Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre

Establishment

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 campaign of cottage industries, local light industries in the late 1970s in Hong Kong owned by the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA), which had fallen into disuse due to a steep decline of the local garment industry in 1990s in Hong Kong when owners started to move their businesses to Mainland China. The building was vacant since May 2001. This project was the first adaptive reuse 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). The conversion was awarded 'Medal of the Year of Hong Kong' in HKIA Annual Awards 2008 by the Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA).

The design aims to strike a fine balance between new and old features in order to achieve a harmonious integration with the surrounding neighbourhood and to preserve the inherent characteristics of the old factory building as much as possible. Local design firm G.O.D. maintains a Street Culture Gallery featuring pop-culture 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 now spearheaded by the Hong Kong Baptist University with a seven years Entrustment Agreement from the Hong Kong Government, in strategic partnership with the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and the Hong Kong Arts Centre. The University received a total of HK$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 Mr. William Leung Wing-cheung, BBS, JP.

Facilities

The Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre provides a total of 124 studio units (each unit measuring 24 square metres) at affordable rent encompassing a wide spectrum of the various tenants’ arts including painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, glass art, multi-media design, folk art, film and video art, music, dance, multi-media performance, community art and art education. The Centre also has supporting facilities such as a Black Box Theatre, two exhibition galleries, and a central courtyard 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 Festival

This is an annual event of JCCAC to let more public to know JCCAC by fairs, open studio, exhibitions, Black Box Theatre programmes, talks and seminars and many others artists’ programmes.

Handicraft Fair

Handicraft Fair is the one of highlighted activities in 2013 of JCCAC. This programme aims to provide an interactive platform for handcrafters to exchange and sell their products, and also to share their experience to the general public while the visitors can discover for themselves the creative spirit of the place through the guided tour provided by the centre. The Handicraft Fair held from 16-17 March 2013 was so successful as many local artists and the responses by the general public was significant.

Hong Kong Really Really Free Market

Hong Kong Really Really Free Market (HKRRFM) organised by the Hong Kong Design Community is also another emphasised activity in the Handicraft Fair. It aims to build a community based on sharing resources or unneeded items, caring for one another and improving the collective lives of all by forming a temporary market and offering both goods and services based on an alternative gift economy.

Various problems

"Artists complained about bureaucratic 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 HK$7.80 per square foot - up from HK$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 HK$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.'"