The multibillion dollar West Kowloon Cultural District(WKCD), which is Hong Kong’s largest arts and cultural project to date, is set to open its phase 1 facilities in 2015. It is anticipated to boost culture in the city, but sheds light on the issue of shortage in manpower.

Government figures predict there will be a shortage of more than 800 arts administrators with the opening.

Arts administrators are responsible for the day-to day operations of arts organizations such as program development, staff and budget management, marketing, public relations and fund raising— all of which are crucial to developing arts and culture.

Winona Chan, General Manager of the Hong Kong Arts Administrators Association(HKAAA) says, “ The issue is that we have a shortage at the middle/senior level arts administrators and it is what the WKCD will face once it starts to operate.”

“The pay here[non-commercial sector] isn’t as good as in the commercial sector; that’s a fact,” she said.

Funding is also a worrisome issue for the association as it does not directly go to them. Instead, the $1.5 billion is split between the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and Leisure and Cultural Services Department and they have to draw up proposals to apply for access to the funds.

Not only is the art scene short on high-level personnel, divisiveness over how to implement arts and cultural policies has drawn criticism towards the government’s actions.

A hot topic is the location of WKCD in the reclaimed waterfront west of Yau Ma Tei as being unsuitable as it is not easily accessible for visitors.

“I went there a short while ago and all I saw was loneliness and emptiness. It reminded me of ghost movies, with lanterns swaying in the wind,” said Dr. Leung Mee-ping of the Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University(HKBU). She added that culture will naturally occur when art is intertwined with people. Having the site far from the city undermines the whole purpose of its existence.

Karl finds government funding to be inadequate and poorly managed.

Karl Law Ka-ho, a visual arts student at HKBU explains that government policies can lose touch with reality.

He explained that new rental space in Wong Chuk Han, provided for the arts is meant to be artist-friendly with a below market rent but is in its own state of isolation, similar with WKCD.

“The geographical location of the government subsidized rental studios in Wong Chuk Hang is in Aberdeen, which is nowhere near the mtr[metro]. So in reality, the government does give us places to rent, but few people will choose to apply,” he said.

He explained that policies should take into account what artists really need and he added, “What about Ta Ku Ling in the New Territories? There are a lot of factory buildings there.”

In the end, “You can’t just find a random place and put artists there,” he said.

Accessibility is the most important factor for cultural facilities.