International Arts Events Gather in Hong Kong 　　HKTB “Arts in Hong Kong” Promotes Cultural Exchange and Attracts Visitors with Diverse Art Experiences

Join us this spring to witness the blossoming of art events in Hong Kong! This month, the “Arts in Hong Kong” promotional platform of the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) introduces and supports a number of international art events in Hong Kong, attracting visitors from around the world to experience the appeal of Hong Kong as an art capital, while driving exchange between local and international artists and promoting indepth arts and cultural tours in the community to encourage the public to explore Hong Kong in an artistic perspective.

Mr Dane Cheng, HKTB Executive Director, said, “Hong Kong has a diverse and vibrant arts culture. There is a series of international art events taking place from March this year in Hong Kong. Through our year-round promotional platform ‘Arts in Hong Kong’, the HKTB seizes the opportunity to strengthen the promotion of world-class cultural events and a wide range of related activities in town, inviting the travel trade and media to experience Hong Kong’s unique blend of East and West while promoting art and cultural exchanges, thus making Hong Kong a destination of cultural tourism and attracting visitors to explore a unique art and cultural journey.”

Support International Arts Events Uphold Hong Kong as Cultural Tourism Hub

The city is filled with an artsy ambience with various art and cultural events taking place in Hong Kong one after another in recent months, including the Clockenflap music and arts festival and various events in the West Kowloon Cultural District. The HKTB’s “Arts in Hong Kong” promotes these art events in Hong Kong. Among the cultural happenings, the internationally renowned Art Basel Hong Kong and Art Central, which gathers the best of Asia’s emerging art talents, are both opening in Hong Kong this week, putting on a display of artworks from galleries and artists from around the world and further enriching the city’s art vibes.

This year, the HKTB continues to support and promote these two major art fairs overseas and locally, to garner the attention of the global arts and cultural community. In particular, the HKTB’s efforts in promoting the two events include:

• initiating collaborations between local and international artists for the creation of Hong Kong-themed art pieces, teaming up with Art Central in setting up the “Arts in Hong Kong café” on site, a contemporary art gallery cum relaxing café to showcase the collaborative works of local and overseas artists;

• supporting Art Basel Hong Kong by presenting world-class art works portraying Hong Kong by local artists, from the show floor to the community at bus and tram shelters in Central and Admiraltyto encourage visitors explore Hong Kong in to arts and cultural perspectives.

Every year, the French May Arts Festival brings a series of arts and cultural events to Hong Kong. This year, the festival marks its 30th anniversary with an immersive exhibition, “Virtually Versailles”, as its highlight. In collaboration with French May, a local artist will bring the Palace of Versailles to the community by putting the Palace on the mobile canvas of trams to highlight a sensory and interactive journey in Hong Kong.

The HKTB will also invite trade partners, media and super Hong Kong fans to participate in a series of international arts events in town to promote Hong Kong’s arts and cultural tourism experiences and our unique East-meets-West artistic appeal, so that they could create a positive word-of-mouth and tell the good stories of Hong Kong’s arts to the world from their first-hand experiences.

Foster exchange between local, Mainland and international artists
Showcase Hong Kong as East-Meet-West Centre for International Cultural Exchange

1. International collaboration between local and overseas artists

Since last year, the HKTB has invited eight local and overseas artists to spend more than a year working collaboratively on four sets of Hong Kong-themed artworks, strengthening the exchange between local and international artists to showcase the city’s vibrancy as Asia’s art capital where East meets West. The works include:

• Don Mak & Australian illustrator Ilya Milstein created a 12-metre illustration which will be displayed on a L-shaped wall. The illustration demonstrated the daily lives and urban cityscape of Hong Kong, which art lover may dub it as “the Hong Kong version of Along the River During the Qingming Festival”.

• Martina Tso, 4th-generation owner of Yuet Tung China Works, and Takeoka Katsumi, Japanese embroidery artist, recreated Hong Kong’s scenic Victoria Harbour and firework displays on China utensils and embroidery, demonstrating the mixing and merging of the traditional and the modern of Hong Kong’s local culture.

These playful Hong Kong-themed artworks will be available for viewing at the “Arts in HK café” in Art Central. Aficionados can enjoy the city’s cultural aura while taking a sip of coffee in the venue. (see appendix for details)

2. Special editions of “Arts in Hong Kong” logos

The HKTB also invited the eight artists to art jam on the “Arts in Hong Kong” logo, which will be displayed at the airport, Hong Kong West Kowloon Station and other control points. Scan the QR code for the artistic concepts of each artists’ work.

3. Papercraft installations by Mainland artist at Hong Kong West Kowloon Station

Besides, generation-Z Mainland artist Chen Fenwan also draws inspiration from Hong Kong for her new papercraft art. Her works will be exhibited in Hong Kong West Kowloon Station , making the terminal a new photo hotspot to give visitors a taste of Hong Kong’s artistic and cultural ambience as soon as they arrive.

Connecting with the community to explore Hong Kong Neighbourhoods in new perspectives

After the first community art exhibition “Journey to West Kowloon” jointly organised with the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts of the Education University of Hong Kong last year, the “Hong Kong Tourism Board Youth Academy"* reconnects the youth with the community and will host a “Hong Kong Neighbourhoods” digital art exhibition in PMQ, Central in partnership with School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. The digital art exhibition will showcase 32 digital art co-created by 53 university students to embark on an artistic journey to explore the authentic and unique culture of West Kowloon, Sham Shui Po and Central from the youth’s perspectives.

*The HKTB founded “Hong Kong Tourism Board Youth Academy” in 2021. With the mission of “We Learn, We Create, We Share”, the Academy hopes to encourage the youth of the city to learn more about our community, thus creating impactful initiates to share and inspire others.