Today the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) announced the allocation of HKD7.5 million towards the Jockey Club Performing Arts Venue Subsidy Scheme. This scheme will offer rent-free venues to local art groups and individuals. This will enable local art groups a venue for them to hold performance or art installations. At the moment this scheme is only for the Blackbox Theatre venue, which is the theatre in the newly opened Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre (JCCA) in Shek Kip Mei. Where HKJC’s funding enabled the conversion of a vacated industrial building into a art center.
This is a move in the right direction for Hong Kong, as arts and culture is not that prevalent in Hong Kong. There are talks and much discussions about the West Kowloon and Kai Tak projects relating to arts and culture, but both of these projects are years away. Whether these projects will turn out as the government had intended, we will need to wait and see. In the past projects similar in intent had failed drastically, case in point is Cyberport.
I believe more of the Hong Kong arts and culture venues should similar charity programs for local budding artists and performers.