RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS
The Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre supports local artists by providing studio equipment and facilities for ceramics, sculpture and print-making for hire at subsidised rates.
Hong Kong Space Museum
The Hong Kong Space Museum provided an educational and entertaining experience for its visitors through its 55 groups of permanent interactive exhibits housed in the Hall of Astronomy and Hall of Space Science. In 1995, 260 000 people visited the exhibition halls. Temporary exhibitions, Yellowstone National Park, Voyage to the Galaxy, Destiny in Space, Perseids Meteor Shower, Solar Eclipse and Venus, were also mounted. A further 133 activities were held, attracting 11 500 participants.
Space Theatre attractions included three Omnimax Shows (Yellowstone, Africa: The Serengeti and Destiny in Space), three sky shows (Moonlanding 25 years on, Voyage to the Galaxy and Venus) and two school shows (The New Solar System and The Friendly Sky). They attracted 435 000 people.
Hong Kong Science Museum
The Hong Kong Science Museum attracted 518 000 people to some 500 interactive exhibits in 1995. Two special exhibitions, Sports Works and World of Whales, were also mounted.
It also organised, or with local institutions co-organised, a wide variety of extension activities. They include science experiments, science lectures, computer courses, film shows, competitions, workshops and seminars. In all, 254 programmes were organised and attracted a total of 18 000 people.
Hong Kong Museum of History
During the year, the museum staged three thematic exhibitions: a joint presentation with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Academia Sinica, Beijing, on Evolution and Extinction History of Life Evidenced by Chinese Fossils; Of Hearts and Hands Hong Kong's Traditional Trades and Crafts; and Life Under Japanese Occupation, 1941–45.
The permanent exhibition the Story of Hong Kong, which outlines 6 000 years of development of Hong Kong from the Stone Age to modern times, attracted 224 756 visitors.
The museum's educational activities included video shows, special lectures, traditional handicraft courses, field visits to geological, historic and natural sites in Hong Kong, and seminars on historical studies of Hong Kong. The fourth Inter- school Competition of Study Projects on Local History, with the theme Traditional Chinese Festivals in Hong Kong and the first archaeological workshop for Chinese history teachers, were organised jointly with the Education Department.
The Law Uk Folk Museum attracted 48 823 visitors during the year with its permanent display of rural furniture and farming implements, as well as the special exhibition on Chinese Folk Woodblock Prints, Paper Horse. The Lei Cheng Uk Branch Museum recorded a total of 61 985 visitors and held a special exhibition, Han Costume.
The government has earmarked funds for the building of a new Museum of History which was subsequently endorsed by the Legislative Council. Preparations for the
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