West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD)—the burgeoning arts district on the southern tip of Hong Kong’s Kowloon peninsula on the Victoria Harbour waterfront—is making its mark on the world cultural stage. This week, WKCD is internet hosting a significant summit bringing collectively greater than 20 administrators and curators from 12 nations together with 1,000 delegates (Connecting Cultures/Bridging Instances, 24-25 March).
On the summit, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, the physique behind the Hong Kong arts hub, signed quite a few memoranda of understanding with greater than 20 tradition establishments worldwide in a bid to foster relationships with different establishments and tradition hubs. The memoranda cowl assortment sharing, partnerships on conservation, and scientific analysis in addition to schooling and trade programmes.
The M+ museum of latest visible tradition, a cornerstone WKCD establishment, has inked agreements with seven international museums together with the Tate within the UK and the Centre Pompidou in France. The Hong Kong Palace Museum, which runs a rotating programme exhibiting greater than 900 artefacts from Beijing’s Palace Museum, has in the meantime teamed up with the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, amongst different venues.
“The memorandum is a press release of intent round exhibition collaboration and exchanges [with the Hong Kong Palace Museum],” Tim Reeve, the deputy director of the V&A, tells The Artwork Newspaper. “We’re in shut contact with the workforce there; the main target is round exhibitions.”
On the summit’s opening, John KC Lee, the chief government of the Hong Kong Particular Administrative Area, mentioned: “Below the auspices of the distinctive ‘one nation, two programs’ precept, Hong Kong is the one metropolis on this planet that enjoys each the China benefit and the worldwide benefit.” His feedback spotlight town’s distinctive balancing act within the wake of a controversial new safety regulation (Article 23) applied 23 March.
Reeve outlined the challenges and advantages of creating the East Financial institution, a brand new artwork and schooling hub based mostly within the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London, throughout a summit session known as “Cultural Districts’ contributions to social and financial transformation of cities”. The session additionally included audio system from Qatar (Shaika Al-Nassr, the director of the Museum of Islamic Artwork) and Australia (Katrina Sedgwick, the director of Melbourne Arts Precinct Company).
The director of Qatar’s Museum of Islamic Artwork, Shaika Al-Nassr, gave a chat on how cultural districts can create social and financial change inside cities
Courtesy Museum of Islamic Artwork
Reeve can also be on the helm of the East Financial institution board, the organisation behind the UK’s “latest cultural quarter” the place V&A East, a set and analysis storage centre, is because of launch subsequent yr (the positioning additionally incorporates BBC music studios, the David Bowie Centre for the Examine of Performing Arts and a brand new campus for College Faculty London).
“I’ve been taking a look at West Kowloon for ten years and am all in favour of its element elements. You at all times study loads from these kind of boards,” Reeve added, throwing extra gentle on the East Financial institution scheme. Targets for East Financial institution outlined in his discuss embrace establishing “Stratford as a brand new vacation spot and financial engine for London” and “[raising] native aspirations and constructive perceptions of east London”.
He added: “You could have a way of historical past working for the V&A. East Financial institution is a wholly new sort of [Olympics] legacy challenge—[the games] created a brand new park however what’s the park for publish Olympics [post-2012]? It’s a distinctive cultural district as a result of it brings collectively sport, tradition and schooling… the community for collaborative synergies are off the size.”
“I’ve been taking a look at West Kowloon for ten years and am all in favour of its element elements” says Tim Reeve, chair of London’s East Financial institution board.
Peter Kelleher, V&A Museum; © Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, 2021
Crucially, how can districts assist one another on the sustainability entrance? “There isn’t a aggressive benefit; everyone seems to be attempting to work on the identical downside. With sustainability, we will undoubtedly share intelligence and concepts [relating to] transport infrastructure and the way sustainable buildings are,” he added.
In one other session entitled “Promise of Digital”, audio system explored the impression of Synthetic Intelligence, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the digitisation of objects and “mixed-reality” exhibitions.
Thomas Campbell, the director of the Effective Arts Museums of San Francisco, raised key factors in regards to the growth of expertise in museums, discussing the early digitisation of collections within the early 2000s to “the place AI is taking us with the following degree of viewers engagement”.
Within the subsequent yr, he added, handheld gadgets will be capable of “draw on a long time of [art history] analysis” by AI which is each “horrifying and terribly thrilling”. Different audio system included the Turkish artist Refik Anadol.
Periods as a consequence of be held 26 March on the HK Worldwide Summit will cowl topics similar to “new methods of collaborating and sharing within the post-pandemic period” and “rethinking museum interpretation in a worldwide context”. The Artwork Newspaper is a media companion for the summit.
