Art Basel Hong Kong: parallel event celebrates LGBT+ artists
- Clifford Chance organises an annual art event celebrating LGBT+ artists. Its Arcus Annual Pride Art exhibition is held in 11 of its offices around the world, including Hong Kong
With so many art events popping up, it is easy to forget the amount of work that goes into putting exhibitions together.
Calvin Hui, co-founder of London and Hong Kong-based 3812 Gallery, says there are many considerations in setting up an art exhibition.
“There’s the artist and their artworks; the exhibition space – sometimes at galleries but art fairs and other venues such as museums are becoming increasingly popular; curatorial; cataloguing and publishing; sales and marketing; and audience/collector engagement,” says Hui.
Collectors need to understand the nature of their acquired work and how to preserve it when keeping it at home or in the office; or it needs to be properly stored at a professional art storage facility
With a laundry list like that, it takes a team to put an exhibition together. Kane Dowsett, marketing, brand and communications executive manager for law firm Clifford Chance Asia-Pacific, agrees.
Clifford Chance organises an annual art event celebrating LGBT+ artists. Its Arcus Annual Pride Art exhibition is held in 11 of its offices around the world, including Hong Kong.
“Establishing an event such as our Arcus Pride Art event involves bringing together our internal teams, clients, peers in the industry and of course, a local curator and artists. Each year we use the planning phase to reset and review our strategy and event purpose,” says Dowsett.
“For us, Pride Art has two areas of focus; providing a platform for local artists to share their work and its purpose with the market, and to demonstrate to our people, peers in the industry and clients that we encourage an environment where people can be themselves,” Dowsett says, adding that the community aspect is vital and forms the basis of how they approach the delivery of the event.
Organising an event starts with practical considerations. David Ho Yeung Chan, a curator and project coordinator for the “Exit Strategies” public art experience at H Queen’s, which is running until April, says the project was inspired by the venue itself.
“Art also relies on space to give it meaning. In this town, where we are always transient and moving, space becomes the medium through which we can explore notions of psychological escapism,” Chan says.