Hong Kong global cultural summit in West Kowloon hosts 6,000 people, garners 400,000 views with live stream, organisers say

West Kowloon Cultural District Authority CEO Betty Fung says summit has helped to promote city’s arts hub on global stage

Global museum leaders tout summit as providing opportunities for strengthening existing relationships with sector chiefs, as well as forging new ties

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The West Kowloon arts hub held its first-ever global cultural summit from Sunday to Tuesday. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 10:06pm, 26 Mar 2024Updated: 8:27am, 27 Mar 2024

Hong Kong’s international cultural summit played host to 6,000 people and garnered 400,000 views with its live stream, organisers revealed as the event wrapped up on Tuesday, with some global guests also sampling the city’s arts hub for the first time.

Betty Fung Ching Suk-yee, CEO of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA), which manages the arts hub, said the three-day event had helped to promote the location on the world stage.

The international summit was a first for the district and aimed to bring together global museum leaders and curators to explore collaboration opportunities and discuss pressing industry topics.

“Not many people around the world have heard of the West Kowloon Cultural District,” she said.

While M+ and Hong Kong Palace Museum had potentially built names for themselves outside the city, the district as a whole was relatively less well known in comparison, she said.

M+ opened in 2021 and the Palace Museum a year later, with both launching amid travel and social-distancing restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic.