50th Board Meeting of West Kowloon Cultural District Authority Held Today

The Board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) held its 50th meeting today.

At the meeting, WKCDA’s Chief Executive Officer Mr Duncan Pescod reported that there have been continuous good progress on the design and construction of the facilities in the district. The Xiqu Centre’s theatre structure was successfully lifted to its final position at the top of the mega columns in its phase two lifting on 24 February. To mark the commencement of the foundation works for the Lyric Theatre Complex and the surrounding basement below the Artist Square, a simple ceremony was held on 4 March. The Project Delivery team is also making good progress on finalising the design for the Lyric Theatre Complex and the construction of M+ Main Works.

While acknowledging with the construction progress Mr Pescod also stressed the importance of safety. The Board was pleased to note that the construction site for Xiqu Centre Main Works has recently won the Gold Prize in the Building Sites (Sub-contractors category) and the Silver Prize in the Building Sites (Private Sector category) in the Construction Industry Safety Award Scheme for the year of 2015/2016. Board Members were also briefed that a Safety Performance Award Presentation Ceremony was held in early March by WKCDA to recognise individuals and contractors that demonstrated their commitment to high standards of safety management for the period of July to December 2015.

Mr Pescod indicated that a number of artistic programmes have received positive responses from the public. The M+ Sigg Collection Exhibition: Four Decades of Chinese Contemporary Art has attracted a record of over 22,000 visitors since its opening on 23 February, alongside over 100 school groups registered to visit the exhibition. The M+ Screenings: Forty Years organised in conjunction with the M+ Sigg Collection Exhibition examining the evolution of Chinese contemporary art through a selection of eight rarely seen artists’ moving images, documentaries and feature films in March, as well as the M+ Matters public talk on Confronting Activist Art and Design from a Museological Perspective held yesterday both received a warm response.

Members also noted the successful staging of the innovative performances of contemporary productions in February – “The Ghost Seller” by GuoGuang Opera Company from Taiwan and “His Butterflies (Version 80)” by Utopia Cantonese Opera Workshop from Hong Kong. An education matinee was held on 27 February with over 300 teachers and students attending. Two sessions of Freespace Happening were held respectively on 28 February and 13 March. The good weather helped make the family-themed programme on 28 February a huge success, attracting over 9,300 visitors to the Nursery Park. Themed as a pet-friendly event, the next Freespace Happening on 27 March will bring the curtain down on this first Freespace Happening season. It will return in September 2016.

The Board approved the appointment of Mr William Chan as the Chief Operating Officer with effect from 4 July 2016. For details of the appointment, please see the separate press release issued on the same day.