Three Local Arts Administrators Awarded Overseas Training Opportunities

To foster professional growth of local arts administrators and facilitate long-term development of arts and culture in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) collaborates with different world acclaimed arts and cultural organisations to offer internship and training programmes. The programmes provide overseas internship and exchange opportunities for promising local arts administrators to develop their professional skills and international network.

Recently, HKADC has collaborated with Japan’s Mori Art Museum to launch the “Mori Art Museum Internship 2016”. HKADC also launched the “Hong Kong Scholarship on the International Leadership Program in Visual Arts Management (ILPVAM) 2016” to support Hong Kong visual arts administrators or curators to pursue the said Programme, co-organised by the Deusto Business School (University of Deusto, Spain), NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development (New York University, the United States), and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (Bilbao, Spain). Three local arts administrators have been awarded.

(1)   “Mori Art Museum Internship 2016”

The awardee is Ms Nadia Kwok. She is going to have a 24-week internship on a full-time basis from late January to mid-July 2017 at Mori Art Museum. She will mainly participate in curatorial research, exhibition programming and project coordination in Mori Art Museum.

Ms Kwok is currently the Assistant Curator II of Hong Kong Museum of Art, responsible for curatorial research and coordination of the exhibitions and liaison with collaborating parties, including the “All Are Guests” exhibition at the Liverpool Biennial 2012 in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong Week 2013 in Taipei. She is also involved in the coordination and promotion of the Museum’s public and education programmes. Ms Kwok also worked in other arts organisations, in which she was responsible for project planning and coordination.

(2)   “Hong Kong Scholarship on the International Leadership Program in Visual Arts Management (ILPVAM) 2016”

The awardees are Ms Mina Song and Mr Ian Leung. They will take part in two 5-day intensive modules, scheduled from 7 to 11 November 2016 in Bilbao, Spain and 13 to 17 March 2017 in New York, the United States respectively. The ILPVAM aims to develop participants’ understanding of current and future global trends shaping the industry, and sharpen skills in the management of visual arts organisations. International networking among participants is also a key element of the Programme.

Ms Song was the Research Assistant of Department of Cultural and Religious Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She was responsible for assisting the research and coordination of projects supervised by Prof Benny Lim. Ms Song also worked in Community Art Network and Hong Kong Art Centre before, in which she was responsible for proposal writing, project execution and coordination etc.

Mr Leung is the Programme Manager of Hong Kong Arts Centre, who curates, produces and manages various visual and performing arts activities at the Centre, such as the Public Art Hong Kong, “Playwright's Studio”, “Jockey Club Street Music Series: Experimental Series”, etc. Mr Leung previously worked in Hong Kong Arts Festival as Assistant Programme Manager and Outreach Manager, in which he was responsible for the Festival programme coordination and audience building through education and outreach projects.

With the funding support from the Home Affairs Bureau, the aforementioned programmes aim to strengthen the training of local arts administrators, to nurture more arts and cultural leaders and respond to the demand for such in our community.