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Enid Tsui

A last-minute change to the Hong Kong Museum of Art's renovation plans may turn out to be one U-turn that will win the government much praise.
"We were going to keep the outside brick walls to save money," says Eve Tam Mei-yee, the museum's indefatigable chief curator.
Thankfully, however, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department has now decided to cover up the unfortunate shade with a far more modern, light-grey cladding when works are expected to start next year - provided the Legislative Council agrees on funding.
The thought that the harbourfront building would emerge from a huge makeover in the same dusty, institutional pink filled many with dismay.
External appearance aside, there is little doubt the museum needs an overhaul. Hong Kong was a non-entity in the global art world when the Tsim Sha Tsui gallery opened in 1991.
Despite its well-meaning curators and some blockbuster shows, the museum still feels like a throwback to a time when art was a mere afterthought for the government.
The number of visitors last year was just 530,000, and M+, the future contemporary/visual art platform that forms part of the West Kowloon Cultural District, is stealing all its limelight. M+ is rolling out all sorts of innovative events, and it hasn't even been built yet.
The Museum Advisory Panel convinced the government in 2011 that it was time to turn the Museum of Art into a star attraction. The revamp - estimated to cost HK$889 million - will create a new wing and an extra floor of exhibition space. The main entrance will be moved to street level, a decent restaurant will be added, and some walls will be knocked out to let more light in.
M+ could be seen as a blessing for the older museum. Its virtual monopoly status has made the Museum of Art rambling and vague. Its permanent exhibitions - all antiques - lack focus, and the displays are often criticised for being out of date. There is no permanent exhibition of international modern art or contemporary local art.

	It is particularly hard to find experts in Chinese antiques among the younger generation

	Eve Tam, chief curator
Tam says the museum will have a sharper focus when it reopens. To distinguish itself from its future rival in West Kowloon, it will become what its name literally suggests: a repository of Hong Kong art.
There will still be shows such as the popular French Impressionists and Andy Warhol exhibitions. But the museum will focus on developing a collection that represents Hong Kong's own art history. Tam says there will be 40 per cent increase in display space to create a permanent Hong Kong art exhibition.
"M+'s collection is going to be very international and the proportion of Hong Kong art represented is likely to be small," Tam says. "Also, it takes a cultural study approach to its collection, while we take the art history route. We only show fine art, but they will include design and advertising, for example."
Artist Lam Tung-pang hopes that the revamp, and the three-year closure, will give the museum a chance to break away from the rigid structure set out by civil servants in the past.
"New curators have been working on shows proposed by their predecessors three years ago," he says. "Eve's team is preparing a whole lot of off-site activities, while the physical building is shut off. They are finally allowed to try out different things."

The need for the Museum of Art to continue its work while the building is closed is all the more acute because Hong Kong will be without a major art gallery until renovations are completed, or M+, which has been delayed, finally opens.
Tam dismisses fears that Hong Kong will become a cultural desert, as far as visual art is concerned, for a lengthy period at a time when Singapore and other Asian cities are fighting to be considered the region's art hub.
A series of exhibitions on Hong Kong artists will be held at the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre in Kowloon Park, requisitioned by the Museum of Art for the duration of its closure. Temporary offshoots of the museum will also be set up in City Hall, its original home from 1962-91, and the Central Library.

It will curate shows overseas and loan out some of its collection, and there will be forums, such as events held jointly with the Asia Art Archive, its partner in a project to record local art history.
However, most plans are on hold because no one knows when the museum will close, Tam says.
The funding application was sent to the Legco before the summer break, but was held up by filibustering. Tam hopes lawmakers will reach agreement after the finance committee reconvenes in October, and work will begin next summer, in time for a 2018 reopening.
One area of external activities has started: education. Curators are working with teachers to devise short courses for children, and a specially fitted bus will take art education to faraway neighbourhoods.
There is also much to do in the interim to prepare the museum's "software" when the enlarged building reopens.
The Museum of Art has about 15,000 items in its collection - a small number compared with major art museums. During its closure, most items will go into storage.
Tam says the museum is receiving more government funding to buy art, including a HK$50 million allowance last year, which it is using to buy the winning entries in the annual Hong Kong Contemporary Art Award.
The closure will allow the museum to start a working relationship with experts outside the civil service system.
"We sometimes have trouble attracting high-calibre candidates as all newcomers must start at the assistant curator II level," Tam says. "If you've spent years studying and have a doctorate in art history, you're not going to want to come in at such a junior level."
This year, the starting salary for an AC II vacancy at the museum was less than HK$20,000 a month. But Tam hopes to start working with more guest curators and explore ways to employ them full time.
"It is particularly hard to find experts in Chinese antiques among the younger generation, so we'd love to work with specialists who may have retired recently; somebody like James Watt [the Hong Kong-born retired curator of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art] would be great," she says.
Meanwhile, the packing has begun. "We are like ants moving house - a little bit at a time. Though I hope we don't have that long to wait before we are told to clear out altogether."
 


Revamped museum will shift focus to local works