To honour her commitment to education and her contribution to British arts overseas, Ms McAlister was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire earlier this year (she was previously made a Member of the most Excellent Order of the British Empire or MBE in 1997).

The enterprise began in 1993 as the Hong Kong Youth Arts Festival - an annual event running on a shoestring budget. It was her brainchild and has since evolved into a fully fledged, year-round scheme offering quality instruction and non-competitive art experiences for children and young adults.

The original inspiration sprang from the observation that the arts environment for children in Hong Kong had the wrong focus: it allowed only limited opportunity for self-expression and true creativity.

'Everything was so competitive and kids were under pressure to always be the first or the best,' Ms McAlister said. 'I thought what a pity [it was] that they couldn't just immerse themselves in the fun of the arts and feel free to express themselves however they liked.'

With a community arts background from Britain, she wanted to develop a forum that would allow young people to share their work in a non-judgmental and non-critical manner.

In the early days, the biggest obstacle was trying to get people to understand the concept of the project.

There were two common reactions - that it would only attract expatriate children, and that the local community would be unsupportive because no award system was involved.

Both responses simply served to spur things on.

Today, about 94 per cent of participants are from 800 local schools, and most of the work is conducted in Cantonese.

The foundation has gone a step further by reaching out to special needs schools, hospitals and the correctional services. This has led to organising painting classes for sick children in hospital, as well as setting up tailor-made arts projects for the Ebenezer Training Centre for the Visually Impaired and for boys in correctional homes.

Ms McAlister said the most important thing about what the foundation did was not merely to provide a platform for the arts, but it also to inspire ideas and changes, which could have a long-term effect on many other areas of people's lives.

'Through our programmes, children get to learn about different life skills,' she said. 'They gain self esteem, tap into their creativity and can use their problem-solving and communication abilities to take on leadership roles. In essence, they have the opportunity to develop all the elements that parents hope their children will have as they grow to become self-confident adults.'

She said the various activities focused on nurturing well-rounded individuals who were capable of being the leaders of tomorrow, rather than the 'sheep of tomorrow'.

'They will have ideas of their own, rather than just listening and doing what they are told,' she said.

Participants can join any number of performing and visual arts programmes. Last year, for example, the foundation ran more than 80 diverse events such as dramas and musicals at locations including Pacific Place and the Hong Kong Arts Centre.

The basic principle is to encourage purely voluntary involvement in the performances.

'We don't want the activities to be the sort that your mum forces you to go to on a Saturday afternoon, when you don't really want to be there.'

Ms McAlister came to Hong Kong 20 years ago at the end of a lengthy backpacking trip through South Asia. She meant to stay with a friend who promised her a couch to sleep on and a few meals, but within two hours of arriving she realised she had found a city to call home.

'I knew Hong Kong was the place for me. The buzz really made me feel invigorated and I felt anything was possible here,' she said.

With only a few dollars to her name, she made ends meet by accepting a poorly paid job teaching English. She soon realised that if she was to fulfill a long-held dream of starting an arts festival, it was now or never.

She took the plunge by arranging an overdraft with Standard Chartered Bank and working tirelessly from one tiny bedroom on a publicity campaign to generate support.

Fortunately her efforts caught the eye of Chung Po-yang, co-founder of DHL International. His cheque not only covered her overdraft, but also the running of the project for the first year and beyond.

By then, word about the festival was spreading like wildfire. Standard Chartered Bank made a HK$1 million donation and, subsequently, other big-name sponsors such as Morgan Stanley, MTR Corporation and ABN Amro chipped in, while Swire Properties offered to provide rent-free office space.

Though backed nowadays by a seven-strong team, Ms McAlister is solely responsible for the foundation's fund-raising, and continues to make cold calls to potential donors. She enjoys pitching ideas to companies interested in doing something for the arts, and rubbing shoulders with senior executives.

'Even when you have a great project, getting donations can depend on whether your personality clicks with the people [or not].'

One source of special encouragement has been the increasing acceptance by parents of the importance of training in the arts. She noted, though, that too many still regarded art as a hobby rather than something their children could pursue professionally.

This is something which strikes deep because Ms McAlister's own love of the arts did not always get the support she hoped for.

'Of all the subjects at school, I knew I could do the arts best but I just felt no one could recognise my creative side,' she said.

At the age of 11 she got a part in a musical and initially had to sneak off to rehearsals because her parents thought her time would be better spent doing homework.

In the end she won them over and went on to take a degree in the creative arts. After university, she won an Arts Council grant in Britain and joined a group of like-minded friends to start up community arts projects - an ideal grounding for the role she would play later in Hong Kong.

Work in progress

Ms McAlister came to Hong Kong 20 years ago

Her background is in community arts in Britain

Main responsibility for fund-raising and pitching new project ideas

Has seen parents' increasing acceptance of arts

Arranges programmes which develop self-confidence and different skills