The Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre Void 2009

The Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre (JCCAC; ) is a multi-disciplinary arts centre in

Shek Kip Mei Shek Kip Mei, is an area in New Kowloon, to the northeast of the Kowloon Peninsula of Hong Kong. It borders Sham Shui Po and Kowloon Tong. History At the time of the 1911 census, the population of Shek Kip Mei was 72. A major fire o ...

, Hong Kong, housed in a converted nine-storey factory estate. JCCAC was established through the co-operation of the

Hong Kong Arts Development Council The Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) is a Statutory authority, statutory body in Hong Kong tasked with development of the arts in the territory. The HKADC was created in 1995, under the Hong Kong Arts Development Council Ordinance, ...

(HKADC) and the

Hong Kong Arts Centre Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC; ) is a non-profit arts institution and art museum established in 1977. It promotes contemporary performing arts, visual arts, film and video arts. It also provides arts education. Its rival is the government-managed ...

(HKAC) and is a subsidiary of

Hong Kong Baptist University Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) is a public Liberal arts education, liberal arts university with a Christian ethics, Christian education heritage in Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The university was established as Hong Kong Baptist ...

(HKBU). It is funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and is supported by the

Home Affairs Bureau The Home and Youth Affairs Bureau () is a policy bureau of the Hong Kong Government. The bureau has general responsibility over local administration, with a remit covering youth affairs, family planning, women's affairs, social development, f ...

. The JCCAC officially opened on 26 September 2008 as a self-financed

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

Establishment

*31 October 2005, JCCAC opening ceremony was held. *21 November 2006, tenant applications were opened. *January 2007, applications outnumbered places 5:1. JCCAC selected 112 applicants, six arts organisations, 88 artists or arts groups and the remainder being students or graduates of arts institutes. *28 February 2008, completion of the construction of JCCAC. *March 2008, the first tenants moved into the centre. *26 September 2008, JCCAC was officially opened.

Architecture

The building housing the JCCAC was formerly known as the Shek Kip Mei Flatted Factory Building or the Shek Kip Mei Factory Estate. The Factory Estate was built in 1977 and comprised one nine-storey block accommodating 390 factory units. It was a facility of housing

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide ...

and local

light industries Light industry are industries that usually are less capital-intensive than heavy industries and are more consumer-oriented than business-oriented, as they typically produce smaller consumer goods. Most light industry products are produced fo ...

in the late

1970s File:1970s decade montage.jpg, Clockwise from top left: U.S. President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office following the Watergate scandal in 1974; The United States was still involved in the Vietnam War ...

and was owned by the

Hong Kong Housing Authority The Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) is the main provider of public housing in Hong Kong. It was established in April 1973 under the Housing Ordinance and is an government agency, agency of the Government of Hong Kong. In the same year, the R ...

(HA). It fell into disuse particularly due to a steep decline in the local

garment industry Clothing industry or garment industry summarizes the types of trade and industry along the production and value chain of clothing and garments, starting with the textile industry (producers of cotton, wool, fur, and synthetic fibre), embellishm ...

1990s in Hong Kong The 1990s in Hong Kong marked a transitional period and the last decade of colonial British rule in Hong Kong. Background The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration paved the way for a series of changes that would facilitate the transfer of so ...

when owners started to move their businesses to

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

. The building was vacant from May 2001. The JCCAC was the first

adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse is the reuse of an existing building for a purpose other than that for which it was originally built or designed. It is also known as recycling and conversion. The adaptive reuse of buildings can be a viable alternative to new con ...

attempt in Hong Kong to convert a decommissioned factory building into a creative arts centre. The interior of the centre retains architectural features of factories (architecturally it is reminiscent of London's

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

). The conversion was awarded 'Medal of the Year of Hong Kong' in HKIA Annual Awards 2008 by the

Hong Kong Institute of Architects Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA, ) is a professional body for architects in Hong Kong with approximately 1500 full members, 300 associates members and graduate members.

(HKIA). The design aims to strike a fine balance between new and old features in order to achieve integration with the surrounding neighbourhood and to preserve the inherent characteristics of the old factory building. Local design firm G.O.D. maintains a Street Culture Gallery featuring

pop-culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art pop_art.html" ;"title="f. pop art">f. pop artor mass art, somet ...

artefacts from Hong Kong's past for the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre that is a home to artists and art groups for the production and display of their works.

