Nov18 was a special day for the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre. It was the day unhappy tenants of the center that opened in 2008 finally got their first chance of speaking to the Board of Directors of JCCAC.

Carrying the name of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and located on a hillside in Shek Kip Mei, JCCAC had received only start-up funding from the charity giant. The premises is that the center was to be owned by the government and managed by a company founded by Hong Kong Baptist University. Representatives of the Home Affairs Bureau, the university and other related organizations serve as Directors at the company.

Daily operations are overseen by the managerial committee. That rather impersonal connection with the tenants left the artists  feeling as if there was no effective channel of communication. The tenants demanded not only the right to meet with the board but also to become a part of it. 

“If we are a forest, and you owned the land,  we would go away if the place started to head for decertification,” said Chan Kam-shing, founder of I-Kiln Studio at the center. “In the end, what matters is not who is in charge but whether the place has a  mission.”

The pottery sculptor made a reference to Oil Street — an inspiration for all artist clusters in Hong Kong. The temporary lease of a vacant government warehouse in 1999 had allowed creators and curators to experiment with the synergies of clustering, to see how far they could raise the bar on local arts scene.

The unexpected heyday was short-lived. Major Oil Street tenants were relocated to the Cattle Depot at San Po Kong in 2001 and according to a meeting of community representatives at the urban renewal forum last August, they are welcome to stay. The only problem was that the venue has not brought enough customers into the neighborhood, even after visitors-unfriendly policies were changed.

JCCAC is also struggling to attract visitors as it was expected to.

Two weeks after the heated dialogue at JCCAC, China Daily met with Esther Ma from studio L6-29 at the opening ceremony of JCCAC Arts Festival. She was upset by the crafts fairs featured in the program, which welcome public to “shop around” for “handmade art pieces by over 100 handcraft artists”.

“Sometimes I felt the balance has leaned towards commercial interest,” She said. “Visitors drawn to the center are here to shop, not for arts.”

Executive Director of the JCCAC Lilian Hau defended the fairs, saying they have brought the public closer to the arts community. There are no plans  to step up the effort beyond its present level. “If our priority is to provide workspace for up-and-coming or well settled artists, visitation will not be our prime pursuit,” said Hau.

The seven-story-tall former industrial building houses recording studios, rehearsal space for dance groups, offices for organizations advocating community arts and painters’ workshops. Not all of the tenants welcome curious peepers.

“The public had possibly anticipated an ‘art Disney’ to visit during spare time and speak to artists in open studios,” Hau said. “It turned out the artists found random passers-by, walking into their place to ask questions with no knowledge of art. They felt disrespected.”

The weekend fairs, missing facilities outlined in early brochures and tacky LED light decorations hung over the atrium, have become targets of criticism from the tenants — who have made it part of their case against “mismanagement”. The criticism goes back before Hau was hired for the top job. About half of all tenants have officially signed on to the tenants’ group.

In the past 18 months, however, Hau has yet to smooth out the frictions.

Ivy Chan at Ancha Vista of studio L5-7 found Hau a more pleasant person to deal with than her predecessor, but said Hau still is not getting the job done. Chan points to the evidence of a lukewarm response to the arts festival concluded in mid December, 2011. Benz Zhang, a painter from one of the larger studios, remains  reserved on the question of Hau’s ability to build a bridge between the tenants and decision-makers at the top. But he also agreed the lingering animosity is a two-way failure and fellow creators should not lose their creative momentum under any circumstances.

To be fair, tenants agreed the place is well maintained in that the bathrooms are clean and the cleaning lady is helpful.

Connie Cho Kwok-ting from unit L4-09 moved in a year ago, attracted by the low rent. She had declined to be a part of the tenants group. “I wonder if the artists here know that they should treasure the place. Are they here to earn money only, or do they care to improve their standard of work?” Cho believes outside funding will naturally pour into JCCAC if the artists establish their reputation. In that sense, spreading negative comments about the place is not helping, she said.

The most displeased tenants are those who came first. They still refer to the early brochures to come up with more evidence of failed promises. Lillian Hau put it down as a “discrepancy” between expectations and reality, which could be tackled only if the clock could be turned back. In the meantime, the Board of Directors has agreed to review the direction of JCCAC and give a detailed response before end of this month.

