48th Board Meeting of West Kowloon Cultural District Authority Held Today

The Board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) held its 48th meeting today.

At the meeting, Chief Executive Officer of WKCDA Mr Duncan Pescod reported that construction activity on the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) site has continued to progress smoothly and is building up. A particular milestone has been reached at the site of the Xiqu Centre where the main theatre steel roof structure with fly tower has been fully assembled and welded at the ground level. The theatre structure weighing about 1,800 tonnes was successfully lifted to the mid-height of the mega columns last Friday as planned, and will be lifted to its final position at the top of the mega columns later this year. With the lift completed, the construction programme for the Xiqu Centre remains on schedule.

The M+ Pavilion (formerly Arts Pavilion), which is fast approaching its completion by mid-2016, also reached an important milestone as the construction of its building structure was completed in November last year with other works – associated underground utilities, building interior, internal finishing work and building services installation – all progressing to schedule. At the same time construction of M+ has continued to advance with excavation down to the B2 slab. The tender for the Park Main Works, including the Black Box and the associated public infrastructure works, has just been issued on 18 January. 

Mr Pescod also pointed out that in addition to the 700 workers who are currently working on the WKCD site, hundreds of job opportunities in the construction field will be created as the construction works continue, as well as more job openings becoming available in the operations, performance, exhibition and many other fields as facilities start to open from 2016 onwards. The practical economic value of the investment in the WKCD will become evident from then on.

On the artistic front, Mr Pescod informed Members that Mobile M+: Moving Images which took place in March and April last year, was awarded the “Exhibition of the Year 2015 (Chinese Contemporary Art)” at the 2015 TANC Asia Prize organised by The Art Newspaper China. A new project, M+ Screenings marked another significant chapter in the evolution of M+ when it showcased a diverse range of moving image works last weekend from 15 to 17 January, presenting works by 13 Hong Kong and international artists and filmmakers. Mr Pescod also reported that Mobile M+: Live Art, which brought more than 6 cross-disciplinary public performance art events and 3 exhibitions to various locations and covered an exciting range of contemporary practices and forms of engagement with the public, was a great artistic success.

The Freespace Happening series which features different programmes was expanded to twice a month in support of the Government’s “Appreciate Hong Kong” public participation campaign starting from December last year. The programme included print and graphic art exhibitions as well as a special performance art event by Chinese artist Lin Yilin on 13 December 2015; the green-themed post-Xmas gift swap with JupYeah on 27 December, and The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra four-piece percussion ensemble and Danceless performance with Taiko Drums on 10 January 2016. All the Freespace events have been well received by the public. The Board Chairman, Mrs Carrie Lam, visited the Freespace Happening on 13 December 2015 together with Mr Pescod. She toured around the performance space, the pop-up exhibition area and stalls, and chatted with members of the public to collect their feedback towards the event. At the Board meeting, she invited Board members to join the coming Freespace Happening programmes and share their aspirations for the WKCD project. 

At the meeting, the Board also noted the M+ Pilot Membership Programme to be launched in summer 2016, and development of a Performing Arts Artistic Strategy.