Management

The Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre is currently managed by the

under a seven-year Entrustment Agreement with the

Hong Kong Government The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government) is the Executive (government), executive authorities of Hong Kong. It was established on 1 July 1997, following the ...

, in partnership with the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and the

. The University received a total of

HK$ The Hong Kong dollar (, sign: HK$; code: HKD) is the official currency of Hong Kong. It is divided into 100 cents. Historically, it was also divided into 1000 mils. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is the monetary authority of Hong Kong an ...

94.4 million (HK$69.4 million + HK$25 million) funding donation from the Hong Kong Jockey Club's Charities Trust (JCCT) in 2005 and 2007 for renovating the vacated factory building and disbursing part of the start-up costs. Ms. Lillian Hau Cheuk-ki is the Executive Director of JCCAC started from 3 May 2010 by the appointment from the Hong Kong Creative Arts Centre Limited while Mr. Eddie Lui Fung-ngar is the former Executive Director of the centre between 1 July 2007 to February 2010. The Centre is managed by an HKBU subsidiary company with charitable status, namely the Hong Kong Creative Arts Centre Limited which is operated on self-financing basis. The present Chairman of the Governing Board is William Leung Wing-cheung.

Facilities

The Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre provides a total of 131 studio units (each unit measuring 24 square metres) at affordable rent encompassing a wide spectrum of the various tenants’ arts including painting, sculpture,

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...

, photography,

glass art Glass art refers to individual works of art that are substantially or wholly made of glass. It ranges in size from monumental works and installation pieces to wall hangings and windows, to works of art made in studios and factories, including gl ...

, multi-media design,

folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...

, film and

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...

, music, dance, multi-media performance,

community art Community art, also known as social art, community-engaged art, community-based art, and, rarely, dialogical art, is the practice of art based in—and generated in—a community setting. It is closely related to social practice and social turn. ...

and

art education Visual arts education is the area of learning that is based upon the kind of art that one can see, visual arts—drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and design in jewelry, pottery, weaving, fabrics, etc. and design applied to more practi ...

. The Centre also has supporting facilities such as a

Black Box Theatre A black box theater is a performance space, typically a square or rectangular room, with black walls and a black, flat floor. The simplicity of the space allows it to be used to create a variety of configurations of stage and audience interact ...

, two exhibition galleries, and a central

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary a ...

for organisation of programmes and activities. On the lorry of the building (Level-1), a few rental spaces are reserved for commercial outlets like cafeteria, a commercial art gallery and a Chinese tea house, etc. to provide eating places for the artists. JCCAC Handicraft Fair

Photo gallery

File:The Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre Level 6 Access.jpg, Studio inside art centre File:The Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre Level 6 Liftlobby.jpg, Lift lobby File:The Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre Level 7 Common Space.jpg, Common Space in Level 7 File:HKRRFM1.jpg, Hong Kong Really Really Free Market(HKRRFM) File:HKRRFM.jpg, People share the goods here. File:Black Box Theatre.jpg, The entrance of the Black Box Theatre in JCCAC.

Controversies

Various problems

"Artists complained about

bureaucratic Bureaucracy ( ) is a system of organization where laws or regulatory authority are implemented by civil servants or non-elected officials (most of the time). Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments ...

management, unusable public space, inadequate publicity and poor facilities. Visitors were unhappy to find many studios closed as a result of some artists saying they simply wanted a quiet place to work."

Rent rises

"Artists are unhappy about a sudden 20 per cent rent increase for studio space. All occupants of the factory turned artist incubator would have to pay a new elevated rate of

7.80 per square foot – up from

6.50 per sq ft for many – once their contracts come due. Although the centre had warned tenants last year(2011) they would have to pay

7.50 per sq ft starting this year(2012), the back-to-back rent rises took many by surprise. 'I am not against increasing the rent if it's necessary,' said tenant Mac Mak Keung-wai of the A&M Art Workshop. 'I just feel that this is a commercially driven decision and that it strays from the original vision of the centre.'"

References

External links

Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre (JCCAC)

Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC)

Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre Opening 26/9/2008 (Youtube)
{{Heritage conservation in Hong Kong , state=autocollapse Hong Kong art Arts centres in Hong Kong Shek Kip Mei Factory buildings in Hong Kong 2008 establishments in Hong Kong Art museums and galleries established in 2008