Hau, who previously served in the Arts Development Council as grants manager, praised the Board’s strong commitment. Despite what she characterizes as a “steep learning curve” in past year, her outlook on the job remains positive, “If someone tells me there are difficulties, I will tell him there are also opportunities. All the uncertain and evolving matters have left a lot to think about and to act upon.”

Foo  Tak Building at Wan Chai is a privately-owned and calmer counterpart of JCCAC. 

Alarmed by the pressing need for artists’ space in 2003, a landlord who owns about two thirds of the mixed-use building, commissioned visual artist May Fung Mei-wah to sub-lease each of the 500-square-feet units to screened tenants at HK$2500 a month. Current tenants include an independent media, filmmakers and visual artists.

With only 14 units to meet the high demand, tenants with greater means, are always asked to vacate in favor of newcomers, unable to afford any alternatives. Six tenants were swapped out of the building this year alone, though there also are tenants who require long-term support.

The rule might appear hard nosed, but conflicts have been rare in the past 8 years. The sole keeper of ACO Books on the first floor, Kobe Ho, also takes care of contract renewals and minor repairs for the landlord. She could not recall any major troubles since she was hired three years ago.

“We all appreciate this place because it did not come easy. It is not the ordinary tenant-landlord relationship. We are blessed to work here and we make efforts to make it a better place,” She said.

Consensus is also a key in Kobe’s managerial philosophy. She has wanted to host an open day at the studios, like Fotanian, but it takes a long time to make that happen. “Probably we would host regular events like movie screenings to forge closer ties, then we could come up with the idea,” She explained. “We can only work it out together if we all reach that point (of agreement).”

Vincent Chui, Artistic Director of Ying-e-chi on 4th floor, retold his experience of a tenant meeting. It ended without coming to a consensus in support of Kobe’s theory, “It was formal and weird. It was a cold winter day, but I cannot remember which floor it took place.”

Following Foo Tak and JCCAC, the Arts Development Council (ADC) has also engaged generous landlords to lease out cheap industrial space to artists. In Tuen Wan, 60,000 square feet of floor area could be made available as soon as mid 2012 for performing groups, while another space at Wong Chuk Hang on Hong Kong Island could be set aside at a later time for visual artists.

The good news is that the proposal calls for the space to be managed by tenant representatives, closely resembling the model of the Foo Tak Building. The bad news is that the landlord could change his mind at any time. ADC started in an e-mail that the space might act as a “short-term solution of lack of space for arts studios”.

Ada Wong, chief executive of the Hong Kong Institution of Contemporary Culture, welcomes the additional studio space on offer but the future demand is sure to rise to overflowing. The government needs a better plan.

“ADC might be able to find a few more kind landlords to meet the current demand, but graduates from numerous new courses in art and design are due to join the field,” Wong said.

“Over HK$20 Billion was spent on facilities for cultural consumption, but what fresh graduates in fine arts really need are their own workplaces. They could afford them in the past, but no longer, once prices headed high.”

Funding Battle

As Hong Kong’s long-standing authority for arts funding, the Arts Development Council has inevitably created a bitter relationship with the arts community. Ying-e-chi, at the Foo Tak Building has recently had his application for one year’s funding declined by ADC. His appeal was dismissed. The independent filmmaker doesn’t know where to turn next.

HK$26 million was earmarked for the funding scheme in 2011, but with 59 applications vying for the available funding of HK$50 million, Ying-e-chi happened to be one of 20 applicants who were denied. What really irked Vincent Chui was that ADC had appropriated HK$1.86 million from a government fund to conduct its own independent film festival. Chui contends a similar film festival actually cost only HK$200,000. “Why aren’t they fighting for more resources for us?” He questioned. “They only care about their own project and we have to battle for the small pool of funding.”

The ADC responded in an e-mail that though some of the projects included in Ying-e-chi’s application were considered meaningful, it was overshadowed by other applications. The ADC e-mail continued, that it has actively sought more funding from government to serve more arts organizations. It also made clear that funding for its own program and funding for outside organizations came from different channels.