Hong Kong in dire need of professionals to help restore and conserve artefacts, experts say
Growing awareness of the need to restore and care for art and cultural artefacts is fuelling demand for those with expertise in the field
Greater appreciation of heritage conservation among Hongkongers and the mushrooming of public and private institutions working in the field are fuelling growing demand for professional conservators in a city where the training is hard to find.
Critics say conservators will play an important role in realising Hong Kong's aspirations to become a regional arts hub, but the job is a niche profession for which university programmes are difficult to establish, and so the city will need to look elsewhere for talent.
Evita Yeung, head of conservation at the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, said the workload of the department's conservation team had increased as the city woke up to the importance of conserving its heritage.
The government has proposed building a 10-storey conservation and storage facility with 21,500 sq ft of floor space in Tin Shui Wai to house some 1.3 million pieces of art from government collections.
The government's conservation team now has 36 staffers. "But with the new facility in the making, we need to hire 20 more," she said.
