The cultural and creative industries have become the central to policies around the world as in the promotion of a Global Creative Economy.

Art, culture and technological innovation are employed in the branding of cities in order to compete on the global stage, contributing to inequality and sky-rocketing property prices in urban centres like Hong Kong, Paris and Tokyo.

Cultural policies are resulting in major cultural development projects in the accelerated modernisation of China. These projects, including the Greater Bay Area as part of the Belt and Road Initiative will transform the life, culture and economy in these regions and around the world. In consideration of these developments, how can artists and practitioners consider their own roles within this economy, without being complicit or left behind?
In this class, students will gain a deeper understanding of the global cultural economy and how cultural policies impact the work of practitioners. Topics around cultural work and labour conditions, ideologies of technological innovation and entrepreneurship, soft power and cultural diplomacy and creative cities and the role of art and culture in urban regeneration will be discussed in the course. This course will aid students in developing tools for analysing and critiquing cultural development projects and policies through different theoretical and artistic perspectives to support their own research and practice in the field.

This course looks into basic theoretical perspectives and areas of interests in cultural studies. At the knowledge level, this core course is to survey in some detail how the cultural turn in humanities and social sciences helps us understand everyday life in a fresh way, for example ways in which we are being constructed and reshaped by our experience of everyday life, as well as the embedded values (in financial terms and ethical terms) are being forged and circulated explicitly and implicitly. This course seeks to encourage among students attitude of openness to new ideas and learning creatively through living.

In Hong Kong popular culture, Xiqu (sometimes know as Chinese Opera) is used as a symbol of “China” in advertisement, theatre and other kinds of performing arts. This course is aimed at introducing the essential artistic elements of Xiqu and analyzing different kinds of mutations and transformations in practicing. We will study the challenges and junctures when Xiqu meets the other art-form. Also we will use Cantonese Opera as an example to probe into the linkage between local culture and the characteristics of different Xiqu culture in different perspectives, including gender, nationality and ritual.

This course will study contemporary art systems and institutions as cultural forms within the broader ‘cultural ecology’ of modern cities such as Hong Kong. It will consider the development of post-formalist art forms and time-based media such as installation art, digital media art, video art and performance art and how these art forms are employed within traditional art spaces, public spaces, social media platforms and activist movements. 
The aim of the course is also to introduce students to a general historical framework of contemporary art with a focus on dialogic aesthetics and participatory art forms. The students will learn about movements and concepts and how to apply these discourses by researching Hong Kong artists as well as traditional and grassroots institution and cultural precincts. Finally, students will contribute to artistic discourses by curating an innovative work of contemporary art and artist residency. The course will outline institutional and promotional structures of art curating and the benefits of cultural interactivity and exchange.

This course examines the intersection of urban and cinematic experiences, it will investigate the images that define and brand cities, their implications to our future life, and it also encourages students to record and decipher their own experiences and imagine their living cities with self-produced short films essay that counteract emerging global cityscapes. Based on the theories of Gilles Deleuze, cinematic image as a thinking tool is used to see and reflect on the world and the experience of it. Certain poetic languages of cinema and urban theories are introduced as a plethora of expressive visual languages for students to examine their own thinking and experience in the city critically and reflectively.

The course aims to introduce concepts, theories and practices of various management issues in arts organizations, including strategic management, human resources management, financial management, PR & Marketing management, management ethics etc. Students will be introduced to management issues through both theories and case studies. Application of management concepts and principles in performing, visual, and film/video arts organizations will be highlighted. Students are encouraged to evaluate the concepts and principles to their work environments and/or areas of interest in the arts and cultural industries.

This course provides a comprehensive training of various keywords, institutions, processes, and issues in relation to visual arts management under the curriculum of critical / cultural studies as primary artistic research and practice.

The objective of this course is to provide students with an opportunity to become familiar with the specific vocabulary, the logistics, analytical skills, and processes of art institutions both public and private, the current debates and discourses around the various hegemony and socio-cultural issues that define the spectra of the modern and contemporary visual arts.

This course is meant to serve as an introduction to various topics in visual art administration and deepened understanding of basic principles of the ecology of the visual arts and its industries, institutions, and artistic projects especially focusing on the art scene in Hong Kong and Asia.

The aims of the course are to examine the relationship between the performing arts and the community, the evolution and main players of arts policy in Hong Kong, and for students to gain general understanding of the many facets of performing arts administration and be able to discuss related issues with some insights and to learn basic skills in performing arts administration. It covers topics on performing arts administration, including an introduction of arts policy and development of arts provision in Hong Kong, current arts infrastructure in Hong Kong, planning and organizational structure, audience development and arts education, sponsorship and fundraising, etc.

This course introduces students to different methodologies and materials significant in studying the past, and in particular, the usefulness of combining both textual and non- textual materials in analysing the history, environment, and culture of our local communities. The course will be team-taught by specialists who focus on both the theory and practice of historical preservation. Students will learn about the concepts and methods concerning doing fieldwork, conducting oral history, analysing archaeological artifacts and remains, collecting and exhibiting Hong Kong’s material culture in local museums, preserving historical architecture, and making use of archival studies in China and Hong Kong.

An academic research paper or project in an area related to Cultural Management under individualized supervision. Consent of teacher required.

