ENG-1996 — Page 444

RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS

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perfect collaboration between the Schools of Music, Dance and Technical Arts, which opened the festival Le French May 1996, won the highest acclaim.

The academy was invited by the Hong Kong Government Office in London to send a Chinese music students' ensemble to perform in Edinburgh and Glasgow during October 1996 as part of a major Hong Kong promotion.

Hong Kong Arts Centre

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Founded in 1977, the Hong Kong Arts Centre is an independent, non-profit-making and multi-disciplinary arts organisation, presenting both mainstream and contemporary visual arts, film and video, performing arts and arts education programmes to as many people as possible. Its funding is derived from rental income, box office receipts, business sponsorship and donations from individuals and companies.

The Arts Centre comprises three auditoria the 439-seat Shouson Theatre, the 193-seat Lim Por Yen Film Theatre and the 80-seat McAulay Studio. Other venues include the Pao Siu Loong and Pao Yue Kong Galleries, the Atrium Gallery, rehearsal rooms, art and craft studios, music practice rooms and classrooms as well as the newly established Zeman Media Centre and Watari Computer Centre (PC and Mac Lab). As a community resource, it also encourages outside organisations to make full use of its facilities. In 1996, the centre was visited by more than one million people.

Highlights of the programmes this year included The Good, the Pretty and the Very Cheap series; the first 100 per cent local arts festival; Festival NOW '96; the exhibitions Journey of an Artist: The Art of Luis Chan, Focus at the Front Line — A photojournalistic Account of 1995, Quest for Absolute Void — The Art of Jean Degottex, the film programmes The Century of Cinema, A Selection of Chinese Ideology Films, Michelangelo Antonioni Retrospective, Selected Works From Peking Film Studio; the performing arts programmes Nescafe Showtime, The Oak Tree: An Odyssey, and a series of master seminars Identity of Hong Kong Artists, The Artist as Healer, Arts-in-education: From School to Community, and special projects Parents and Children Art Activities, Public Art Seminar Series and Interactive Multimedia Workshop.

Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund was set up in 1979 with a donation of $10 million from the Hong Kong Jockey Club for the promotion and development of music and dance education. It is a non-statutory trust fund, administered by a board of trustees. In 1994, the club provided a further capital injection of $22 million to the fund to meet the increase in demand for support.

During 1996, the fund awarded 132 grants and 12 scholarships totalling $4.1 million. The scholarships enabled young people to study music or dance abroad at post-graduate level. The grants helped local schools and organisations to acquire or repair musical instruments and dance equipment, and to set up orchestras or dance groups.