Symposium on Art Exhibitions
Speech by Mr Darwin Chen, Chairman of Hong Kong Arts Development Council
Date: November 16, 2002
Venue: Hong Kong Museum of Art

Mr Wang Huang-sheng, Professor Wu Hung, honourable guests, ladies and gentlemen,

It is my pleasure to be here today, to share with all of you the invaluable opinions and views on the development of art exhibitions all over the world.

Recently, local media is curious about the relationship between arts and creativity. To most layman, they will only focus on the skills and techniques employed by different artforms, but overlook the importance of creativity. In fact, arts and creativity are closely associated with the changing environment. Artists are always impressed by the changing political, economic and cultural situation. We can see that lots of representational artworks reflect the current affairs and the changing world. Today, we can observe that globalization is influencing every one's lives. Therefore, it is interested to share how changing environment and globalization induces the artists to develop new issues and growing ideas.

Hong Kong Arts Development Council is dedicated to promote and support the arts development in Hong Kong. Apart from supporting local arts activities through grants, the ADC also encourages cultural exchange and international conferences between local and overseas artists. We believe that by sharing the experience from overseas artists, the vision of local artists will be broadened and a far-reaching impact will be imposed on the visual arts development in Hong Kong.

In 2001, the ADC releases its Three-Year Plan, with an aim of establishing an amicable sound working relationship with its strategic partners, pursuing its goal of comprehensive arts development. We are most honoured to work hand in hand with Guangdong Museum of Art to organise this prominent event. I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude towards Guangdong Museum of Art, and the chief organiser of the symposium, Professor Wu Hung. Following our first accomplishment today, we look forward to co-operating further in the future. Lastly, may I wish the symposium a success and I trust you all benefit from the event.

Thank you.