West Kowloon Cultural District to host second international cultural summit during Art Week
- Around 30 arts and cultural leaders from 15 countries and regions to gather at West Kowloon Cultural District as Hong Kong Art Week begins
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The second Hong Kong International Cultural Summit will take place from 22 to 23 March at the West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK), with museum directors, arts administrators and cultural leaders from around the world expected to attend as the city prepares for its annual Art Week.
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The theme of the 2026 meeting is “A New Era: Reimagining Community through the Arts”.
Discussions are expected to address the relationship between cultural institutions and the communities they serve, along with the role of museums and performing arts organisations in public learning and community participation.
Organisers expect the summit to draw thousands of participants from Hong Kong and overseas, with all sessions streamed online.
The programme will begin on March 22 with a welcome dinner at the Hong Kong Palace Museum. The opening and plenary session will be held the following morning at the Xiqu Centre. Five panel discussions will then take place at several venues across the district.
The plenary session will examine multidisciplinary arts districts and the opportunities and challenges they face in the 21st century.
Speakers scheduled to attend include Elaine Bedell, Chief Executive of London’s Southbank Centre; Adrian Ellis, Chair of the Global Cultural Districts Network; Douglas Gautier, Chief Executive of the Royal Arts Complex in Saudi Arabia; and Mariët Westermann, Director and Chief Executive of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation in the United States. The session will be moderated by Betty Fung, Chief Executive Officer of the WKCDA.
Another panel, newly added in this edition in anticipation of the opening of WestK Performing Arts Centre in 2027, moderated by Paul Tam, Executive Director, Performing Arts at the WKCDA will discuss about how performance centres transform to civic hubs that foster inspiration, innovation, learning and community engagement.
Participants will include Sir Alistair Spalding, Artistic Director and Co-Chief Executive of Sadler’s Wells in London; Rachid Ouramdane, Director of Chaillot – National Theatre of Dance in France; Toufic Maatouk, Artistic Programming Adviser at the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation; and Sasapin Siriwanij, Artistic Director of the Bangkok International Performing Arts Meeting.
Panels at M+ will examine the role of learning in 21st century museums. Speakers will discuss how museums can strengthen audience connections and how educational programmes can deepen public engagement.
Participants include Jochen Volz, General Director of the Pinacoteca de São Paulo; Manal Ataya, Advisor of the Sharjah Museums Authority; Fatima Bintou Rassoul Sy, Director of Programmes of RAW Material Company in Senegal; and Karen Smith, Head, Academic Programmes of the De Ying Foundation.
A second discussion will feature Christophe Cherix, David Rockefeller Director of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Seb Chan, Director and CEO of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Devyani Saltzman, Director for Arts of the Barbican Centre and Carol Yinghua Lu, Directorof the Inside-Out Art Museum in Beijing.
Further sessions at the Hong Kong Palace Museum will explore how museums respond to changing audience expectations.
Speakers scheduled to appear include Lynley Crosswell, Chief Executive of Museums Victoria; Sharon Shaffer of Early Learning in Museums; Hiroyuki Shimatani of the Museum of the Imperial Collections in Japan; and Simone Verde of the Uffizi Galleries in Florence.
Another panel will address innovation and entrepreneurial approaches in museum management, with contributions from Chu Xiaobo of the Shanghai Museum, Bernd Ebert of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and Manuel Rabaté of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in India.
The discussions will explore new ideas and practices to redefine museums as spaces for community building and entrepreneurial experimentation.
The summit is timed to coincide with Hong Kong Art Week, when Art Basel Hong Kong and Art Central attract collectors, galleries and curators from around the world.
The event comes at a time when Hong Kong continues efforts to strengthen its role as an international centre for arts and cultural exchange. Government policy has identified cultural tourism and creative industries as priority areas, with WestK positioned as a platform for international arts and cultural events.
Several joint exhibitions have already been organised through these collaborations. These include “I. M. Pei: Life Is Architecture” organised by M+, which subsequently travelled to Shanghai and Doha, and exhibitions developed with the Musée national Picasso-Paris and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
The exhibition resulting from the partnership between M+ and The Museum of Modern Art in New York is scheduled to open in August.
This year, the summit is being held as WestK prepares for the completion of the WestK Performing Arts Centre, a new venue intended for theatre, dance and large-scale productions. The programme this year includes a new panel dedicated to performing arts institutions.
Delegates attending the meeting will be offered visits to museums and cultural venues in the district, including tours of M+ and the Hong Kong Palace Museum, WestK FunFest presented by WestK performing Arts, which features outdoor art installations and performances.
The second Hong Kong International Cultural Summit will take place at the West Kowloon Cultural District during March 22-23.