Image: Public Forum – Cultural Leadership: The Asian Way? Photography by Cheung Chi Wai.
We worked together with the Clore Leadership programme in the UK, the Advanced Cultural Leadership Programme (ACLP) at The University of Hong Kong, Asia Society Hong Kong Center, as well as a range of partners in the East Asia region to bring this exciting forum to Hong Kong. This partnership enabled us to invite cultural leaders from Asia and the UK to discuss how the value of culture is perceived in Asia, what the immediate challenges are for the cultural sector in the region, and how cultural leadership can be nurtured locally.
Throughout the world, the creative and cultural sector is growing in complexity and importance. The sector has a unique and vital socio-economic and political role to play in a world facing rapid environmental, social and economic change. With more than half of the global population and some of the fastest developing countries in the world, these changes are particularly visible in Asia.
It is crucial that future leaders and innovators of the creative and cultural sector develop ideas, skills and networks to drive the sector forward and ensure its relevance to the changing and culturally diverse societies around them. They are cultural entrepreneurs and change agents who leverage knowledge and innovation to create social, economic and political value.
This forum took place at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center on 26 July 2013. Speakers and partners also had a closed door discussion on how to take the agenda forward. The British Council has since commissioned in-depth research on Cultural Skills.