The Hong Kong artists hoping to pick up new backers via crowdfunding
The internet not only offers cultural organisations an opportunity to build an audience, it is also giving Hong Kong artists another source of funding for projects via websites such as Kickstarter
Non-profit art organisations in Hong Kong, long dependent on public funds and the largesse of a limited pool of wealthy patrons, are starting to look at online crowdfunding as a way to diversify their sources of income.
The internet has transformed business models in every sector of the economy, and should offer cultural organisations new opportunities beyond audience building, says Isaac Leung, chairman of Videotage, the artists’ collective that focuses on video and new media art projects.
Leung is putting theory into practice by launching a Kickstarter project to raise €18,000 (HK$159,000).
The money will be used for an artist exchange between Hong Kong and Berlin, where two men – Morgan Wong and Amir Fattal – will examine the experiences of immigrants in the cities. The Berlin host will be Momentum, a local non-profit art space.
The programme is backed by Art Basel’s Crowdfunding Initiative, which launched in 2014 and has raised a total of US$1 million for 37 projects. The organiser of the world’s biggest modern and contemporary art fair lends its name, marketing and administrative help to the fund-raisers, but does not put up any money itself.
Those things make a difference, Art Basel says. Nearly 90 per cent of projects picked by its Crowdfunding Initiative meet their target on Kickstarter, while the average success rate for all art projects on Kickstarter is only half.