Video: Mr Graham Sheffield
23 June, 2010
Speech of Mr Graham Sheffield, Chief Executive Officer (designate):
Good afternoon to all. It's nice to see you all again after a month. Thank you for coming to our temporary office. As you can see by coming to the temporary office, we are very much at a start-up of our operation here. And we begin to get going to the new management team now in a very exciting way.
As you know, over the last few months the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority has been busy in recruitment and searching for talented leadership from here and around the world to lead and manage critical dimensions of this exciting and challenging project. As you remember, I was appointed in March and I still haven't started my job yet, because I will take up my post in Mid-August.
A series of announcements were made regarding appointments to executive director positions. These have included Dr M W Chan, who is in charge of Project Delivery, actually developing the infrastructure; Dr Eva Lam, for Finance; Mr Garmen Chan, for Communications and Marketing, who takes up his post in August; Ms Eva Kwong, for Human Resources, she started couple of weeks ago; and Mr Michael Randall as our General Counsel.
Two pivotal members are the directors of the executive artistic team, for performing arts and visual arts. Earlier this year we announced that Mr Louis Yu would take the role of Performing Arts Executive Director. Delighted to have Louis on board. I think it's the first time he's been in front of the press here.
Today, we are delighted to tell you that Mr Lars Nittve will fill the other half of this equation as Executive Director M+.
Lars brings a huge wealth of international experience with him, and he has had proven success at the top level. He is well known in global art circles, and he has relationships and contacts across the world. Lars is going to tell you a bit more about his background, but what I will say is that his appointment brings a huge authority and wisdom to what we are doing and developing our M+ concept.
Lars' contributions over the next years will be vital in ensuring the best possible planning, design and curatorial direction for M+, establishing its role as a forward-looking, innovative, unique, interactive arts facility.?I am also absolutely delighted that he has a huge passion for education and community outreach in the arts, exactly as I do, exactly as Louis has, together we are determined to ensure that art education, nurturing talents, encouraging interests in the art, developing curiosity, these would be part of the policy that we develop and the actions that we take.
In the months to come, the senior team, including myself, Lars Nittve and Louis Yu, will continue to talk with local and international stakeholders and to refine the vision, mission and artistic direction of the arts and cultural facilities of the WKCD. We will also continuously work on further senior recruitment in both performing arts and visual arts to ensure that we have a balanced team in terms of skills and specialist interests across the artistic spectrum.
Meanwhile, Dr Chan will continue to play a crucial role in the master planning of the district. The three conceptual designs for the WKCD are taking shape. In the next couple of months, Dr Chan's team will be very busy in preparing the Stage 2 Public Engagement exercise. The whole of Hong Kong will be able to experience the fruits of all these works later this summer when the three master plan options, designed by the teams of Rocco Yim, Norman Foster and Rem Koolhaas, are revealed during Stage 2 of the Public Engagement exercise.
It's an extremely exciting time for those of my colleagues who are in Hong Kong and native to Hong Kong to be here. Fantastic, exciting for us, for our guests to this new country coming to help to begin to realise this fantastic project.
And now I hand to Lars. He would say a few words about his idea, ambitions and his hope. Thank you.
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Video: Mr Graham Sheffield
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Speech of Mr Lars Nittve, Executive Director, M+ (designate):
Good afternoon to you all, I must say I am extremely excited by this moment. It is quite fantastic to be here. I am humble, extremely proud of and honoured to be in this position now. The contract was signed, and here I am now.
I think this project is one of the great projects in the world. You can only compare the importance of it, not only the ambition, but also the potential consequences of it, with the Centre Pompidou in the 70s and possibly Tate Modern ten years ago. I am just delighted to be part of this project and being able to lead the museum part of it. Of course you could say, it is only once in a life time, it is not everybody who gets a chance like this even once. Actually, for me, it happened to be a second time in a life time, since I was the first director of Tate Modern as well. I am just honoured and humble by this.
It's really an exciting moment here in Hong Kong. And I should say a few words about my background. I just mentioned that I come from Tate Modern where I worked for three and a half years before and after the opening. For the last nine years I have been in Sweden, my home country, running the national museum of modern art called Moderna Museet. And of course, I have been working in this field in various capacities for thirty years, one of them for several years was as an art writer and journalist. I have, so to say, been on your (journalists') side of the fence as well. I know what that's like, and I did enjoy that as well. I might come back there.
