of 'Australian Rugby Greats'. Known formally as the Patrick Corrigan Portrait Commission Series, the first rugby great commission (2014) was of Ken Catchpole OAM by Gary Grearly, and the second commission (2015) was of Indigenous champion, Mark Ella AM by Nikki Toole. The third commission (2016) features Dr Mark Loane AM, by Joachim Froese.

Corrigan has also held a lifelong interest in water sports and maintains residences in Sydney's eastern suburbs and Queensland's Gold Coast, where he has been able to indulge his love of jet skiing and sailing, and where he has sponsored surf boats for Surf Lifesaving Clubs in Bronte and Surfers Paradise, where he also founded the Gold Coast Jet Ski Club.

Since 1969 Corrigan has sponsored racing skiffs in the 18 footer sailing class through his companies Corrigan's Express, Mitchell Cotts and Pace Express, winning two World Championships in 1988 and 1996 and the European Championship the same year. In 1976 and 1976 Corrigan was also Principal Sponsor of Australia's entries in the USA Congressional Cup. Corrigan ended his 18 Footers sponsorship in 1999 and, as at 2006, remained the sport's longest continuous sponsor. His commitment was rewarded with the bestowal of Life Member of the New South Wales 18 Footers Sailing League.

Memorabilia

Corrigan's interest in sailing stimulated his interest in America's Cup memorabilia. Corrigan's lifelong interest in memorabilia is very broad, leading to more than 500 collections of diverse material. Most notable among these is his collection of signed photographs by famous stars, including Lauren Bacall, Sophia Loren, Mickey Rooney and Tony Curtis. This collection was donated to the Maitland Regional Art Gallery and was the subject of the exhibition Signed and Famous in 2012.

Jazz

Corrigan's love of jazz dates to 1945, after arriving in Sydney following his release from the internment camp when he heard the radio for the first time in years. He credits getting hooked on jazz through the likes of Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman and Frank Sinatra. "There was a blackout on news, so when I came here I had not heard music for years ... the next thing I knew, I had a collection of 78s. I ended up with 7,000 of them". This collection, which was augmented by magazines such as Down Beat and Metronome, along with jazz biographies (many signed by luminaries such as Duke Ellington), was donated to the National Film and Sound Archive in 1980.

Corrigan stated that jazz "galvanised my love of the arts" and this mix of interests found expression in philanthropic support for a series of concerts under the banner, "Jazz at the Gallery", held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales over the past five years, and the "Flights of Jazz" series of three concerts in 2002. In September and October 2013 he teamed up with Deloitte to support two concerts for the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales' "Resonate" series.

Aside from his philanthropic efforts for aspiring students of jazz music [see Philanthropy section], Corrigan has also supported jazz musicians through commissioned performances at personal functions and fundraising events, such as for the Gold Coast City Art Gallery. He is also a Life Member of the Gold Coast local community radio station 94.1FM. and the Gold Coast City Jazz Club

Honours, awards, board and panel positions

AM: Corrigan was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia medal in the 2000 Queen's Birthday Honours List (conferred 12 June 2000) for "service to the visual arts, particularly as a philanthropist to regional galleries and through a grant scheme for artists".

Queensland Greats: The Queensland Greats Awards program honours individuals and institutions whose long-term or lifetime achievements have played a significant role in the history and development of Queensland. In recognition of his sustained support for and contributions to Bond University and many other Queensland cultural institutions, the Queensland Government conferred this award upon Corrigan in 2014.

The award includes a commemorative plaque in Brisbane's Roma Street Parklands.

Keys to the City: Gold Coast City Council conferred the city's highest honour on Corrigan in 2015 in recognition of his contribution to the arts.

Honorary Doctorate: In recognition of his sustained support for and patronage of the visual arts, and in particular, Aboriginal art, Bond University conferred an honorary doctorate upon Corrigan in 2007.

JB Were Philanthropy Leadership Award: In 2012 Corrigan was the recipient of the Australian Business Arts Foundation's (now Creative Partnerships Australia) JB Were Philanthropy Leadership Award, which is bestowed on an individual, family, group or foundation or other entity, which through their leadership, advocacy, practice and example has encouraged increased philanthropic giving to Australia's cultural life.

State and national institutions: Life Benefactor, the State Library of Queensland (Brisbane); Patron, the Queensland Library Foundation (Brisbane); Life Benefactor, the Art Gallery of New South Wales Library (Sydney); Gold Benefactor, the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney); Life Patron, National Association for the Visual Arts(Sydney); Foundation Member, National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne); Patron, Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane)

Regional galleries: Life Member, Ararat Regional Art Gallery (VIC); Life Member, Art Gallery Society of New South Wales (Sydney); Life Member, the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery Association (VIC); Life Member, Bendigo Art Gallery (VIC); Life Member, Castlemaine Art Gallery & Historical Museum (VIC); Life Member, Friends of the Gold Coast Arts Centre (QLD); Life Member, Friends of the Mornington Peninsular Regional Gallery (VIC); Life Member, Friends of the National Art School (Sydney); Life Member, Lismore Regional Gallery (NSW); Co-Patron (with art collector Ray Wilson) and Life Member, Maitland Regional Art Gallery (NSW); Life Member, Newcastle Art Gallery Society (NSW)

Boards and committees: Board Member, National Portrait Gallery of Australia, appointed February 2015; Emeritus Chairman of the Gold Coast City Gallery (QLD), appointed June 2016; director, Gold Coast City Gallery (1996-2016); board director of the Gold Coast Arts Centre (QLD); Chairman, Judging Panel, Qantas Foundation Encouragement of Australian Contemporary Art Award; Former board director, Aboriginal Benefactors Foundation; Former Member of the Tax Incentive for the Arts Review Committee for the federal government's Cultural Gifts Program