Making Cultural Clusters: New Strategies for Culture-led Urban (Re)development

Making Cultural Clusters: New Strategies for Culture-led Urban (Re)development

Date: 19 April, 2009 (SUNDAY)

Time: 930am--5pm (Reception starts at 9am)

Venue: Conference Room, 2/F, HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, 135 Junction Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Map: http://www.creativehk.edu.hk/main/contact/contact_main.php

(the seminar will be conducted in Cantonese)


Organized by the Center for Cultural Studies, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Co-organized by the Department of Comparative Literature, Hong Kong University and the Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University
Supported by the Public Policy Research Grant of the Central Policy Unit (HKSAR)
Sponsored by the HKUST School of Humanities and Social Science

Venue sponsored by HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity

Conference Statement:

‘Cultural Cluster’ has become a catchword in recent debates on creative industries and globalization. For artists and stakeholders in the field, the term ‘cultural cluster’ refers to a vibrant and highly diversified community. Unfortunately, the diversity and complexity of ‘cultural clusters’ have not been fruitfully understood by the government, the business sector and the community at large.

In this seminar, the speakers will share with us their observations and views on the ecology of cultural clusters in Hong Kong, and the relationships between cultural clusters, local communities and the city at large. The seminar will be divided into two panels. In panel I, the speakers will share with us the preliminary research findings on three cultural clusters in Hong Kong (i.e. Cattle Depot Artist Village, Central and Sheung Wan, and Wanchai) under the project ‘Making Cultural Clusters: New Strategies for Culture-led Urban Re-development’.

In panel II, scholars, cultural critics and participants in the field will try to evaluate the development of creative industries, cultural policy, and urban (re)development in Hong Kong with reference to the development of local cultural clusters.


Panel One: Case Study

(930am-1230pm)

Moderator: May Fung (Cultural Worker)

Market-led?: Cultural Cluster in Central and Sheung Wan
Yun-Chung CHEN (Assistant Professor, Division of Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

Cultural Thickness: the Possibility of Cultural Cluster Formation in Wanchai
Mirana May SZETO (Assistant Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, Hong Kong University)

Borrowed Place and Borrowed Time: the Case of Cattle Depot Artist Village
Damian CHENG (Postdoctoral Fellow, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

Model of Cultural Cluster in Fotan Artist Village
Patrick MOK (Consultant(Research Projects), Cheung Kong Centre for Creative Industries)

Commentators:
LEUNG Po-shan, Anthony (Cultural Worker)
Louis YU (CEO, Hong Kong Arts Development Council)

Discussion

(1230-2pm Lunch Break)

Panel II: From Cultural Cluster to West Kowloon Cultural District

(2-5pm)

Moderator: Yun-Chung CHEN

Cultural Landfill: When Creativity becomes Industrialized
Oscar HO (Curator and Cultural Critics)

The Discourse of Cultural Value-Adding
CHAN Wan (Cultural Critics)

Cultural Planning and Creative Cities: Gaps and Blindspots in Local Cultural Policy
Stephen CHAN (Professor and Department Head, Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University

Commentator:
Desmond Hui (Professor, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Discussion
All are welcome! Enquiry: Keith Au (Tel: 9224-2763)