24 March 2010

Transcript of the Remarks by Mr. Graham Sheffield, Chief Executive Officer (Designate), West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, at the Media Question and Answer Session on 24 March 2010.

Q: Can you handle the competitive environment in Hong Kong, especially when you are a foreigner?

A: We all in the arts, whether you are in the UK or Western Europe, the United States, anywhere you deal with politics in the arts. It’s very important to have politicians on your side and understanding and supporting you and I’ve done a lot of that in my career. I’ve got a new set of politicians and stakeholders to get to know and that is part of the excitement of the project. That is something new for me to do. But I think I have the experience at least to have a really good crack at it.

Q: How many years is your contract term. Is it long enough for you to realise your vision?

A: It’s very simple. My contract is for 3 years and that’s all I have to say on that at the moment. I don’t know quite well where we will be exactly in 3 years’ time because I have only just been appointed but I think we’ve got to make some really good progress and for once, I will be opening a bottle of extremely good champagne on the day the tractors finally arrive on the site and begin works. I’m hopeful that we can get going pretty quickly and at least set the tone for the vision. It won’t all be done in 3 years, no.

Q: Just two questions. Number one: Do you get to choose your own Executive Directors who will be working under you and what’s the progress of that appointment of the Executive Directors right now? And the second one is the potentially bureaucratic structure of the Authority. Will it be some sort of obstacle for you to actually carry out your vision?

A: First answer of the question is: As of now, in fact, as of indeed the other day, I’m actively involved in all the new appointments so I will be having say alongside the others on the selection panel in terms of the choice of those. I hope we will be making other announcements in the weeks to come. And the second question was bureaucracy?

Q: Yes, the potentially bureaucratic structure because that’s what lots of people from the local (inaudible) are really concerned about.

A: Bureaucracy has existed since the beginning of civilization. I think it’s a necessary part of life to navigate that. I have my own tricks of obeying the rules and getting around them. At some point, I’ll share those with you but I don’t want to tell too many people what my game plan is. But we’ll try and get it going as far as we can. And it’s my job, really, to articulate the arguments and persuade people to come along with me.

Q: The Barbican and the West Kowloon Cultural District share some commons and what is your idea for the West Kowloon Cultural District?

A: They share the same template in a sense that they are both multi-arts, they both will have some commercial income from things that go on like catering, retail and so on. So it’s the multi-arts nature, the complexity of it, the scale of it. Of course, the West Kowloon itself, when it’s built, will dwarf the Barbican. It will probably be about 4 times the size of the Barbican but the shape and concept are not too similar. I think that’s one of the reasons why maybe the Board chose me because I can, sort of, cope with the idea of it.

Q: So both the Barbican and the West Kowloon Cultural District are basically government-funded. Will your experience in the Barbican help you handle this job?

A: The answer is yes but the one thing people always forget is yes you get government funding but you also have to earn a lot of your own money through commercial income, through sponsorship, through box office. So I will be seeking to make the West Kowloon management team as commercially-savvy as well as artistically passionate within the resources that we’ve got.

Q: (Inaudible - Question about Mr Sheffield’s ability to work in and understand the museum sector.)

A: That’s slipped in the end. That’s very cunning. Of course I think I can handle the visual arts and museums. Obviously I will be seeking some specialist help in terms of the Executive Director in that area. I think many of the issues are the same in terms of curation and looking after objects and managing a venue. And just quickly at the end, my salary will be published in the Authority’s annual report.

Q: What do you think about Hong Kong’s cultural environment and the Cantonese opera?

A: Well, you asked me about the Hong Kong arts scene. I’ll be frank with you. I’m not an expert in the Hong Kong arts scene. But last time I was here in 2006 for a lengthy stay of time, I was instrumentally bringing a major arts congress to Hong Kong Expo in 2006. During that conference, we saw a lot of work here in the Cultural Centre and also some of the outline of the Arts Centre. I think it’s a very vibrant scene here but I think it’s clearly got potential to go further and that’s what I’m here to help work with. It’s good, it’s vibrant but I think together, we can probably take it to a new level and I intend to see people and talk to people about how we can do it.

Cantonese opera, there are many different forms of Chinese opera including Cantonese opera and I have experienced it a few times. I’m not an expert on it but there will be people on the Performing Arts team to senior level who actually have experience in more of the traditional Chinese art forms than I do so I’ll make sure we have a balanced team.

Q: Have you interviewed the Directors that you are going to work with and what are your main requirements for them?

A: I’ve just started talking to one or two people who applied is the answer to that. My main requirement is passionate about the arts, capable with lots of experience, that together as a team we can cover all the different bases. The gentleman who asked a question there, nobody can be an expert in everything so it’s important that we try and make sure that some people will have expertise in some areas which cover other areas. So it will be a balanced team but it will also be a multi-national team. What I’d like to say is in addition to education, I really do want to make a priority the further building art of really brilliant arts management capacity in Hong Kong. We’ve put a lot of emphases on that in the U.K. in the last 10 years and that’s made a huge difference to the quality of management at home. And I think I’ve already been discussing how we might make some moves to partner with organizations there because I heard the lady questioned about why foreigner but in future generations of course this place will be run by somebody from here inevitably.

Q: To develop networking with China, do you have any particular plans in mind and how are you going to do it?

A: One of my other jobs which is on the bio says that is I’m an Advisor to the British Council and I know the British Council have very strong presence in China, Shanghai, Beijing and also in Hong Kong. And we at the Barbican have also toured a lot of our arts exhibitions to Mainland China and other parts of the Far East so I’ve got a sense of where the main cultural hub is. Of course this year is the Shanghai Expo which has a big British presence which I’m sure I’ll go up there and meet people there. I know people in Japan and Singapore as well. I think I got the basis of very good network. Anybody who knows me well knows that I’m quite a good networker.

Moderator: Thank you very much for covering this session. 

Video: Q & A Session       (06:00-15:00)