The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) opened its first Asian campus in Hong Kong, prompted by rising admissions from Asian-based applicants at its North American and European campuses
Francine Pashley is studying for a post-graduate degree in museum studies in Hong Kong. She moved to the city from the United Kingdom four years ago, when her husband took a job in the IT sector. Finding the course was a welcome surprise. “When you think of Hong Kong, you think finance, accounting, property,” says Ms Pashley, who has an undergraduate degree in archeology.
Hong Kong’s recent economic success is now fuelling an interest in the arts. “The Chinese have tended to look to the future, not the past. Now they seem to have more of this idea of preserving things for the future,” she says.
Culture and heritage courses are growing, prompted by a number of factors. Development is underway to transform a harbour-side space in Hong Kong’s Kowloon area into 15 performing arts venues and cultural centres, as well as a museum for contemporary visual arts as part of the West Kowloon Cultural District.
Professor Chan Wing-wah, head of the Centre for Creative and Performing Arts, School of Professional and Continuing Studies, University of Hong Kong
In 2009, the Hong Kong Government boosted interest in the sector by announcing a plan to develop arts and culture as one of six pillar industries to broaden Hong Kong’s economic base. An office, CreateHK, was launched soon after to offer support arts ventures.
Knowledge-Based Economy
John Paul Rowan, Vice President, SCAD Hong Kong
Schools at all levels have responded. Professor Chan Wing-wah, head of the Centre for Creative and Performing Arts with the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) School of Professional and Continuing Studies, re-launched the museum studies course, which is jointly run with Australia’s Sydney University, in 2009. The visual arts centre at West Kowloon is expected to generate about 200 vacancies alone, says Professor Chan, but he expects similar opportunities to widen in the next few years. “Everybody knows we are starting to look towards the creative industries. When the government uses this term ‘knowledge-based economy,’ we know they are naturally shifting strategy, thinking about how arts and culture can be consumed, can become a commodity,” he says.
In 2009, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) became the first US art and design university to establish a degree-granting campus in Hong Kong. The school was prompted to open in Asia after admissions from Asian-based applicants at its North American and European campuses kept rising.
“After significant investigation, SCAD determined that Asia, and Hong Kong in particular, would be an ideal site for a new location. Hong Kong is a sophisticated international city with a strong market and an ongoing need for creative talent, to which SCAD is pleased to contribute,” says John Paul Rowan, the school’s Hong Kong Vice President. “SCAD Hong Kong, in a most timely way, answered the government’s call to educate outstanding local and international art and design students.”
Creative Pathways
Chris Durbin, Secondary School Development Advisor, English Schools Foundation
Arts education is strengthening at the secondary level, too. Within the English Schools Foundation (ESF), an English-language school system with kindergarten, primary and secondary campuses, a pilot programme offering vocational B-Tec qualifications has been introduced in a lead school. The programme will be rolled out across secondary school campuses this year. The move offers “an alternative pathway to the International Baccalaureate for students who specifically know what they want to do post-school.” It includes a range of creative courses, including media, performing, visual and digital arts, according to Chris Durbin, ESF’s Secondary School Development Advisor.
Parents are now keen to see creativity increased in classrooms, says Mr Durbin. Accordingly, ESF schools are “art-rich places,” he says. The city’s rich cultural history is a contributor in producing highly skilled art students. “If you look at the standard of visual arts, for instance, in our schools, it’s incredibly high. I’d say our teachers encourage the Western school tradition of challenging what went before. This mixes with the Chinese tradition, which is to hand down from the master.” As a result, students develop technical expertise and creative thinking skills.
Private Sector Involvement
Professor Stephen Chan, Academic Dean, Faculty of Arts, Lingnan University
Early arts education raises creativity and boosts art appreciation across the community – essential for the kind of self-sustaining cultural economy that Hong Kong wants to develop, says Professor Stephen Chan. The professor, who has a long interest in cultural policy, is Academic Dean at Lingnan University’s Faculty of Arts and is an advisor for the Lee Kau Kee School of Creativity, another secondary school offering arts education. While government initiatives have gone some way to raising the profile of arts and culture, the sector needs support from industry and the community at large if it is to prosper, according to Professor Chan. Making art an everyday interaction at all levels is fundamental. “That doesn’t just depend on that 40 acres [at West Kowloon]. We’re looking towards a whole society regeneration,” he says.
Education should continue to evolve, says Professor Chan. Multiple-genre courses should blend creative disciplines and new technology alongside arts management and cultural policy. The aim is to produce well-rounded graduates equipped to handle world-class culture events as well as community-based ventures.
Many agree the creative economy will thrive as it moves into the private realm. More than half the students on the current intake of the HKU’s museum studies course already work in government-run Leisure and Cultural Services Department positions, but a number come from other careers. One, for instance, was trained as a lawyer. These career-changers may be torchbearers for Hong Kong’s future as a vibrant, diverse cultural hub. “We do need this fresh blood,” says HKU’s Professor Chan. “Some potential applicants ask me, ‘What if I don’t want to work within government institutions?’ I say to them, ‘Go to a private gallery, or open your own gallery and do something really different.’”
