Recreation, Sport and the Arts 1 371
Russia, 'My Soil, My Land Ceramics Works Exhibition' and 'Bridging Arts: Public Art Design Competition'.
The Fringe Club
The Fringe Club is housed in what used to be a cold storage warehouse built in 1890, now designated as a historical building. The building underwent many major renovations after the Fringe Club moved in, in 1983, and made it a vibrant place for contemporary arts shows and related activities. In 2001, the building won the Government's Heritage Award for innovative adaptive use of a historical building.
The Fringe Club has two studio theatres, three exhibition areas (including a photography gallery), a pottery workshop and showroom, a rehearsal studio, a restaurant, two bars, a roof garden and offices. It runs a diverse programme of theatre, dance, music and exhibitions. It is committed to an open access policy and to the nurturing of budding artists by providing venue, publicity support, as well as opportunities to go on overseas tours. In 2007, the club was used as the base for six arts festivals. From time to time, the Fringe Club produces its own theatrical performances, art exhibitions and site-specific works with a Hong Kong heritage theme. During the past two decades, more than 500 arts groups from Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America have used the premises for cultural exchange activities.
In 2007, the Fringe Club presented the annual City Festival which featured Hong Kong artists. The show toured Singapore to reciprocate City Festival 2006 which highlighted the island state. The cultural exchanges are part of an agreement embodied in a Memorandum of Understanding on Cultural Cooperation between the governments of Singapore and Hong Kong.
The Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre
In 2005, the Hong Kong Baptist University took the lead in setting up a strategic partnership with the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and the Hong Kong Arts Centre, and sought a substantial donation from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust to convert the decommissioned ex-Shek Kip Mei Factory Estate into a venue for creative arts and arts groups, called the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre. In 2007, the Government entrusted the university with the task of carrying out conversion works which are expected to be completed in early 2008.
Apart from providing 100 studio units to be rented to individual artists or arts groups, the centre will also provide accommodation for a small number of institutional arts tenants. The centre will have a 150-seat black box theatre and three galleries for public hire. The centre is run on a non-profit-making and self-financing basis.