I think it's really important for me to say that of course for an art centre and for a museum, it's important to have really good hardware, great buildings and all of that. But we should remember that, the museum is not the same as the building. Museum is actually about the content and how the content meets the audience. That means you also have to work not only with buildings and the places where you meet, but you also have to work a lot with education with outreach. I think we all know this when we watch football if we don't know much about the rules: the more you know, the more you see. I've been sitting next to people in the airport, when I was flying here, who were totally excited over the match, but I couldn't get excited over it at all. Because I didn't know the players and didn't know the teams. And it is same for art, the more you know, the more you see. And education is absolutely fundamental from an early age and up till a late age, from the most straightforward direct working with kids and up to the academics. It is something that I believe firmly in and I have worked quite hard with.
I brought actually two books which are about projects we did in Stockholm with teenagers, which I think is a key target group. At the end of the book there is a small English section, where I write a little about my view on education for kids and for teenagers. If you are interested, you may take a look on these two copies.
I look forward, in the coming months and coming years, to working with all the different stakeholders, the artists and of course the artist community, the arts collectors, the dealers, my colleagues, everybody who cares about art and the arts, and to learn more, to build the team and we will work together to shape the vision for M+. I think it will for sure to be the most important museum in the coming decade. And I am confident that it would happen.
Everything basically is in place already. Hong Kong is the place to do it. And there are decisions and commitments from the government, and there's a great team being formed now.
Thank you very much for taking your time with me, and I am sure we will see each other many times again. And as I said, I will be on your side as well and happy to talk and to be a target for photographers.
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Video: Mr Lars Nittve
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Speech of Mr Louis Yu Kwok-lit, Performing Arts Policy and Management Services Executive Director (Chinese version only):
我很高興在上班第三天與大家見面。作為一個在香港土生土長的藝術工作者，我很榮幸有機會在西九這個重要的項目中，擔任表演藝術總監。這個計劃對我或香港來說，是一個很大的挑戰，因為我們希望透過這計劃，令香港在國際藝術舞台上更上一層樓。
無論在香港藝術發展局三年多的工作，或之前於藝術中心的工作，我深深感受到香港藝術發展在過去二十年有很大的飛躍。我深信香港現在可以藉著西九文化區的開展，讓香港藝術家或藝術界朋友作更大的發展，而我是完全知道藝術界在有關方面的需求和需要。
當然，要達至整個項目的成功，不能單靠我一個人。我很高興在這兒與很重要的同事們與傳媒朋友見面，包括我以前已認識及曾經合作的陳文偉博士、與我第一次合作的Graham（謝卓飛先生）及Lars（李立偉先生）。第一次和不同人士合作，令我知道西九文化區已邁向重要的一步－－結合本地經驗及知識，以及有世界頂尖級的藝術人才來到西九工作及作出貢獻。
接著，我會開始與本地及外地藝術界人士接觸和溝通，面對面的接觸是十分重要的。我會花很多時間與本地的藝術團體及藝術家溝通。西九的籌劃已經歷了不短的日子，正如Graham剛才提及，我們將會有下一輪的公眾諮詢，屆時將會有更多機會與藝術界朋友接觸。
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Video: Mr Louis Yu Kwok-lit
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Dr Chan Man-wai, Project Delivery Executive Director (Chinese version only):
我很高興今天能與傳媒朋友再次見面，能參與一個國際級的大型藝術及文化區的設計和發展，我深感榮幸，尤其能與國際級大師及專業人士－－Graham（謝卓飛先生）、Lars（李立偉先生）及Louis（茹國烈先生）一起合作。Louis剛才也提過，我們在一些藝術發展上曾經合作。
現時管理局已收到有關西九規劃的發展圖則方案，我們正積極跟進，第二階段公眾參與活動在暑假便會展開。我的主要工作除了是發展文化藝術區的硬件外，其實更重要的是，令香港人和遊客都喜歡造訪西九，西九是屬於大家的。此外，西九將來如何吸引創意產業、零售、消閒等活動，也是我們要做好的工作。
我們將會就Concept Plans（概念圖則方案）進行公眾諮詢，希望可以取得大家的意見，屆時請大家多給意見。
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Video: Dr Chan Man-wai
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| From left: 1) Dr Chan Man-wai, Project Delivery Executive Director; 2) Mr Lars Nittve, Executive Director, M+ (designate); 3) Mr Graham Sheffield, Chief Executive Officer (designate); 4) Mr Louis Yu Kwok-lit, Performing Arts Policy and Management Services Executive Director. |
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