Issues to do at West Kowloon Cultural District this March with Betty Fung

Betty Fung, Prestige Woman of Power and West Kowloon CEO, walks us through the district’s vibrant programme this year and the first Hong Kong International Cultural Summit.

What should we expect from the Hong Kong International Cultural Summit?

With the theme Connecting Culture, Bridging Times, the summit is designed as the largest international cultural conference to be staged in Hong Kong in recent years, kicking off the Hong Kong Art Week 2024. It brings together more than 1,000 arts and cultural leaders from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Asia and beyond for two days of dialogues. We’re welcoming more than 20 eminent speakers from 12 countries and regions, including the heads of some of the world’s most important cultural institutions, to take part in a plenary session and four panel discussions held at three West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) venues – M+, the Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) and the Xiqu Centre.

During the Summit, M+, HKPM and the WKCD’s Performing Arts Division are signing agreements with more 20 leading arts and cultural institutions from around the world.

We’re also presenting networking opportunities, such as a party for 3,000 guests at M+ on the evening of March 25, as well as bilateral discussions and exclusive tours of our museums and performing arts programmes, to allow overseas guests to connect and exchange ideas, while experiencing our city’s unique cultural flavour.

Tell us about West Kowloon’s role in fostering cultural exchange in Hong Kong.

Within a short span of two years after the opening of our major arts and cultural facilities in 2022, WKCD has emerged as a vibrant international cultural hub by showcasing the best of Chinese and Western culture, both traditional and contemporary.

As well as the spectacular exhibitions hosted by our two world-class museums, WKCD also presents diversified performing arts programmes at the Xiqu Centre and Freespace, and an array of events at outdoor venues in the Art Park.

See Also

Joanna Lui Hickox

Which programmes at West Kowloon should we be looking forward to?

In mid-March, M+ opens The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Noir & Blanc: – A Story of Photography, its first exhibition on photography, co-presented with the French May Arts Festival in collaboration with the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF), showcasing more than 300 works from the BnF and M+ collections. That’s followed by an HKPM exhibition on the Yuanmingyuan imperial gardens, which features more than 160 spectacular paintings, architectural models and other works associated with the once-magnificent Qing-dynasty imperial garden palace, which served as the principal residence of five emperors.

On the performing-arts side, the first-ever WestK FunFest, held between mid-March and early April, offers more than 150 programmes by local and international artists targeting families and children. Among the highlights are Ephemeral, an award-winning, large-scale art installation on the Art Park’s Waterfront Promenade, where visitors can enter a world of giant rainbow-hued bubbles and pop-up performances.