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RECREATION AND THE ARTS
During the year, the Museum of Art continued to stage a variety of high quality exhibitions for the appreciation of art lovers. Several group exhibitions were presented to reveal the achievements of local artists in printmaking, sculpture, pottery, and design. Important exhibitions from overseas were also staged.
To arouse public interest in Chinese art, exhibitions of 20th century Chinese paintings, birds and flowers in ceramics, Guangdong paintings, bamboo carvings, and Qing ceramics were organised. A symposium on the subject of 20th century Chinese painting was jointly presented with the Hong Kong Arts Festival Society.
To promote Hong Kong design activities, a design exhibition with the presentation of awards to creative designers was staged jointly with the Hong Kong Designers Association. Altogether, there were 17 exhibitions which attracted 402 200 visitors, including 15 260 students in 290 school parties.
Antiquities and Monuments Office
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The Antiquities and Monuments Office of the Cultural Services Department had an active year in recording, restoring and preserving a wide range of items of historical and archaeological interest. Protection work on ancient rock carvings continued, and the start of restoration work on the old ruined fort at Fan Lau, Lantau Island, was made possible by a generous donation from the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club. Restoration of Man Shek Tong (the Liu Clan Ancestral Hall in Sheung Shui) and the Duddell Street steps in Central also made good progress.
The project on the surveying of Chinese rural architecture and recording of local history in the New Territories - by the students of the University of Hong Kong - continued during the summer holidays. In 1984, the survey focused on Yuen Long.
Under the 1982 Antiquities and Monuments (Amendment) Ordinance, the Director of Urban Services may, with the approval of the Governor, declare any place, building, site or structure to be a monument by reason of its historical, archaeological or paleontological significance. There are now 29 declared monuments including the steps and gas lamps in Duddell Street, ancestral halls, walled villages, forts, rock carvings, temples and the Royal Observatory building in Kowloon. During the year, the second phase of the overseas consultants' three-year territory-wide archaeological survey to assess Hong Kong's archaeological resources was completed.
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