Messing with art

Baptist University gives outsiders a glimpse of the city's first visual arts academy, a renovated Royal Air Force officers' mess built in the 1930s.

The 37,600 sq ft premises in Kowloon Bay houses 40 students who began their undergraduate studies in visual arts last month. The university hopes to eventually expand the programme to 400 students and is building new premises to be finished in 2008.

Renovation work on the mess, which is leased from the government, is expected to be completed soon.

The premises offer students a scenic environment to study drawing, sculpture, painting, ceramics and glass work.