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The collection of ethnographical materials includes folk costumes, carved house- hold gods, Chinese musical instruments and farm tools.
Valuable finds from excavations at various local archaeological sites make up the archaeological collection. Such excavations have been joint efforts of the Hong Kong Archaeological Society and the museum staff. This year was a most rewarding one for archaeological excavation. From a site at Lamma Island were unearthed two complete glazed Six Dynasties pots, Han and Tang coins, pieces of bronze, bones, stone imple- ments, pots, and numerous pot sherds.
The collection of local and contemporary art includes works by contemporary Hong Kong artists, as well as prints by artists in other parts of Asia.
At present, owing to shortage of space, only a selection from the collection of Chinese art and antiquities is on permanent exhibition. A section in the Art Gallery has been used for regular, rotational displays of material from the other collections. Occasionally this section also shows small educational exhibits prepared by the City Museum and Art Gallery which are later to be made available for loan to local schools as part of the museum's developing educational service.
In addition to displaying the collections, the City Museum and Art Gallery usually presents about 10 temporary special exhibitions a year. The number of exhibitions was increased to 13 this year because of the organisation of the Arts Festival in the summer to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the opening of the City Hall. During the Arts Festival, three exhibitions were held simultaneously. One was of contemporary Hong Kong art which is a biennial survey of Hong Kong art, with paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture by artists working in Hong Kong today. Another exhibition was a decade of children's pictures, showing the best works from the several children's art exhibitions organised by the City Museum and Art Gallery over the past 10 years. The last of the three was a photographic exhibition which described the life and physical changes of Hong Kong during the past quarter of a century. Drawing a daily average of 3,154 visitors, it was the most popular exhibition of the year.
Besides the Arts Festival, the exhibition programme was marked by three large- scale print exhibitions from abroad, making 1972 very much a print year. These graphic art exhibitions were from France, Australia, and the United States, represent- ing works by prominent artists in these respective countries.
The City Museum and Art Gallery continued to present a monthly programme of art documentary films. During the Arts Festival, a special film programme was organised, featuring the thirteen 50-minute colour films of the BBC 'Civilisation' series by Lord Clark. A total of 52 shows were presented at the City Hall Theatre, all of which were well attended.
The Lei Cheng Uk Museum, which is a site museum of a Han tomb discovered in 1955 and preserved in situ, came under the administration of the City Museum and Art Gallery in 1969. Relics from the tomb are on public display, providing a glimpse of the life in Southern China 2,000 years ago.
The total attendance at the City Museum and Art Gallery at the City Hall for 1972 was 217,601, representing an average of 704 people on each day it was open.