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RECREATION AND THE ARTS
The Hong Kong Polytechnic continued to work in close consultation with the museum on the prototype exhibit development programme which would in turn enhance in-house capabilities in exhibit design, fabrication and maintenance. More than 50 prototype exhibits were fabricated and tested.
Hong Kong Museum of Art
The Hong Kong Museum of Art presented 13 exhibitions during the year on local and overseas contemporary art, Chinese antiquities and Chinese fine art. The exhibitions attracted 388 716 visitors and 248 school parties with 11 316 students.
Four of the exhibitions were organised in association with overseas cultural institutions. They were 'The Art of Xu Beihong' with Xu Beihong Museum in Beijing, Chinese Cloisonne - the Clague Collection' with the Phoenix Art Museum in the United States, the 'Spaces and places - Eight Decades of Landscape Paintings in Alberta' with the Alberta Art Foundation and the 'Japanese Quest for a New Vision - The Impact of Visiting Chinese Painters' with the Spencer Museum of Art in the United States.
A signficant feature of the museum's exhibition programme was an exhibition at the Concourse Gallery of the Barbican Centre in London on ‘Ink Paintings by Hong Kong Artists' which featured 53 works by 46 local artists. The exhibition was presented as part of the Urban Council's on-going efforts to promote Hong Kong art at an international level. The exhibition of 'Contemporary Hong Kong Pottery - from the Collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art' included 61 items of contemporary pottery selected from repre- sentative works by 33 local potters who contributed to the development of local pottery. Another local art exhibition, "The Urban Council Fine Arts Award Winners', was held as a follow-up event to the 'Contemporary Hong Kong Art Biennial, 1987'.
The branch museum, the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware, continued to stage exhibitions on tea drinking and Yixing tea wares. The semi-permanent exhibition of 'Chinese Tea Drinking' was a major attraction. Three other exhibitions followed. They were 'Glaze Colours', the 'Museum Collection of Contemporary Yixing Pottery' and the 'Innovations in Contemporary Yixing Pottery' the most important exhibition on contemporary Yixing ware ever held in Hong Kong.
Through the generosity of Dr K. S. Lo, the museum continued to receive donations to its permanent collection. Important donations included eight items of Changsha wares dating back to the Tang Dynasty, more than 20 items of contemporary Yixing ware and an important underglazed blue export ware teapot from the Hatcher Collection.
During the year, the museum acquired a number of important art objects from local and overseas sources. Some of the more distinguished ones were two 18th century lac burgaut's items, a Jiaqing blue-and-white dish, a figure painting of 'An Arhat Sitting on a Carriage' and three rare and important historical paintings.
The museum also received a donation of 75 items of Shiwan pottery from Mrs Kwok On. An exhibition was held to feature the donated items.
The Museum of Art also organised educational and extension activities, including the exhibition 'Summer in Hong Kong', a children's art exhibition. In addition, regular lectures and film shows, small-scale travelling exhibitions, video programmes, pottery workshops and demonstrations for students and the public were organised.
To further promote local art, the museum started an art sale service in May, selling original works of painting, sculpture, pottery, prints and calligraphy on consignment from artists. A sculpture, ceramic and print centre will be built at the Hong Kong Park to provide fully equipped studio facilities for trained artists.