Happy birthday to the Hong Kong Arts Centre, which is celebrating its 25th year in the promotion of the SAR's creative talent.

Launching the centre's silver-anniversary festivities is today's opening of an important exhibition, 'In Celebration Of Art', which features some of Hong Kong's most established artists such as Chu Hing-wah, Wong Shun-kit and Wong Yan-kwai, as well as paintings by Walasse Ting and Zou Wuki from overseas. All the works at the exhibition have been donated for a timely auction in support of the centre. There will be a reserve price at the bottom of each work, anyone can submit a bid and the auction's winners can take their purchases home when the show ends on September 30. For more information call the Hong Kong Arts Centre at 2582 0214.

You can also support another good cause by hopping over to the ground floor of the Central Library in Causeway Bay, where a charity exhibition of photographs by oral surgeon Pierre Lam opens tonight. Lam, an avid photographer who uses large-format cameras, has taken a series of shots of sunrises and sunsets for his 'Picture For Inspiration' show. All proceeds from the sale of the photographs will help the Salvation Army's health projects in China.

Hong Kong Ballet is forging ahead with its tour of North America with The Last Emperor. The ballet's chairman, Cissy Pao Watari, and board members Allan Zeman and Christine Liao gave the troupe a send-off on Wednesday as it embarked on a tour of 23 United States cities and Toronto. The tour's organisers 'will obviously take into consideration the safety of the whole company and make changes to the itinerary if necessary', a company spokesman says. No performances have been arranged for New York City but the troupe is scheduled to be in upstate Binghamton by mid-October.