ENG-1978 — Page 271

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RECREATION AND THE ARTS

The cultural complex will have an auditoria block housing a 2,000-seat concert hall; a 2,200-seat lyric theatre for opera, ballet and stage shows; and a small theatre in the round. A nine-storey office block will provide the Cultural Services Division of the Urban Services Department with accommodation. Other facilities planned include restaurants, an arts library, conference and lecture rooms, garden areas and a small recital hall.

In the third stage of the Tsim Sha Tsui Cultural Centre both the Hong Kong Museum of Art and Hong Kong Museum of History will be relocated in a new museum building, which is expected to be operational in 1983.

Hong Kong Museum of Art

Thirteen exhibitions of Chinese and Japanese art, including five exhibitions in con- junction with the Third Festival of Asian Arts, were staged by the Hong Kong Museum of Art in 1978. Nine illustrated exhibition catalogues on Chinese bamboo carving, snuff bottles, Chinese painting, Japanese prints and calligraphy, and works by contemporary artists were produced. These have been added to the libraries of many museums and universities around the world. The exhibition and catalogue on Chinese bamboo carving of the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties was the first of its kind in museum history.

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During the year, 285,000 people visited exhibitions an average of 924 a day. In an extension of the museum's activities, small travelling exhibitions have been set up and these are loaned - free of charge to schools, libraries and cultural institutions. Some significant acquisitions were made by the museum. These included a large San-ts'ai pottery horse and a rare blue glazed tripod bowl of the Tang Dynasty (618 to 907); a Tz'u-chou vase painted with two peony sprays and a Chun Yao narcissus bowl of the Sung Dynasty (960 to 1279); a moulded ying-ching saucer dish and a blue-and-white bowl of the Yuan Dynasty (1280 to 1368); a winter-green bowl with incised decoration and a blue-and-white brush-rest of the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644); and a Canton enamel double gourd vase of the Ch'ien-lung period (1736 to 1795).

Hong Kong Museum of History!! Y

The Hong Kong Museum of History organised several major exhibitions in 1978 which attracted 290,000 visitors to the museum's galleries on the fourth floor of Star House, Kowloon.

A special exhibition was organised jointly by the museum and the Agriculture and Fisheries Department to mark the centenary of one of Hong Kong's most renowned scientific institutions, the Hong Kong Herbarium. Another exhibition featured Thai ceramics through the ages and was organised with the co-operation of the Division of National Museums of the Royal Thai Fine Art Department.

With the assistance and co-operation of the Hong Kong Archaeological Society, an exhibition entitled, Sham Wan: 5,000 Years into the Past, featured the fascinating results of a detailed archaeological study at Sham Wan, Lamma Island. Coinciding with the exhibition was the publication of a comprehensive monograph on the Sham Wan excavations by the Hong Kong Archaeological Society, with financial assistance