Page 113 of 498
110
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MISS ADA WONG YING-KAY (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, Ms. AU's motion today is very meaningful. She has my full support. In the past, the Council did organize certain cultural and art activities for children, but the effort was piecemeal, there were limited resources and no specific staff were put on the job. Ms. Au cited some examples in her speech. I want to raise the case of the Museum of Art. In 1994/95, the Museum of Art conducted a lot of guided tours for students. 17,000 primary school students and children took part. However, we have a lot more primary school students than that number. I hope the Museum will step up work in this respect and perhaps organize some visual art activities for children. The Museum of Art holds a Sunday Parent & Child Art Workshop once a month for 12 families. I think it is only a gloss with no real effect. Today, Ms. Au has moved for the Council to consider various measures. I hope that when we implement our Five Year Plan, we can actually study the various methods available. Today, I plan to suggest 3 ways.
First of all, we must provide matching hardware to reach out to children as our cultural targets. By hardware, I mean venues suitable for children's cultural activities. We should consider constructing a children's theatre. There are plenty of examples in foreign countries. For one thing, the seats should be smaller and specially designed for them to sit down and enjoy the show. For another, we should provide multi-usage cultural venues including performing, visual art, literary and family type cultural centres. I very much hope that the Council will be able to acquire the existing Marine Police Headquarters as it is a very suitable place for turning into a cordial, approachable, easy-going cultural gathering place for families on Sundays. We can put in facilities for different activities such as play acting, visual art or literary work for children to participate. This way, we can cultivate children's interest in culture and art.
Secondly, we have to match up with the allocation of resources. Currently, we spend $3 or $4 million on the children's programme 'International Arts Carnival' and small sums on others. In fact, we should finance groups dedicated to children's art on a long term basis. The Anonymity Dramatic Club now renamed as 'Tomorrow Dramatic Club' just referred to by Ms. Au is one of the examples of groups dedicated to children's art. We should consider giving such groups long term support in the hope that they will produce children's plays for more children to have contact with diversified activities. We also hope to see more resources diverted to different forms of art such as visual art or literary art. For literary art, we now only have a primary school students story writing competition. We do not have other activities specially designed to encourage primary school students in creative writing.
Thirdly, I hope that specialized staff can be provided to handle the above matters. We can consider employing programme directors or education directors on contract terms for the Cultural Services Division or different museums. In fact, museums in overseas countries have an education
Page 113 of 498
Page 113 of 498
Page 113 of 498
Page 113 of 498
110
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MISS ADA WONG YING-KAY (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, Ms. AU's motion today is very meaningful. She has my full support. In the past, the Council did organize certain cultural and art activities for children, but the effort was piecemeal, there were limited resources and no specific staff were put on the job. Ms. Au cited some examples in her speech. I want to raise the case of the Museum of Art. In 1994/95, the Museum of Art conducted a lot of guided tours for students. 17,000 primary school students and children took part. However, we have a lot more primary school students than that number. I hope the Museum will step up work in this respect and perhaps organize some visual art activities for children. The Museum of Art holds a Sunday Parent & Child Art Workshop once a month for 12 families. I think it is only a gloss with no real effect. Today, Ms. Au has moved for the Council to consider various measures. I hope that when we implement our Five Year Plan, we can actually study the various methods available. Today, I plan to suggest 3 ways.
First of all, we must provide matching hardware to reach out to children as our cultural targets. By hardware, I mean venues suitable for children's cultural activities. We should consider constructing a children's theatre. There are plenty of examples in foreign countries. For one thing, the seats should be smaller and specially designed for them to sit down and enjoy the show. For another, we should provide multi-usage cultural venues including performing, visual art, literary and family type cultural centres. I very much hope that the Council will be able to acquire the existing Marine Police Headquarters as it is a very suitable place for turning into a cordial, approachable, easy-going cultural gathering place for families on Sundays. We can put in facilities for different activities such as play acting, visual art or literary work for children to participate. This way, we can cultivate children's interest in culture and art.
Secondly, we have to match up with the allocation of resources. Currently, we spend $3 or $4 million on the children's programme 'International Arts Carnival' and small sums on others. In fact, we should finance groups dedicated to children's art on a long term basis. The Anonymity Dramatic Club now renamed as 'Tomorrow Dramatic Club' just referred to by Ms. Au is one of the examples of groups dedicated to children's art. We should consider giving such groups long term support in the hope that they will produce children's plays for more children to have contact with diversified activities. We also hope to see more resources diverted to different forms of art such as visual art or literary art. For literary art, we now only have a primary school students story writing competition. We do not have other activities specially designed to encourage primary school students in creative writing.
Thirdly, I hope that specialized staff can be provided to handle the above matters. We can consider employing programme directors or education directors on contract terms for the Cultural Services Division or different museums. In fact, museums in overseas countries have an education
Page 113 of 498
Page 113 of 498
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