Reimagining communities: inside the Hong Kong International Cultural Summit – The Art Newspaper

Because the Hong Kong Worldwide Cultural Summit returns on 22-23 March, cultural leaders from 14 nations and areas will collect within the West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK) to debate one central query: how can cultural establishments reimagine their relationship with communities?

Bringing collectively museum administrators, performing arts leaders and district-scale cultural planners, the summit displays the speedy evolution of Hong Kong’s cultural panorama — and the rising world relevance of the district itself. We spoke to a few of its key figures: Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director of M+; Louis Ng, Museum Director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum; and Betty Fung, CEO of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority.

Neighborhood is central to this yr’s summit theme. How has that concept formed M+?

Suhanya Raffel: Communities make museums and museums make communities. A part of the institution of M+ was a public session the place individuals have been requested what sort of museums they wished. The advice was to not construct numerous little museums, however to create an enormous museum that was cross-disciplinary, unburdened by labels like “fashionable” or “modern”. It was to be a museum plus extra, and that was how we turned M+. We’re curious about decentring the established canonical views on the historical past of artwork and visible tradition and complexifying them by way of dialogues and collisions with views from our area.

That is what we’re discussing in our two panels at M+. We now have audio system from Senegal, from the United Arab Emirates, from Brazil, who’ve very totally different relationships to neighborhood. It will likely be very attention-grabbing to see how that evolution has taken place, how that dialog has grown, what are the similarities and variations. It’s one thing we should always all be taking a look at, particularly as museums have grown from being very closed, research-based keepers of collections, to being far more engaged with audiences, communities, stakeholders and studying.

How does being in a part of a cultural district in West Kowloon have an effect on that?

Raffel: We now have the large privilege of getting the Hong Kong Palace Museum that appears at archaeology and the pre-modern, and now we have performing arts, together with experimental efficiency and dance. It’s unbelievable to have that cross-disciplinary engagement throughout WestK on one hand, after which inside the establishment at M+ on the opposite.

A singular factor in Hong Kong is that cultural establishments throughout the board—from public sale homes to galleries, proper by way of to museums and performing arts teams—are extraordinarily collegial. I’ve by no means encountered that sort of collegiality the place you sit round a desk and share what you’re doing. We attempt very arduous to make it as wealthy an expertise as attainable for the guests.

Louis Ng: WestK offers a complete expertise. Individuals can go to M+, to the Hong Kong Palace Museum, or to see WestK’s performing arts programmes. Then now we have a really lovely Artwork Park and an exquisite metropolis panorama. Individuals can admire artwork and tradition differently.

What do your audiences seem like immediately?

Raffel: Opening M+ throughout Covid, when Hong Kong was closed [to people outside the city], we didn’t know what to anticipate. Nevertheless it was a superb resolution to go forward with the opening as a result of it was so uplifting for individuals—right here was an establishment that was going to carry the world to them. The museum’s raison d’etre was made so seen.

We’ve welcomed over 10.8 million guests since opening, together with 2.6 million final yr. Greater than eighty-four per cent are between 18 and 44—so it’s a very younger viewers. Round 30–35 per cent are native Hong Kong residents, with 60–70 per cent visiting from outdoors the town.

And our outreach is absolutely essential. In 2025, we had over 176,000 individuals by way of college excursions and workshops and now we have engaged with over half of the secondary colleges in Hong Kong. We’re very conscious we have to construct that younger native viewers as a lot as vacationer guests.

What else are you doing to increase your viewers past the normal museum-goer?

Raffel: We should not have a conventional viewers as a result of M+ could be very new. The choice to make the museum transdisciplinary, with design, structure, artwork, transferring picture, all collectively: that was a brand new expertise for audiences right here. There is no such thing as a establishment like this in all of Asia. We’ve not needed to break silos as a result of they weren’t there to start with. And that has been a really energising expertise for all of us.

Louis, the Hong Kong Palace Museum has a special remit. How does neighborhood determine in your imaginative and prescient?

Louis Ng: As a result of I’ve labored in museums for over 30 years, I’ve seen how the audiences have modified. The typical age of our viewers on the Hong Kong Palace Museum is 33 years outdated. That’s fairly a shock, as a result of individuals assume that artwork from the previous attracts older individuals. However no, we see a whole lot of younger individuals coming. Then I additionally observe that the time they spend within the museum is longer than earlier than. For instance now we have a highly regarded Egyptian exhibition and persons are spending one and a half to 2 hours in there.

