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RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS
In November, the council sponsored a visit to Hong Kong by the timber sculptor David Nash as part of its now well-established Artist-in-Residence programme. Finally, the year saw the successful launch of the council's Artist-in-Education pilot scheme with funding from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council which let seven Hong Kong artists work for three months with art teachers and students from seven Hong Kong secondary and primary schools, culminating in an exciting exhibition held at the Ocean Terminal of the paintings and other art works produced by the students.
Business for Arts
Business for Arts is a non-profit-making organisation dedicated to providing support for arts projects and programmes. It aims to develop public interest in cultural activities and to bring the visual, creative and performing arts not only to those with cultivated tastes but also to those who might otherwise not be exposed to the arts. It helps young artists and art administrators to establish themselves and to demonstrate their talent.
The organisation publishes the quarterly bilingual magazine Arts Patron to promote business sponsorships for arts projects. Since its inception in 1990, the organisation has presented various projects to promote local arts. The Paganini Project is an informal grouping of several well-established supporters of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra together with a selection of corporate bodies who have undertaken to buy or provide a top-quality string instrument to re-equip the orchestra's string section.
Cultural Events
Hong Kong Arts Festival
Since its inauguration in 1973, the Hong Kong Arts Festival has been regarded as a major international arts festival as well as the premier arts event in Hong Kong. In 1995, some 1 200 overseas and local artists appeared in 123 performances at 20 venues in 23 days.
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In all, 94 368 tickets were sold, representing 86 per cent of the 110 300 tickets available. Highlights included the star-studded opera production A Masked Ball, the Hong Kong debut of the prestigious Staatskapelle Dresden, and three productions directed by a trio of the world's foremost directors Robert Wilson, Tadashi Suzuki and Robert Lepage. Other attractions were top violist Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists, jazz diva Betty Carter, the exciting Jiangzhou Drum Troupe of Shanxi, the passionate Tango Para Dos from Argentina and Hong Kong's first Art and Electronics Exhibition.
Hong Kong Festival Fringe
The Hong Kong Festival Fringe was founded in 1982. It has developed from an annual open arts festival into a successful year-round operation which gives the territory's emerging artists the opportunity to hone their skills and create new works in a creative environment which is open, informal and supportive.
The 1995 Festival Fringe, staged over three weeks in January, was attended by more than 300 000 people. About 180 groups and individual artists from Hong Kong and overseas took part. Operating from the Fringe Club, the Festival Fringe staff