2016-09-06

Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2016 Call for Nominations

Organised by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC), the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2016 is now open for nominations. Individuals/groups/schools/organisations are welcome to participate in competing for various prestigious awards.

The Hong Kong Arts Development Awards is an annual flagship event in the local arts scene. It aims to give professional recognition to distinguished arts practitioners, groups and organisations that have made significant contributions to the arts development in Hong Kong. Nomination deadline for the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2016 is 6:00 pm, 28 October 2016 (Friday).

The Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2016 offers seven categories of awards, including Life Achievement Award, Award for Outstanding Contribution in Arts, Artist of the Year, Award for Young Artist, Award for Arts Education, Award for Arts Promotion and Award for Arts Sponsorship. An award presentation ceremony will be held in late April 2017. Apart from the Life Achievement Award and Award for Outstanding Contribution in Arts that will be nominated and elected by HKADC’s Council members and arts advisors, the following awards are now open for nominations:

1.	Artist of the Year - on art form basis including arts criticism, dance, drama, film, media arts, literary arts, music, visual arts and xiqu; - acknowledges arts practitioners who have achieved excellence in their respective art forms; - each awardee of the Artist of the Year will be given a cash award of HK$50,000 for supporting his/her creative work, arts projects or further studies.
2.	Award for Young Artist - on art form basis including arts criticism, dance, drama, film, media arts, literary arts, music, visual arts and xiqu; - provides recognition, offers support and encouragement to young and emerging arts practitioners; - nominees must be aged 40 or below on the date nomination closes; - each awardee of the Award for Young Artist will be given a cash award of HK$25,000 for supporting his/her creative work, arts projects or further studies.
3.	Award for Arts Education - recognises schools, organisations and arts practitioners who have outstanding accomplishments in arts education; - categorised into School and Non-School divisions, a total of three awards and not more than three Certificate of Merit will be presented in each division.
4.	Award for Arts Promotion - recognises the outstanding achievements of groups, organisations and individuals in arts promotion; - a total of three awards will be presented.
5.	Award for Arts Sponsorship - acknowledges the contributions of organisations and individuals that have actively sponsored arts events and promoted the arts development in Hong Kong; - a number of awards will be presented.

For past awardee lists, please refer to HKADC website at www.hkadc.org.hk/awards.

Besides accepting open nominations, “art form nominators” are introduced with an aim to actively encourage artists and arts groups to participate in the Awards. Comprising arts veterans, the “art form nominators” are invited to make nominations for the five awards including Artist of the Year, Award for Young Artist, Award for Arts Education, Award for Arts Promotion and Award for Arts Sponsorship. To avoid conflicts of interest, HKADC’s Council members cannot serve as “art form nominators”. “Art form nominators” will not participate in the assessment of their concerned same art forms.

Adjudication of the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2016 will be conducted by a Chief Adjudication Panel and 12 Assessment Panels. The Assessment Panels¹ will be formed by professionals that represent the various streams in the art forms. (For example, Dance Assessment Panel shall be comprised of experts in ballet, Chinese dance, modern dance, etc. and arts critics, directors, playwrights, actors, stage design in dance, etc.) The Assessment Panels will be responsible for the assessment of the five awards. The recommended awardee list will be submitted to the Chief Adjudication Panel (7 members) formed by Council Chairman and Vice Chairman of the current term (2 persons), Chairman and Vice Chairman of the last term² (2 persons) and Council members of the current term (3 persons) for deliberation and making final decisions.

The list of “art form nominators”, Assessment Panels and Chief Adjudication Panel will be uploaded to HKADC’s website for public information at a later stage.

Interested parties can obtain the guidelines and nomination forms from HKADC’s Administrative Office (10/F, 1063 King’s Road, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong) or download them from the website www.hkadc.org.hk/awards. For enquiries, please contact Ms Yau at 2820 1003.

¹ To ensure the assessment is conducted in an open and fair manner, the assessment panels will be formed only after all the nominations have been received and confirmed. This will help avoid any conflicts of interest concerning nominees and assessment panel members.

² Where the same persons serve as the Council Chairman and Vice Chairman in the current and last term, the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the term before last shall be invited to sit in the chief adjudication panel.