Reimagining communities: inside the Hong Kong International Cultural Summit

Because the Hong Kong Worldwide Cultural Summit returns on 22-23 March, cultural leaders from 14 international locations 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 fast evolution of Hong Kong’s cultural panorama — and the rising international relevance of the district itself. We spoke to 3 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 had been requested what sort of museums they needed. The advice was to not construct plenty of little museums, however to create an enormous museum that was cross-disciplinary, unburdened by labels like “trendy” or “modern”. It was to be a museum plus extra, and that was how we grew to become M+. We’re occupied with decentring the established canonical views on the historical past of artwork and visible tradition and complexifying them by 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 is going to be very fascinating to see how that evolution has taken place, how that dialog has grown, what are the similarities and variations. It’s one thing we must 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 implausible 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 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 might be doing. We strive very onerous to make it as wealthy an expertise as potential for the guests.

Louis Ng: WestK supplies 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 a lovely metropolis panorama. Individuals can recognize artwork and tradition otherwise.

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. But it surely 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 convey 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 exterior the town.

And our outreach is basically essential. In 2025, we had over 176,000 members by faculty 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 do not need a standard viewers as a result of M+ could be very new. The choice to make the museum transdisciplinary, with design, structure, artwork, shifting picture, all collectively: that was a brand new expertise for audiences right here. There isn’t any 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 distinct 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 common 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 lots 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 very talked-about Egyptian exhibition and individuals are spending one and a half to 2 hours in there.

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

How are you responding to these shifts?

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

For instance, as a world museum now we have two main 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 may help to supply 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 one can personalise the expertise for guests.

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

Betty Fung: WestK is far more than a group of venues—it’s a holistic cultural ecosystem. We now have museums and performing arts venues, open area, retail, eating and leisure amenities, in addition to business amenities like lodges, places of work and residential. With these components we’ve created a singular placemaking mannequin that enables us to interact the neighborhood in way more inventive and natural methods.

Our Artwork Park is an ideal instance. With 11 hectares of open area, it serves as the town’s cultural front room. Individuals come for the harbour view, for out of doors installations, for music concert events, for frolicsome and participatory festivals of performances equivalent to FunFest and Jazz Fest, in addition to for workshops and interactive actions. We even run a structured road efficiency scheme with coaching and assist 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 provides a cultural encounter for everybody.

What are the district’s greatest challenges?

Fung: Our greatest problem in comparison with many European establishments is that we do not need authorities funding on a recurring foundation. We acquired 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 return from our business improvement.

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

Expertise is one other problem. In Hong Kong, there may be not but a prepared provide of execs with experience in disciplines equivalent 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 affix the cultural business.

What do you every hope the summit will obtain?

Raffel: It’s all the time fantastic to assemble, to return collectively, to share. We are able to 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 way in which that Europe and North America and Australia have accomplished. 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 will educate in a manner that we had not thought that we might.

Ng: We need to set up extra partnership tasks. After we opened the Hong Kong Palace Museum we had a really sturdy 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 essential 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 return. It’s a platform for trade, particularly for these within the West who need 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, equivalent to a touring exhibition or an expert expertise trade. Simply inside two years, now we have already seen lots 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 stay 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