We have to communicate better with young, head of Hong Kong’s top arts institution says

“Open and honest communication” is the only way to run the city’s top arts institution in the post-authoritarian era, its director says.

Professor Adrian Walter, director of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts since 2012, pledged dialogue with all concerned parties to avoid misunderstandings that were the root cause of many problems at the academy, and society at large, in recent years.

“We need to work harder in the next few years to really build strong lines of communication in every direction, with our students, with our alumni and stakeholders, so that we can make sure there is no misunderstanding,” he told the Post ahead of the academy’s 30th graduation ceremony tomorrow.

“So often you see, and it’s not just Hong Kong but everywhere in the world, that misunderstandings happen because of a lack of effective communication and people get wrong ideas.”

In his first four-year term, which ends this summer, the UK-born Walter, former head of music at the Australian National University, has seen an increasingly restless atmosphere on the Wan Chai campus. But a series of negative news on the academy, such as a critical audit report in April, has not deterred him from seeking a second term.

Referring to rising student restlessness across the city, he said: “It’s neither good nor bad, it’s a fact. We can’t ignore it. But what we can do to address it is to work out ways to communicate effectively with our young people.”

The days of tertiary learning being authoritarian “are gone and young people nowadays like to question things”.

“There is nothing the academy does as a public-funded institution that we can’t share and it’s quite right for people to ask questions. I’d rather be asked a question and be able to answer it than not be asked a question and people get the wrong story,” he said.