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RECREATION AND THE ARTS

An Arts Gathering and a Children's Art Fair were also held to introduce various arts activities to the young.

Celebration of Hong Kong Artists

To provide an opportunity for the appreciation of local talent and to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the City Hall, the Urban Council held a special festival entitled ‘A Celebra- tion of Hong Kong Artists - City Hall Silver Jubilee' from October 16 to November 4.

The festival featured 15 local groups, 14 soloists and six overseas guest artists. The programme put emphasis on creative and original works, covering a wide spectrum of per- forming arts, both Chinese and Western. In addition, two exhibitions were organised. The Museum of History presented an exhibition on 'Puppet Theatres of Hong Kong' to introduce the history and development of the major types of puppet theatre in Hong Kong, including the rod, string, glove, wire and shadow puppets, and the Museum of Arts put on a 'Contemporary Hong Kong Arts Biennial 1987', attracting a record 1 216 entries from 620 participants. Selected for the exhibition were 125 pieces of work.

Hong Kong Museum of History

During the year, the Hong Kong Museum of History organised four special thematic exhibitions. Together with the standing exhibition 'History of Hong Kong - A Brief Introduction', the displays attracted 629 600 visitors.

The most popular display was that of puppets from the museum's collection. Entitled 'Puppet Theatres of Hong Kong', the exhibition recounted the history of puppetry in Hong Kong. Other important exhibitions included the 'Postal History of Hong Kong (the War Years 1941-45)' and, 'Old Photos of Hong Kong - People and Life' which was supported by many interesting objects related to early urban history.

The most notable event of the year was the loan of the museum's 'Traditional Chinese Wedding' exhibition to the Leal Senado de Macau in May. The exhibition was highly popular with Macau residents and was followed by the loan of another exhibition - ‘Macau Currency' - to the Museu Luis de Camoes in July. This exhibition was equally successful.

The travelling exhibitions to schools were much sought after while the two special museum workshops on archaeology and minerals of Hong Kong were over-subscribed. The regular museum weekend programmes which comprised special lectures, craft demonstra- tions as well as film and video shows remained extremely popular.

Construction work on the expansion and up-grading of the museum premises at Kowloon Park started in October. The project is expected to be completed in early 1989 to provide another 1 000 square metres of exhibition area in the galleries.

Meanwhile, experts and local historians have been commissioned to carry out research projects on various local historical topics so that a permanent exhibition on the history of Hong Kong may be staged after the museum's expansion. One of the projects, on "Tradi- tional Chinese Operatic Genres in Hong Kong', is expected to be completed in February 1988. In response to the museum's appeal, a number of residents donated historical objects and memorabilia, ranging from domestic wares and historical documents to old gramophone records and sewing machines. These additions not only enhance the museum's historical and ethnographical collections but will also make future exhibitions more interesting.

Conversion of Law Uk, a 200-year-old Hakka House at Chai Wan, into a folk museum proceeded as scheduled. Meanwhile, the Lei Cheng Uk Branch Museum where a Han Tomb is preserved in situ, attracted 42 670 visitors.

Collaboration with local learned societies remained close and mutually beneficial.