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About 30th Anniversary

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2014 is a special year in the history of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts as it marks our 30th Anniversary. The year will be celebrated in characteristic Academy style with a series of performances and events which will showcase the Academy’s unique and defining characteristics. It is these defining characteristics that will ensure that the Academy is positioned at the forefront of institutions in the region over the decades to come. They include:

  • Prioritising the delivery of practice-based, multi-disciplinary educational programmes
  • Ensuring that all the Academy’s programmes are globally focused and benchmarked against international best practice
  • Programmes that are delivered by inspirational lecturing staff who are leaders in their fields
  • A focus on original creativity in the context of Hong Kong as a unique point of intersection between Eastern and Western cultural practice
  • The use of innovative teaching methodologies with the seamless integration of complementary educational technologies
  • Programmes with embedded authentic ‘real world’ learning experiences
  • A focus on training graduates who are broadly skilled, industry ready performing arts practitioners and the first choice of employers in the industry

The Anniversary Year will also celebrate Academy alumni across the disciplines of Cantonese opera, dance, drama, music, film and television, and theatre and entertainment arts who have done so much to enrich the cultural life of Hong Kong.

The implementation of the Academy’s new Strategic Plan A Performing Arts Academy for 21st Century Asia: 2013-2023will herald a new era for the Academy as it enters its fourth decade of development. This plan sets ambitious goals while at the same time being a flexible and adaptable document able to respond to the needs of a dynamic and evolving globalised performing arts industry.


A new website will provide an informative and interactive portal to the Academy’s new plan and an insight into its programmes, ongoing activities and vision for the future.

Performances of course will be at the heart of our Anniversary Year activities. In May, Hong Kong audiences will be treated to an exciting performance of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. This interschool, cross disciplinary production promises to bring new insights to this seminal work. In the same month, the public will be able to enjoy the creativity of our dance students in a programme which will also be touring across the region. In June, we will be presenting a unique double-bill: a Cantonese music concert which exemplifies the best traditions of the genre, and the annual Sunset Concert led by our School of Theatre and Entertainment Arts.

Our popular annual Open Day in March will have a special flavor in 2014 with the unveiling of a specially commissioned installation created by alumnus Mr Albert Au (Academy class of 1996). This installation will celebrate the unique creative energy of the Academy and the dynamism of the people who continue to ‘make it happen’.

The grand finale of the Anniversary Year programme will be the Academy’s symposium Asian Transformation: New Perspectives on Creativity and Performing Arts Education to be held from 20-22 November. At this symposium prominent academics and practitioners will engage with registrants from around the globe and the Hong Kong community to discuss the latest trends in creativity in the performing arts and performing arts pedagogy emerging in Asia. A Film Symposium: Once Upon a Time with Sergio Leone will be held at our beautiful Bethanie heritage campus on 22 November.

To find out more about the rich and engaging programme planned for the Academy’s Anniversary Year, visit our new website for information of the public performances as well as updates and announcements about special new events and activities. And, above all, come and join us as we celebrate 30 years of excellence in performing arts education and performance at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.