The Art Promotion Office launched the first round of “Artists in the Neighbourhood Scheme” in 2000 with an aim to bring visual art into the communities. By displaying the latest works of talented artists in districts throughout Hong Kong, the Scheme is an attempt to introduce art into the everyday lives of the public. Through partnerships with various organisations, we constantly explore new exhibition venues and expand the audience base of local art activities.

This year marks the fourth staging of the “Artists in the Neighbourhood Scheme”. Over the past three rounds of the Scheme, we organised more than 60 solo and joint exhibitions for 29 local artists and three art groups, drawing over a million people to visit them or to take part in the art activities complementary to the exhibitions. We are committed to taking high-quality local art to various district of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, the New Territories and outlying islands. Besides popular exhibition venues such as the Hong Kong City Hall and the Hong Kong Central Library, we set up alternative venues at shopping malls, MTR and KCR stations, hospitals and bookstores.

In these exhibitions and activities, we came into contact with not only professional artists and art lovers, but especially with those who had seldom taken part in the local art scene. There were students led by teachers, kids led by their parents, and even mainlanders who originally came to Hong Kong for leisure and shopping. Most frequently, we met the local residents of the neighbourhood where an exhibition took place, with not a few elderly people who enjoyed the display at a leisurely pace, and young people who had been in a hurry but were suddenly captured by the exhibition display. It is not just the recipients that were diverse, so were the art media, which included Chinese ink painting, western painting, installation, design, architecture to multimedia art. Artists participating in the exhibitions included veteran artists, art groups with a long history, as well as artists of the younger generation.

To further broaden our public interface, we are committed to developing a web-based platform. Through our website, both local and overseas visitors can browse through the latest exhibitions, exhibitors’ works and profiles, interviews and video demos any time. Those who have missed out on an exhibition can catch up and enjoy the exhibitions on the web.

In this year's “Artists in the Neighbourhood Scheme”, we hope to introduce local art to even more people from various communities and backgrounds, to nourish their cultural lives, and shorten the distance between art and the public.