Arts and Culture

141.    Hong Kong has long been a melting pot of eastern and western cultures.  Our inclusiveness and diversity are evidenced by our arts and culture.  I believe that many of us are excited about the commissioning of various cultural facilities in the next few years.  Apart from the expansion of the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the construction of the East Kowloon Cultural Centre, various facilities in the West Kowloon Cultural District, including the Xiqu Centre, Art Park, Freespace and M+ Museum, will also be completed in the coming few years.

142.    Recurrent expenditure on arts and culture exceeds $4 billion for 2017-18, an increase of over 30 per cent as compared with 2012-13.  This will mainly be incurred for art education and promotion, venue support for art activities and subventions for art groups.  The recurrent subvention for the nine major performing art groups alone has increased by about ten per cent over the same period.  To nurture small and medium performing art groups as well as budding artists, the Government has implemented the Arts Capacity Development Funding Scheme since 2011 and funded a total of 73 projects in the past five rounds of application.  In addition, an Art Development Matching Grants Pilot Scheme was launched last year to provide matching grants to art groups and art organisations of different sizes and at different development stages for the amount of donations they raised, with a view to widening their sources of funding and encouraging community support for art and cultural development.  Matching grants approved under the first round of the scheme will be disbursed this year.

143.    We will continue to support the exchange activities and performances of art groups and artists through the regular funding schemes of the Home Affairs Bureau and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.  To complement the celebration activities for the 20^th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Government will allocate additional resources in 2017-18 to support more local art groups and artists to perform in major overseas and Mainland cities to showcase our cultural strength.