During the year under review, the LCSD continued to offer a wide range of quality cultural events, helping maintain Hong Kong’s status as Asia’s events capital. The array of programmes included a variety of exciting festivals and shows by local and international artists, and audience-building activities. The department also manages many of Hong Kong’s leading performance venues.
Since it opened in 1989, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, managed by the LCSD, has been Hong Kong’s premier cultural venue. Capable of staging a wide range of performing arts events, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre houses a 2 019-seat Concert Hall, a 1 734-seat Grand Theatre and a Studio Theatre with a seating capacity of 496. In 2013-14, 708 performances held there attracted over 660 000 visitors.
The Hong Kong Cultural Centre is the major venue for Hong Kong’s seven big cultural events – the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Hong Kong International Film Festival, Le French May, the Chinese Opera Festival, the International Arts Carnival, as well as the two thematic festivals, the New Vision Arts Festival and World Cultures Festival. It is also a stage for many internationally acclaimed performing arts groups. In 2013-14 such groups included the Dresdner Philharmonie, the Guerzenich Orchestra Cologne, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestra, Magdalena Kožená and Private Musicke, Maria João Pires with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Geneva Ballet, the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg, the Teatro alla Scala Ballet, the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch from Germany, the Akram Khan Company from the UK, the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe, and the Tianjin Peking Opera Theatre. Other acclaimed programmes included opera productions The Tales of Hoffmann, The Flying Dutchman and Lohengrin, and recitals by Renée Fleming, Kyung-Wha Chung and Yundi Li.
In the opening programme of the World Cultures Festival 2013, the modern ballet Anna Karenina was performed by the world-renowned Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre’s Grand Theatre.
A scene from The Flying Dutchman, performed at the Grand Theatre of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in October 2013.
The opening programme of the Chinese Opera Festival 2013 was staged at the Grand Theatre of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in June 2013.
Offering a panoramic view of Victoria Harbour, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre’s outdoor piazza is a popular place for spectacular events such as the International Chinese New Year Night Parade and the Lunar New Year Lantern Carnival and Fireworks Display. In September 2013 a new scheme the Creative Market in Partnership @ HKCC was launched, bringing about vibrancy to the piazza and enabling talented artists to engage with the community. The scheme draws a number of community, youth and arts organisations to run a wide range of handicraft and arts stalls at the piazza on weekends.
The handicraft and arts stalls in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza, where visitors can browse the creative workmanship of young and veteran handicraft artists alike.
The Hong Kong City Hall, which opened in 1962, was our first purpose-built civic centre. In 2009, the Bauhaus-style complex was designated a Grade 1 Historic Building. The Hong Kong City Hall has a 1 434-seat concert hall with fine acoustics, a 463-seat theatre and a 590-square metre exhibition hall. Around 356 000 patrons attended 591 performances staged there in 2013-14.
Built in classic Bauhaus style over 50 years ago, the Hong Kong City Hall remains a popular performance venue today.
The Hong Kong City Hall’s legacy as a cradle of the arts, and its pioneering role in promoting arts and culture in Hong Kong, is widely recognised in the community. Last year, it hosted many outstanding programmes by world-renowned artists and arts groups, including performances by classical guitarist Pepe Romero, and two of the world's most accomplished choirs, namely, the Choir of King's College, Cambridge and the Vienna Boys' Choir. Other distinguished arts groups performed there included I1 Giardino Armonico, the Academy of Ancient Music, the Bristol Old Vic, the Shijiazhuang Sixian Opera Troupe of Hebei, the Don Cossacks State Academic Song and Dance Ensemble in honour of Anatoly Kvasov, the Terem Quartet, and Divina and Melodi. Acclaimed local artists including Trey Lee, Colleen Lee and Rachel Cheung also performed at City Hall.
Our range of arts facilities are focal points for cultural activities around Hong Kong. They include larger venues such as the Sha Tin, Tsuen Wan and Tuen Mun town halls, and the Kwai Tsing, Yuen Long and Ko Shan theatres; and smaller venues such as the Sai Wan Ho, Sheung Wan, Ngau Chi Wan and Tai Po civic centres, and the North District town hall. Most of them have been serving the community for many years.
