It's unquestionably the most ambitious arts and cultural project ever undertaken in Hong Kong. When both stages are completed, the West Kowloon Cultural District will have a visual cultural institution comparable in size to the Museum of Modern Art in New York or Tate Modern in London, along with 15 world-class performance venues entertaining up to 27,900 spectators a night.
Providing venues is one thing, improving the quality of the local arts and culture sector to justify such international-class facilities is quite another, experts say. The last thing Hong Kong needs is an expensive white elephant.
The centrepiece of the development is expected to be M+, a museum featuring 20th and 21st century visual culture, including design, moving images, popular culture and visual arts. But the arts sector is concerned about how it will be run.
'It cannot, and must not, be led by the government. The person in charge [of content] has to be completely independent with full artistic independence,' said Claire Hsu, executive director of Asia Art Archive and a member of the arts hub consultative committee's museum group.
'One of the things that make great institutions is that they are willing to take risks, showing art that some people might find offensive, art that really makes you think, that can be provocative. [The government] cannot interfere with the programming at all, but just let the professionals get on with it,' Ms Hsu said.
Oscar Ho Hing-kay, an art critic and a fellow consultative committee member, said the way public museums were run now could set a bad precedent for how things were done with M+.
'It's a dangerous trap because Hong Kong does not have an established museum field. Everything in Hong Kong appears to need public consultation. But art doesn't work like that. Art is about individual vision and being a pioneer,' Mr Ho said.