HKADC Supports Government’s New Initiatives in Promoting Art Tech

The Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) welcomes and supports government’s new initiatives in promoting Art Tech and its related plans proposed in the Policy Address today.

Dr Wilfred Wong Ying-Wai, Chairman of HKADC, said, “With the advancement of technology, the development of arts in Hong Kong has become more diversified. Many local artists and arts groups have already infused technology into their creations, giving new experiences to the audience and participants. The pandemic brought upon unprecedented challenges to the Hong Kong society. Despite the difficult time, local artists and arts groups demonstrate their perseverance, unyielding spirit and boundless creativity to delve into the use of technology to produce online performances and creations, bringing novel arts experiences to the people of Hong Kong.”

Crisis creates opportunities. When HKADC launched the “Arts Ambassadors-in-School Scheme” a few months ago, almost all the activities had to be cancelled due to the pandemic and school suspension. However, the pandemic in no way deterred our creative artists as they turned to creating arts from offline to online. HKADC worked with 30 artists and arts groups to re-design a series of online workshops, arts classes and immersive activities for the arts ambassadors. This allowed more than 1,000 arts ambassadors to participate in a rich variety of online arts activities during school suspension. Since its launch in June, the online activities received enthusiastic responses with a considerable number of activities over-subscribed by twice or thrice the class size. Arts ambassadors were even more focused and engaged while participating online than in previous years.

In addition, with the generous donation from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, HKADC launched the “Arts Go Digital Platform Scheme” in July this year. The scheme supports artists and arts group to develop digital or virtual artistic contents through the use of technology, with the aim of delivering content in response to social needs under the pandemic, creating innovative online arts programmes that would interact with audiences in order to broaden public participation and imagination in the arts. The scheme supports 68 projects which will be launched between January and June 2021. The “Arts in the City Scheme” was also launched early this year to support three community arts projects. Local arts curators and arts groups are encouraged to integrate arts and technology to design high-quality community arts projects with both online and offline activities.