The Art Newspaper

Hong Kong’s West Kowloon contemporary art museum: phase one to be complete by 2016

By Chris Gill | Web only
Published online 27 May 09

SHANGHAI. Hong Kong’s West Kowloon museum project, which will involve building a large contemporary art space on 40 hectares of reclaimed land on a central site in the city, has seen some progress, but the completion date has moved to 2016 for the first phase. Vincent Lo, chairman of the planning committee, said that those responsible for the project are appraising architectural bids this year. Mr Lo also said that they will be conducting an international search for a museum director and two senior curators by the end of this year.

The final completion date for the $3bn project is still uncertain. Vincent Fung, of the Hong Kong tourist authority, said the plans have undergone yet another revision after public consultation and a further rethink, leading to the decision to divide up the project rather than let one developer complete the entire venture. Mr Fung said that progress is slow due to the continuous public consultation process.

Following a legislative decision to approve the $3bn budget, there has been a large degree of speculation on how much will be spent on the museum’s acquisition budget to build a permanent collection. Mr Fung said he did not think it would be a large proportion of the budget, while Asia Art Archive director Claire Hsu, who is on the museum’s committee, said she believes that the acquisitions budget may be as much as $1bn. Mr Lo also said that the $1bn figure was correct.

Ai Weiwei and Norman Foster are among the architectural teams bidding for the project.

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