Attracting talent

Mainland Treasures
Hong Kong Palace Museum

With its signature bronze ceiling, an ode to Beijing Palace’s gold roofs, Hong Kong Palace Museum has been showcasing objects from China and abroad since 2022.

A collaborative project with Beijing’s Palace Museum, this exceptional institution allows visitors to explore a unique selection of prized antiques and art objects without having to travel to mainland China. The museum’s aim, says deputy director of curatorial, collection and programming Dr Daisy Wang (pictured), is to “create a lively dialogue between the past and the present”.

With more than 1,500 loans and about 220 objects categorised as “grade-one national treasures” (an official classification that forbids some being displayed outside China), the museum’s nine galleries house valuables from Beijing’s Forbidden City, including portraiture, enamelware and jewellery. Many underwent complex protocols and logistics to be displayed in Hong Kong, an unprecedented new “guinea pig” model, says Wang.

These mainland treasures are complemented by generous donations from collectors in Hong Kong, including rare imperial porcelain and Ming furniture. A 400-seat auditorium for conferences and vast atriums with windows overlooking the harbour add to the sense of a venue that provides an essential cultural hub for the world.

Four Walls To Inspire
Tai Kwun

Tai Kwun is a former police compound, home to Hong Kong’s first prison. The site was revitalised by Herzog & de Meuron, reopening in 2018 as a public centre for heritage and arts.

Yet despite the addition of two new buildings, visitors can still travel back in time via documents, timelines and anecdotes that explore the history of the Central site and the wider arts-and-crafts scene in an immersive way.

One of those new buildings is JC Contemporary, a sleek arts centre frequented by a younger audience attending contemporary exhibitions and annual art book fairs. Its modern steel-and-concrete exterior uses recycled industrial materials that echo the masonry blocks of the site’s historic buildings.

Tai Kwun’s exhibition programme often utilises that blend of modern and heritage architecture, developing work that responds to the various spaces. “Pretopia” by Polish artist Alicja Kwade, for example, pairs nine works from across her career with newly commissioned installations tailored to the history and architecture of F Hall. “The more you see, the more you know,” says Tai Kwun’s head of art, Pi Li (pictured). “Go to the museum first and we’ll try our best to make your experience meaningful and remarkable.”

Bridging East And West
Hong Kong Museum of Art

Established in 1962, Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) was the city’s first public art museum, yet it continues to figure on lists of the world’s most popular institutions.

HKMoA’s curatorial concept centres on making traditional art appealing to everyone, especially younger visitors, via interactive games and other engaging ways. For example, an in-museum personality test (also available online) allows visitors to determine their personality type and search for work on display that might resonate.

The semi-permanent displays include signature ink-and-oil paintings by modern Chinese master Wu Guanzhong, whose largely monochrome aesthetic reflects his admiration for nature and thoughts about life. Excerpts from Wu’s writing offer an insightful first-person take on the late artist’s work.

The museum’s director, Dr Maria Mok (pictured), says HKMoA’s success lies in its ambition to build a “bridge that links the East and West, the mainstream and the fringe, to curate this rich world of contrast with a Hong Kong viewpoint”. With a renovated glass façade, visitors can take a leisurely stroll through the light-filled corridors when pausing to reflect on the art.

On The Waterfront
M+

Located on Victoria Harbour waterfront, Asia’s first contemporary visual culture museum, M+, brings Hong Kong local talents and curatorship to a global audience.

Through art, video, design and architecture, M+ tells stories of Asian contemporary arts that are yet to be fully reflected in museums in the West, according to museum director Suhanya Raffel (pictured).

The museum’s striking terracotta-tile-clad tower has a dynamic LED system on the south façade that displays M+ content, an eye-catching addition to the city’s buzzing night skyline. Food lovers should book a table at the tower’s third-floor restaurant, Mosu Hong Kong, for an unforgettable fine-dining experience. Surrounding the venue is WestK Art Park, a stunning waterfront green space for leisurely walks, music shows and sunset views.

Back inside, M+’s impressive temporary exhibitions emphasise multicultural dialogue. September sees the opening of collaborative displays with Germany’s Haus der Kunst München and The National Art Center, Tokyo, while “Picasso for Asia: A Conversation”, co-curated with Musée National Picasso-Paris, opens in March. More than 60 of the Spanish artist’s masterpieces will share space with 80 works by artists from across Asia and its diaspora.