Spotlight on Paul Tam, Executive Director, West Kowloon Cultural District

Please, tell us about the West Kowloon Cultural District, and your role in it.

If you would allow me to describe West Kowloon Cultural District in 3 words, they would be “ambitious”, “redefining”, “vibrant”. The precinct is a new and growing arts and culture hub in Hong Kong, with performance spaces and museums, green open spaces and a waterfront promenade perched on the iconic Victoria Harbour. It’s currently home to four cultural venues including M+ and the soon-to-be open Hong Kong Palace Museum. As Executive Director, Performing Arts, I lead the artistic, operational, and business development for the other two venues – the Xiqu Centre which promotes traditional Chinese opera and Freespace, a centre for contemporary programming and R&D. The third one, the Lyric Theatre Complex designed for dance, theatre, opera and more, will complete in 2024/25. To experience what the buzz is all about, I invite you to visit us in person or online: www.westkowloon.hk.

The situation in Hong Kong has been quite volatile over the pandemic with venues closing and then opening, restricted hours etc. How have you managed the situation with respect to programming and audiences?

I have simply Lost count of how many times since early 2020 we have had to close and reopen our venues or recalibrate our seating capacities. With our venues closed, we have had to quickly recalibrate our programming by turning some of our live programming to online. A very encouraging example came in the winter of 2020 when we had to turn our live-audience production of Waking Dreams in 1984, a co-production with a local theatre ensemble On & On Theatre Workshop, into online monetized offering. A great deal of effort was put into the adaptation, but we ended up with an acclaimed online production and sold more tickets than our original seated capacity. When international travel essentially stalls for visiting artists, we have been turning to local artists almost exclusively, and these homegrown talents have been met with high turnout and enthusiastic appreciation. If there is a silver lining in this terrible pandemic, this must be it!

I have explored your website's video content, and it shows continuous experimentation with digital programming. Do you have any thoughts on future work-models for the performing arts sector, with a focus on emerging technologies to promote the arts post Covid-19?

With or without COVID, I believe arts and technology is and will be a strategic driver charting new frontiers for the arts and culture, creating creative disruptions while bringing forth new opportunities unseen before. The pandemic has merely accelerated the rates they are adopted. I am extremely excited, and grateful, that we have secured a major grant to curate a first-ever arts-tech festival titled “Creative Tomorrow” which spans from this August to next March. The roster of programmes cuts across a multitude of genres, from theatre, jazz and world music, contemporary dance to Chinese opera reimagined and retold digitally. All this will be made even more deliciously heady by the curation of indoor and outdoor experiential installations, game art, metaverse engagement workshop and lecture performances. As it will be a mix of onsite, online and hybrid delivery, audiences in other parts of the world can have a taste of it from afar. Stay tuned for more information on our social media.

The Lyric Theatre Complex is scheduled to be completed in 2024, has the pandemic influenced any of your plans for the facility?

Under construction, the complex’s progress has unavoidably been affected by the pandemic. However, we are confident we will make up ground once the situation eases. On the other hand, the planning for the venue, from the programming of the opening season, our international residencies to its hospitality strategy, are going full steam ahead. All good things come to those who wait.

We are looking forward to the upcoming HK22 ISPA virtual congress. What is your involvement in the planning process?

I am very honoured to serve as a member on the Congress Committee which has cooked up a wonderful programme with a stellar cast of speakers and topics made for stimulating sharing. Due to the 5th wave in HK, the Congress will be virtual. But excitingly virtual it is! I very much look forward to meeting you all online May 24-27!