Prior to now individuals would say to not write the labels too lengthy as a result of individuals won’t learn them—we needed to restrict our textual content panels to 150 phrases. However these days that’s not the case. Individuals need increasingly more info.

How are you responding to these shifts?

Ng: We want to consider how we are able to higher work together with our viewers, we have to know extra about their pursuits and background to raised to speak with them.

For instance, as a world museum now we have two major languages, English and Chinese language, and we’re increasing the wall textual content for a few of our exhibitions to incorporate Korean, Japanese and Arabic. We have to examine whether or not expertise like AI might help to offer a number of languages to our guests. AI might additionally assist guests of various ages, totally different pursuits, totally different backgrounds plan for his or her visits. We’re taking a look at how you can personalise the expertise for guests.

Betty, your panel seems at cultural districts quite than particular person venues. What makes West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK) distinctive?

Betty Fung: WestK is far more than a set of venues—it’s a holistic cultural ecosystem. We now have museums and performing arts venues, open house, retail, eating and leisure amenities, in addition to industrial amenities like resorts, workplaces and residential. With these components we’ve created a novel placemaking mannequin that permits us to interact the neighborhood in way more inventive and natural methods.

Our Artwork Park is an ideal instance. With 11 hectares of open house, it serves as the town’s cultural front room. Individuals come for the harbour view, for out of doors installations, for music live shows, for frolicsome and participatory festivals of performances similar to FunFest and Jazz Fest, in addition to for workshops and interactive actions. We even run a structured avenue efficiency scheme with coaching and help to nurture native buskers.

We aren’t confined to conventional types of neighborhood engagement—whether or not you come for a selected present or only a stroll by the promenade, WestK presents a cultural encounter for everybody.

What are the district’s largest challenges?

Fung: Our largest problem in comparison with many European establishments is that we should not have authorities funding on a recurring foundation. We obtained a one-off endowment which was primarily used for constructing prices and operational prices within the first few years. So our longer-term funding wants to come back from our industrial improvement.

But, one of many important aggressive benefits is our proximity to the opposite cities within the Larger Bay Space. This area, encompassing 9 cities and 86 million individuals, offers an enormous cultural hinterland. With a rising variety of vacationers coming repeatedly from the opposite cities within the Larger Bay Space, we’re establishing a extra diversified and sustainable supply of viewers and earnings.

Expertise is one other problem. In Hong Kong, there may be not but a prepared provide of pros with experience in disciplines similar to exhibition curation or conservation. This yr now we have arrange the WestK Academy to domesticate a brand new era of native younger skills to hitch the cultural business.

What do you every hope the summit will obtain?

Raffel: It’s all the time great to collect, to come back collectively, to share. We will study a lot from our friends concerning the very totally different conditions and experiences of every of us. Asia has been late to make museums in the best way that Europe and North America and Australia have carried out. So after we collect our colleagues from this a part of the world with the extra established cities, it’s nice to study however to additionally realise that we are able to train in a method that we had not thought that we might.

Ng: We wish to set up extra partnership tasks. Once we opened the Hong Kong Palace Museum we had a really robust imaginative and prescient to advance the dialogue amongst world civilisations. Since we opened now we have organised exhibitions with 14 worldwide companions, together with the Louvre, Nationwide Gallery London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Palace of Versailles and the Museum of Islamic Artwork in Doha. Such partnerships are crucial specifically for Hong Kong as a world cultural world metropolis.

Fung: Many leaders attending the summit have talked about they’ve by no means visited Hong Kong. So now WestK and the Hong Kong Worldwide Cultural Summit give them a compelling motive to come back. It’s a platform for change, particularly for these within the West who wish to join with individuals from Hong Kong and the Chinese language Mainland. WestK aspires to be a real East-meets-West platform.

I’m additionally eager that one thing concrete comes out of the summit. We be certain that each Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) comes with collaboration programmes, similar to a touring exhibition or knowledgeable expertise change. Simply inside two years, now we have already seen a whole lot of fruitful outcomes from the 21 MOUs signed with main arts and cultural establishments worldwide from the primary version of the Summit in 2024. We sit up for seeing this platform proceed to bridge cultures and realise much more transformative partnerships.

2nd Hong Kong Worldwide Cultural Summit at WestK, 22-23 March, www.culturalsummit.hk