RECREATION, SPORT AND THE ARTS
Another new exhibit Chinese Aerospace was installed in the Hall of Space Science and introduced the Mainland's achievements in aerospace. During the year, the Space Museum organised 161 extension activities with over 20 000 participants. The 59 groups of permanent exhibits (most of them interactive) in the Hall of Astronomy and Hall of Space Science attracted more than 308 000 visitors.
Hong Kong Film Archive
The Film Archive in Sai Wan Ho was opened in January, and attracted 132 690 visitors in its first year. With a gross floor area of 7 200 square metres, its major facilities include a cinema, an exhibition hall, a resource centre and a number of temperature-controlled collection stores. The archive strives to acquire, preserve, catalogue and document Hong Kong films and related materials. It has already acquired more than 3 800 films and 200 000 items of related materials, mainly through donations and deposits.
During the year, the archive organised 11 thematic exhibitions such as Hong Kong Cinema From Handicraft to High Tech and 17 film programmes (370 screenings), including A Century of Chinese Cinema and The Celluloid Swordsman: Tsui Hark and His Cinema. To complement the exhibition and screening activities, the archive also held a number of seminars and workshops for film students, researchers and other members of the public.
Its resource centre, equipped with computers, independent video booths and a rich collection of film-related reading materials, was well patronised by the public, attracting a daily average of 500 users.
Art Promotion Office
The Art Promotion Office was established in March. Its main objective is to promote local visual arts, with a focus on public and community art. The office and the Housing Department jointly launched the Public Art Project — Installation of Public Artworks at Yat Tung Estate, Tung Chung. The first batch of 16 works of public art have been installed in the Yat Tung Estate to enrich the environment, to enhance the residents' quality of life and to provide an additional platform for artistic creation. Another batch of 13 works will be installed later under the estate's final phase of development. To bring visual arts to communities, the office launched the Artists in the Neighbourhood scheme. Under this scheme, works by four selected artists/art groups have been touring civic centres and six MTR stations for viewing by the public.
The office is also responsible for the management of the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre. Apart from the continued provision of art facilities, such as studios and an exhibition hall, for public hiring at subsidised rates, efforts were made to strengthen the centre's art training programmes. In late 2001, the centre launched a series of specialist art courses. The office aims to bring visual arts to everyone's life through continuing enhancement of the public's ability to appreciate art and its creation.
Central Conservation Section
Operating from 13 well-equipped conservation laboratories, the Central Conservation Section of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department provides a full range of preservation and restoration services to 13 public museums, the Art Promotion Office and the Antiquities and Monuments Office. Apart from undertaking treatment work
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