There is still a hint of anger in Eddie Lui Fung-ngar's voice when he talks about his stint at the helm of the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre. The Shek Kip Mei venue, which opened three years ago, was one of the first projects to put an idle industrial building to new use.
'The centre was a very important stepping stone in local arts development and it was going to be the first of many to come. We thought it would persuade the government to free up more similar spaces for creative use,' says Lui, who left his post in February after two years.
Soon after the 120 artists and art groups settled in, however, some began to complain about the management, accusing it of being too bureaucratic and lacking expertise in the arts.
'They basically criticised the administration for not handing them everything on a plate. There were simple issues that they could have resolved themselves but they didn't. I was nonplussed. Here is a space they can make use of to create art. But instead, some of these artists used it to play politics.'
Lui's management style was called into question by some. Theatre director and playwright Ng Ka-hei says Lui communicated only with those he knew. 'Those who didn't have a dialogue with him, he kept them in the dark and that was how he operated,' Ng says.
In hindsight, Lui says, the project - a collaborative effort between Baptist University, the Arts Development Council, the Arts Centre and the Jockey Club, which forked out the HK$69 million for renovations - was too ambitious.