The Theatre at the Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre is an excellent venue for performances of all kinds.
Our venue sponsorship scheme promotes and encourages the arts at grassroots level by offering free use of our facilities to district arts groups involved in organising cultural activities for the local community. In 2013-14, about 90 community arts groups were sponsored for more than 610 activities, attracting over 150 000 people. Various independent organisations also hired our facilities for arts activities.
The Government is keen to preserve and develop Cantonese opera in Hong Kong. Given the high demand for performance venues in Hong Kong, the LCSD has put in place a priority hiring policy for professional Cantonese opera troupes. This gives them priority hiring of the Ko Shan Theatre, along with priority hiring for specific periods at five other major performance venues. The Yau Ma Tei Theatre only accepts booking applications for Chinese opera and related activities.
Cantonese Opera Day promotes the development of this valuable vernacular art.
Built in 1930, the Yau Ma Tei Theatre is the only surviving pre-war cinema building in the urban area of Hong Kong. The theatre closed down in 1998 and was accorded Grade 2 status by the Antiquities Advisory Board in the same year. The theatre and the adjacent Grade 1 Red Brick Building had been revitalised, and re-opened on July 17, 2012. The complex provides a 300-seat theatre and two function rooms dedicated to Chinese opera, and has become a training and performance venue for budding Cantonese opera talents. In 2013-14, more than 75 000 visitors attended 351 performances at the theatre.
The revitalised Yau Ma Tei Theatre, which provides a 300-seat theatre and two function rooms dedicated to Chinese opera, serves as a training and performance venue for budding Cantonese opera talents.
To facilitate the development of culture and the arts in Hong Kong, the Government plans to build a cross-district cultural centre in Ngau Tau Kok, which will comprise an auditorium with about 1 200 seats and a theatre with about 550 seats. Upon completion, it will become a major cultural facility in East Kowloon.
The Ko Shan Theatre’s New Wing is scheduled to open in November 2014. It houses a 600-seat auditorium as well as rehearsal and training facilities for Cantonese opera artists and performing troupes. The venue will also serve as a base for Cantonese opera performances, experimental works, training and rehearsals.
A three-year Venue Partnership Scheme has been in place since April 2009 that fosters partnerships between venues and performing arts groups in ways that enhance their image, expand their audience, optimise the use of the facilities, and encourage community involvement in the arts. The second round is running from April 2012 to March 2015. Venue partners are supported in various ways, such as by being given priority use of venue facilities, funding, enhanced publicity, and work spaces. In 2013-14, the department’s 21 venue partners, which include individual groups, joint groups and consortia, presented 812 performances and engaged in 1 033 audience-building activities. Together they attracted some 819 000 spectators and participants.
Partners
Hong Kong Sinfonietta
Hong Kong Repertory Theatre
Hong Kong Philharmonic
Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra
Hong Kong Ballet
Zuni Icosahedron
Chung Ying Theatre Company
W Theatre and Wind Mill Grass Theatre
Whole Theatre
E-Side Dance Company
Hong Kong Theatre Works
The Absolutely Fabulous Theatre Connection
The Cantonese Opera Advancement Association
Trinity Theatre and The Radiant Theatre
Perry Chiu Experimental Theatre
Hong Kong Dance Company
Ming Ri Institute for Arts Education
Spring-Time Experimental Theatre and Hong Kong
Young Talent Cantonese Opera Troupe
The Chinese Artists Association of Hong Kong
Hong Kong Performing Stage of Cantonese Opera
Theatre Noir
The Arts Administrator Trainee Scheme was launched in 2010 to nurture a pool of young arts administrators that would support the development of Hong Kong’s cultural ‘software’.
LCSD arts administrator trainees undergo a two-year programme that teaches them about venue operations, facility management, event promotion, and the organisation of performing arts programmes, carnivals and arts festivals. Newly recruited trainees in stage management are learning technical know-how at LCSD venues under the guidance of in-house stage professionals. There were 42 LCSD trainee positions in 2013.
During the year, the LCSD also sponsored its 21 venue partners, comprising major and small/medium-sized performing arts groups, as well as the Hong Kong Arts Festival Society, in the engagement of 44 trainees to learn about the management of performing arts groups and arts festivals.