One of the most challenging aspects of visual arts management is the practice of curatorship. With the rapid global growth of museums and the popularity of the biennale culture, curatorial interpretation has become an influential force in shaping the definition of art and museum.
Exhibition venues are the places where various artistic practices and concepts intermingle and drift. Act of curating is not only administrative and managerial activities but becomes part of the exhibition itself nowadays. Thus, this course provides the idea of the curatorial and its history, theory, and praxis.

This course nurtures students’ creative and interpretive skills in conceiving and developing curatorial ideas, equips students with the technical, managerial, and communicative skills in planning, organizing, and interpreting exhibitions.
It also introduces a critical study of practice of curatorship, reviewing its traditions, limitations and possibilities for abuses and development.

Prerequisite course(s): CULS5307

The specific topics of this course vary from year to year. It will focus each time on a fully developed topic on cultural management that is not covered in the regular course offerings of the programme. As the topic of this course changes from year to year, students are allowed to take this course more than once (not within the same term) and gain the units each time they pass the course. However, students cannot take the same topic twice.

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the arts and cultural sectors worldwide and has highlighted the need for research in this academic field on issues such as skills gaps, digital delivery and new business models in cultural management that require urgent attention. A single course on Special Topics in Cultural Management is no longer sufficient to cover new topics related to this time of massive transformation in the arts and cultural sectors.

Special Topics in Cultural Management II focuses on a specific topic on cultural management that is not covered in the regular course offerings of the cultural management programme. It aims to enrich the programme with fully developed topics concerning cultural management.

As the content of this course changes from year to year, students are allowed to take this course more than once (not within the same term) and gain the units each time they pass the course. However, students cannot take the same topic twice.

In order to attract public participation and media attention, cultural institutions are giving more emphasis to organizing large scale cultural programmes such as biennales, arts festivals and multi-disciplinary events. Organizing such mega projects involves huge budget, complicated technical arrangement, large number of staff, artists and diversified progrmames. The course studies not only the organization, management and promotion of the various types of large scale cultural presentations, ranging from thematic arts festivals, multi-disciplinary projects, public entertainment, community arts projects to celebrative events, but also nurtures students’ curatorial capability in identifying, developing and implementing programmes for these mega-cultural projects.

Students are required to have taken CULS 5308 before they could take this course. Exception can be made if evidence of previous working experience in performing arts management is provided.

Students are encouraged to gain practical experience through this programme. Every year the Department will identify appropriate projects and inform students normally at least one month before the beginning of school term for application. A selection process is required as opportunity from this programme is limited. Based on the nature of projects. specially designed schemes will be worked out with the students and a supervisor will be assigned. Final evaluation is based on supervisor’s evaluation and project reports by the students.

In the last decade, there has been a significant growth in the number and types of arts and cultural venues in East and Southeast Asia. Increasingly, cultural managers are expected to contribute to the day-to-day operations of various types of cultural venues. At the same time, cultural managers are also taking on key roles in the venues’ programming decisions. Many of these new venues are developed as cultural landmarks of their respective cities (for instance, the rapid roll out of performing arts centres and museums in Mainland China) or revitalized from existing heritage sites. Apart from these mega cultural venues’ projects, there is also a growing number of non-conventional arts and cultural spaces initiated by business owners and cultural organizations. The pandemic has also triggered new thinking in the role of physical cultural venues as well as accelerated the shift towards digital venue and art tech. This course aims to address all the above issues.

Members of communities develop both social and cultural capital through collaborative and participatory artmaking. The course explores the philosophy, practices and ethical issues on how the arts bring about community development and regeneration, education/ lifelong learning, communication, cultural citizenship, among other things.

With the development of technologies, contemporary filmmaking has become faster and flexible. This practical course is designed for storytellers who want to translate their ideas into compelling videos. Though pre-production, filming, to post-production, students will learn the visual-audio language, basic skills and techniques of filmmaking, including camera shooting, sound recording, lighting, editing by using Adobe Premiere and After Effect, etc. It consists of lectures, readings, screenings and consultations, hands-on visual projects and mini workshops; helps students to explore their conceptual and aesthetic styles in the end.

Seminars in Cultural Management comprises of 3-4 current and cutting-edge research themes in cultural management. These themes are updated according to the current developments in cultural management. Classes are conducted in seminar style and each theme could be taught by a different instructor (co-teaching).

The twentieth century is a period of rupture for Chinese arts, in which artists experimented ferociously to develop different forms of modern arts that could respond to drastic social change. A central concern is to transform Chinese visual arts into both modern and Chinese, representing an independent people and nation marching into modernity. Developed around the visual arts, the course would ultimately like to ask a political question: is there a national style?

This course focuses primarily on the Chinese arts, but we will also pay attention to artistic movements outside China. We will explore different genres of visual arts as well as the overall social and political order of the time. In contrast to the traditional art history approach, this course is devoted to the investigation of how arts and politics became so mutually constitutive with each other in the Chinese context, and how the revolution discourse relied heavily on the arts to connect to the people. We will also explore how Maoist arts cannot be understood simply as political tool. In addition to providing a general overview of the development of arts, we will also investigate the meanings of artistic freedom in China, and explore the identity of artists and authors under an official ideology in which collectivity is deemed much more important than individuals. At a time when nationalism perpetuates Chinese society, a revisit of the “national style” of Chinese arts developed in the twentieth century invites students to reflect on the meanings of Chinese arts beyond narrow-minded Sino-centric frameworks. We could instead go back to some basic aesthetic values and concepts such as emancipation, democracy, and plurality. This course is as much one of art history as one of political and intellectual history.