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. 'The system [for running M+] must allow professionals to take risks and stop non-arts people, whether because of commercial or political interests, from interfering in the artistic decisions made by professionals. They must respect art and its integrity. They have to trust the professionals. If this cannot be done, no professionals will stay for the job.' The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, the statutory body to run the development, is to be chaired by Chief Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen with a board of 19 members, five of whom are artists. At least five will have an artistic background. Once the authority is established, one of its pressing tasks will be setting up the interim M+, which is expected to lay the foundation for the real thing by building a collection, establishing strategic partnerships and a global network with established museums and training art professionals to ensure quality content. M+ may also have some sort of collaboration with existing museums, which will be subject to review in the near future. The government's Committee of Museums, which was set up to do the review, has proposed the establishment of a statutory board to corporatise public museums. Louis Ng Chi-wa, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department's assistant director for heritage and museums, said the board could be set up within the next five years at the earliest. Freeman Lau Siu-hong, the vice-chairman of Hong Kong Design Centre and a member of the consultative committee's museum group, said he expected collaboration and co-ordination of resources between M+ and the government museums, though the former would operate independently. 'When we were preparing for the recommendation report, we wanted to discuss this with the Committee on Museums, but such a meeting was not arranged. However, the direction of having more synergy between M+ and existing museums is there,' Mr Lau said. Mr Ng added that the government museums were ready to share collections with M+. The cultural district will also house 15 world-class performing arts venues. But only a constant supply of quality local talent and performances can ensure the arts hub does not become merely a colony for imported blockbuster shows, experts warn. Nurturing arts groups and grooming talent appears to be the key, the government and arts sector agree. The government recognises that a sound funding mechanism for arts groups is going to be especially important during this interim period. For this reason, the Home Affairs Bureau and the Funding Committee on Performing Arts have been working on a review of arts funding. Since April 1, 2007, the Home Affairs Bureau has funded 10 major professional performing arts groups - including the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre. The review, which is expected to be completed next year and applied to the 2010/11 funding cycle, will develop a set of assessment criteria and look into the development of 'flagship' companies. The establishment of such a mechanism is a challenge in itself as methods such as peer assessment, common in countries like Britain and Australia, may not be applicable in Hong Kong because of its size and limited number of 'peer groups'. Chung Ying Theatre Company general manager Angus Chan Man-bun urged the government to come up with a system that would help performing arts groups to assess themselves under the new funding mechanism to ensure fairness. And as for small and medium arts groups, Arts Development Council chairman Ma Fung-kwok, said the council would restructure its funding system - for example, by extending the existing one-year grant to two years or even longer - to give more flexibility to arts groups in planning and development. He said a new fund, like the Arts Community Fund, would be set up to garner support from the corporate world and the public. Other initiatives, such as encouraging overseas exchanges, would be undertaken to expand the horizons of budding artists and arts groups, he added. A lack of venues has long been a problem for the performing arts sector. The LCSD will build new venues and adopt a policy of renting non-governmental venues so that smaller and budding arts groups have the opportunity to polish their skills and make art available to local communities. Another initiative is the Venue Partnership Scheme (VPS), which has selected eight out of the nine major government-subsidised arts groups and 10 smaller groups to work in partnership with 10 LCSD performing arts venues. LCSD assistant director for performing arts Cynthia Liu Chiu-fun said it was hoped that the scheme would 'give [performers] a better environment to develop their company, not only the major arts groups but also the smaller ones. It will benefit not only the arts groups but also the venues as they will contribute ideas on their usage'. Whether such a scheme will be effective in raising the standard of the local arts scene is debatable. Chung Ying Theatre's Mr Chan said more strategic planning for the scheme would be needed it was to serve as a potential reference for the operation of the West Kowloon arts hub. Until now, no system had been set up to review the effectiveness of the VPS. For selected smaller arts groups, the scheme is seen as a blessing. 'We will have less worry about venue and funding and we can afford to do more alternative stuff to challenge ourselves,' said Shaw Mei-kwan of Windmill Grass Theatre, which will share Kwai Tsing Theatre with two other groups. 'But this scheme has also deprived other [unselected] groups of a chance to perform.' Ms Liu said it was an unfortunate reality that venues were limited and not built for residency of arts groups. 'The scheme is definitely a compromise because if it was a real residency, we would have consulted an arts group on the building of a venue, their rehearsal needs and administrations needs. But most of our venues are not like that,' she said. Training institutes like the Academy for Performing Arts will play a key role as a cradle for new artists. Academy director Kevin Thompson acknowledged that demand would soar in the next few years. However, the standard of recent graduates has drawn concern from the arts community. One critic is renowned artist Jim Chim Sui-man. 'In my day, it was a professional school and the intellectual aspects of the teaching that helped our performing. But now, earning a degree is the priority and students are burdened by the academic reading,' said Chim, managing director and artistic director of PIP Cultural Industries. 'Also, many students that APA has nowadays aren't those who want to become artists. Many only want to be famous.' Professor Thompson said the academy was trying to ensure the courses were equipped to produce the right talent, and the school had been expanding to meet demand. Frames of reference Building the arts hub might be the easy part. Hong Kong will need a diverse, bold pool of local talent to draw upon, not just for perfrormances but also for arts leadership Experts' tips on ensuring the arts hub content meets international standards 1 Give the operator absolute artistic independence 2 Prevent interference by non-artsprofessionals 3 Give better training to curators, arts administrators and artists 4 Raise standards in the local performing arts scene by revamping the existing funding mechanism 5 Create a true museum culture by revamping the operation model of existing public museums