Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District will use up its financial reserves next year, the head of the authority overseeing the arts hub has said as she urged the government to approve a plan designed to secure its financial sustainability.
Betty Fung, CEO of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA), told local media outlets on Wednesday that the arts hub’s HK$21.6 billion funding endowed by the city’s legislature in 2008 will run out next year.
Fung said that the arts hub had recorded over 4 million visits in the 2022/23 year, in which the hub’s M+ Museum had drawn 2.7 million visitors. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Palace Museum attracted 1.25 million guests, she said, adding that she was confident that the increase in special exhibitions would draw more visits this year.
But the former director of the government’s Information Services Department also said that revenue generated by ticket sales could not cover the high costs of operations. She said that the M+ Museum and the Palace Museum were able to earn back close to half of its expenses, putting it “on par with or even exceeding internationally renowned museums,” but the WKCDA still had to cover the outstanding costs with its own money.
“Even the top-class museums in the world could run into serious financial troubles without government subsidies,” Fung told the Hong Kong Economic Journal. “We are [running] on zero government subsidies and rely solely on fundraising and ticket sales.”
Citing the Palace Museum as an example, Fung said that its operation costed over HK$400 million yearly, with exhibition costs amounting to over half of the expenses. In comparison, the WKCDA raised HK$197 million last year, she added.
According to its annual report, the self-financed arts hub has seen a deficit of over HK$1.3 billion in 2023, already down from HK$1.5 billion in the year earlier.
Finance plan
Fung said a plan to boost the cultural district’s income was proposed to the government last year, and that the WKCDA was still awaiting a reply.
The WKCDA proposed making “good use of its land resources” in a bid to shore up its finances last August. Details of the proposal – which has not been made public – are not known.
Fung said that the government had yet to reply to the proposal as authorities had been consulting with experts on the arts hub’s financial situation. But she urged the government to expedite the plan’s approval, citing the time required for setting up major art exhibitions in collaboration with international arts institutions.
She said that such exhibitions would normally require two to three years to prepare, and the uncertainty of the arts hub’s finances would hinder arrangements and contracts with other museums.
Fung added that the worst-case scenario would be to rely on bank loans to sustain the operations of the arts hub, which she described as “unheard of.”
Secretary for Cultures, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung on Wednesday said that authorities would continue to work with the WKCDA to address its financial situation.
“The government invested a great amount of recourses when the West Kowloon Cultural District was established, as well as offered assistance in its land [acquisition] and construction,” he told reporters in Cantonese. “We will continue to work with them to solve the problems.”
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