Hong Kong Arts Development Council Welcomes the Blueprint for Arts and Culture and Creative Industries Development

The Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) welcomes and supports the promulgation of the Blueprint for Arts and Culture and Creative Industries Development announced by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau (CSTB) today (26 November).

Speaking at today’s briefing session, Mr Kenneth Fok, Chairman of HKADC, said: “The Hong Kong Arts Development Council expresses happiness to be one of the CSTB’s strategic partners, joining hands with the arts and cultural sector to foster the development of arts and culture and creative industries in Hong Kong.”

Chairman Kenneth Fok affirmed and supported the four development directives outlined in the Blueprint. To meet the needs of future development, HKADC will continue to improve, enhance and strengthen its existing work and at the same time, explore new development opportunities for the arts and cultural sector: -
 

1. To promote Chinese culture, HKADC is committed to supporting the diverse development of local arts groups and artists and has been funding projects on Chinese traditional music and xiqu performances, Chinese calligraphy and painting exhibitions, so as to promote the excellence of Chinese arts and culture. HKADC always attaches importance to youth education and strives to cultivate the next generation’s understanding of Chinese culture and participation through various proactive projects. Themed under “Chinese Traditional Culture x Contemporary Art”, the Arts Ambassadors-in-School Scheme 2023/24 organised an array of Chinese traditional arts and cultural programmes. In future, HKADC will infuse elements of Chinese traditional culture into various suitable projects to complement with the development directives of the Blueprint. 

2. To promote and enrich the diverse development of arts and culture and creative industries, as well as address the development needs of the sector and increase the flexibility of resources allocation, HKADC plans to continually enhance and streamline the existing grant schemes to provide room for promising arts groups and artists to create, excel and raise their artistic standards.

   HKADC supports local arts groups and artists to present and promote their outstanding artworks for overseas exchange with their counterparts through the Cultural Exchange Grant Scheme. Besides Japan, the United States and European countries, the Cultural Exchange Grant Scheme also supports arts groups and artists to take part in exchange programmes and exhibitions in different parts of the world including countries covered by the Belt and Road Initiative, namely North Macedonia, Romania, Republic of Armenia, Pakistan and United Arab Emirates. 

3. With concluding success, Hong Kong Performing Arts Expo (Expo) held this October is in line with the development directives of the Blueprint in promoting the arts and cultural exchange of East-meets-West. The five-day Expo attracted over 1,600 arts leaders and practitioners from over 60 regions. In particular, representatives from the Mainland (over 300), the Middle East, Australia and Canada topped the list. A myriad of diverse programmes featuring over 100 performances, talks and networking events was staged, offering around 40,000 seats and achieving an 80% attendance rate. In addition, there were nearly 100 exhibition booths set up by local and international arts groups and professionals. Compared with other established international expos, the contents, scale and attendance of the Hong Kong Performing Arts Expo is sound and solid. 

   HKADC would like to see the Hong Kong Performing Arts Expo to be held in 2026, attracting a greater number of participants to promote Hong Kong to be the East-meets-West Centre for International Cultural Exchange.

4. To establish a well-established and sustainable ecology for arts and culture and creative industries, HKADC will refine and enhance its existing grant scheme and assessment mechanism whenever deemed appropriate so as to provide development opportunities for arts groups and arts practitioners with outstanding performance and opportunities for those with unsatisfactory performance to make adjustment. Grant schemes are supported by public money and has to be effectively deployed.

   With the support of HKADC’s Hong Kong Arts Development Fund, the Eminent Arts Group Scheme was launched in 2019 to foster the growth of local professional arts organisations in a top-notch way. The first edition supported three organisations and expanded its support to five organisations in the second round in 2024.

   To encourage participation and support for the arts and culture from the private sector, HKADC launched the Matching Fund Scheme (MFS) supported by the CSTB’s Art Development Matching Grants Scheme. Since its inception in 2016, a total of 217 projects were funded with nearly HK$84 million in total donations matched and over HK$100 million in total MFS granted amount. The Scheme successfully encourages the arts sector to actively explore social resources and promote the culture of donation and sponsorship for the arts, which helps to improve the ecology of the arts and culture and creative industries in Hong Kong.

HKADC will fully support the Government’s future development strategies in promoting the development of arts, culture and creative industries in Hong Kong.