Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation

Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation (HKYAF) was established by Lindsey McAlister OBE, in 1993. It serves people in Hong Kong aged 5 to 25 years. It is one of the largest youth art organisations in the world.

History
In 1993 Lindsey McAlister founded the Hong Kong Youth Arts Festival for people aged 5–25 to engage in multidisciplinary arts, regardless of their cultural background, language or ability. Her intention was that she “didn’t want anybody to have to pay for anything”, so needed to find external funding to cover all expenses. Initially, unable to find a sponsor as she had no track record in Hong Kong, she took out a personal overdraft to cover the costs of the first two-week festival. McAlister sent a copy of the festival brochure to everyone she had approached for sponsorship, including Po Chung, the then-head of DHL (Asia). He got in touch with her, asking who her sponsor was. Hearing that McAlister was funding the whole enterprise herself, Po Chung gave her a cheque to cover the first festival's costs, and also paid for the following festival too.

After Chung’s donation, “word about the festival was spreading like wildfire” and other sponsors joined including Morgan Stanley, MTR Corporation, ABN Amro, Standard Chartered Hong Kong and Swire Properties. The first two-week festival took place in 1994.

HKYAF was located at the Hong Kong Arts Centre from 1995 until 2005 when it moved to its current location in Quarry Bay. With the move, their facilities grew to include on-site rehearsal and workshop spaces. In 2006 HKYAF was considered “the world’s largest arts programme for young people”, at which point 94% of participants were from 800 local schools, with most projects conducted in Cantonese.

Funding and support
HKYAF is supported by corporate and private funding; it receives no direct funding from the government. The first two festivals were supported by Business for Art, which twinned the “commercial world with arts events.” In 1995 Standard Chartered Hong Kong joined as the main sponsor. Long-term supporters of the foundation also include Hong Kong Jockey Club Charity Trust, the Kadoorie Charitable Foundation and Swire Properties. Early patrons were David Tang, Lavender Patten and Rita McAulay.

International events
Early in its existence HKYAF took three productions to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe:


 * Curiouser and Curiouser and Ssshhh…! (1997)
 * Who’s Afraid of Monsters? (1998)
 * Matilda (1999)

Social awareness
Over the course of its history HKYAF has run projects and events based on a variety of social and environmental issues, including:


 * BEA’s Beyond Environmental Arts Festival
 * #BeTheChange, a dance and spoken word film series that tackled social issues including climate change, the need for food banks and plastic pollution
 * Eco-art installation at The Loop, Taikoo Place
 * Theatre productions dealing with issues regarding mental health, body image, gender identity and social media

Flagship events
Each year HKYAF runs approximately 100 events for visual, performing and literary arts. Its two annual flagship events are a large-scale youth theatre production and Arts in the Park (formerly Arts in the Plaza), a two-day community arts event.

Theatre productions
Since 1998 HKYAF has produced an annual youth musical or drama, directed by McAlister. Locations for performances have included Hong Kong Arts Centre’s Shouson Theatre, the Queen Elizabeth Stadium, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, ArtisTree, the Fringe Club and Free Space, West Kowloon Cultural District.

HKYAF’s annual Pull Back the Curtain series, showcasing local playwrights and actors, began in 2014. It was started by local director Clare Stearns and was inspired by London’s National Theatre’s course for young playwrights.

Standard Chartered Arts in the Park (AIP)
HKYAF produces the Standard Chartered Arts in the Park (AIP) annually. It is Hong Kong’s largest outdoor youth festival. It began as a “small event in Southorn Playground in Wan Chai” in 1993 and 1994. It was developed into Arts in the Plaza and has been held on Hong Kong island (except during the pandemic) every winter since 2001. The first location was Stanley Plaza with “only hundreds” of participants. In 2008 it changed its name to Standard Chartered Arts in the Park, returned to Victoria Park, Causeway Bay and became a two-day event.

Notable visual projects
HKYAF has created many visual art events including:

Notable collaborations
Over the course of 30 years, HKYAF has worked with both local and internationally recognised artists, educators and specialists, including:
 * Phil Ashcroft, Xenz and Mr Jago – street artists
 * David Branson – theatre director
 * Lola Clavel - fashion designer
 * Violaine Corradi - composer
 * Heidi Duckler – choreographer
 * PatPatKate - illustrator
 * Ralph Koltai – stage designer
 * Maysum - visual artist, makeup artist
 * Rory Mullarkey - playwright
 * Marsha Roddy - designer
 * Tracy Lee Stum – artist
 * Uncle – mural artist
 * Noble Wong – mural artist

The following are some of the organisations and businesses it has collaborated with:
 * City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC)
 * Chung Ying Theatre Company
 * International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA)
 * Lantern Co. – UK prop designers
 * National Youth Theatre of Great Britain
 * Third Rail Projects - New York site-specific dance company

Notable alumni
The following people attended HKYAF events as young people:
 * Ansonbean (Anton Chan Ngai-san) - singer
 * Cletus Chan - actor
 * Natalie Hsu - actor
 * Sadie Kaye – author, actor, filmmaker and TV presenter
 * Matthew Leonhart - actor
 * Jade Ma - actor
 * Shannon Murphy - TV and film director
 * Alistair So - actor
 * Isabella Wei - dancer, actor