Community Festival: Joining Hands

EVENT DESCRIPTION

M+, Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District, has launched the Community Festival: Joining Hands from Friday to Sunday, 17 to 19 June 2022. M+ invites the public to reunite and reconnect with family and friends through a programme of events designed for visitors of different ages, backgrounds and abilities, ranging from performance, tours, workshops to drop-in events to dive into the world of visual culture through interactions with artists, makers, and the community.

In the three-day festival, creative practitioners from across fields will introduce different ways to explore our surroundings, inspiring everyone to maintain an open mind towards change.

Below are the highlights of Community Festival: Joining Hands. For detailed information on the programmes of events, ticketing or registration details, please visit the M+ website.

Performance
• From Island to Neverland
M+ collaborates with Ear Up Music and invites musicians Yuki Lovey and CHOR in a live performance, From Island to Neverland, that complements M+’s opening exhibition, Hong Kong: Here and Beyond. The performance begins by weaving together virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies and takes audiences on a journey in search of the Island and Neverland. Writer and scholar Louis Miha and the musicians will come together at the end of the event and discuss the ways music can express change and aspiration of the city. They will also explore how extended reality technology can enrich our visual experience.

The performance will be held at The Forum and livestreamed at Grand Stair and via the M+ YouTube channel. This event is suitable for participants aged twelve or above.

Tours
• Young People Meet-up: More Than ‘Check-in’
The Young People Meet-Up series, designed and led by M+ Young Collective, encourages young people to explore and exchange their perspectives of the everyday through regular workshops, conversations, and talks.

Architect Human Wu and M+ Young Collective take participants to explore some of the most ‘Instagrammable’ locations across M+. Wu will share how architecture interacts with light and shadows by asking participants to observe elements such as spatial design and materiality. This event is targeted at participants aged sixteen to twenty-four.

The M+ Young Collective volunteer programme is supported by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Hong Kong, which engages fifteen local tertiary students and recent graduates. They work closely with the M+ team and creative practitioners from various disciplines to develop, plan, and deliver public programmes.

• Visual Culture Bus Tour—City Thoughts Flow (fully booked)
Participants will hop onto a shuttle bus and begin an audio-visual journey from Kowloon Tong to the museum, encountering this charming city while novelist and cultural critic Lawrence Pun narrates his stories and ways to see the city through excerpts from his works.

Accompanied by an a cappella performance by SENZA, participants will move through the urban area of Yau Tsim Mong for admiration of the district’s unique cultural landscape, people, and their interactions from varying distances. As participants arrive at M+, participants are recommended to explore the space with a fresh perspective gained from the tour.

Workshops
• Workshop – L Community: Call for ‘Idea Sculptors’!
Artist Pak Sheung Chuen brings participants into a wonderland with his ‘Idea Cards’. Using these plastic cards with strange shapes and words, participants will discover interesting details of everyday life. Pak’s creation will stimulate their visual senses and open their imagination by asking them to integrate rational and emotional thinking to generate bold and new ideas. This event is recommended for participants aged twelve or above.

L Community: Call for ‘Idea Sculptors’! Family Session with special admission arrangements is available for families with children aged seven to twelve whom must be accompanied by an adult.

• Family Day Thematic Workshop: Messy Play
‘Messy Play’ allows children to stimulate their senses and imaginations. In this workshop, participants are encouraged to use their personal experience to create colourful paintings that explore textures, lines, and shapes. With guidance from M+ Educators, families will learn to interpret visual culture with an open-ended approach and unearth how art can soothe minds and bodies and effectively promote mutual understanding.

‘Messy Play’ is recommended for families and children aged four to seven. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

• Family Day Thematic Workshop: Eyes on Me
Guided by M+ Educators, ‘Eyes on Me’ is a portrait drawing workshop where families will transform depictions of happiness, sadness, or angriness into artful paper masks. Participants can express their impressions of those around them by going beyond conventional. They will also be able to explore portrait works by other artists and makers in the M+ galleries.

This event is suitable for children ages seven to twelve with accompanying parents or guardians.

• In the Moment of Seeing
Participants can explore different corners of the M+ building with photographer Kevin Cheng. In this workshop, Cheng will share how he captures his surroundings from unique angles with creative methods as a wheelchair user. Participants can learn to observe the space from an unexpected perspective and snap photos of everyday objects using their phones.

‘In the Moment of Seeing’ brings together diverse audiences, exploring the shifting perceptions of disability. It aims to share the unique creative practices and perspectives of artists and makers with disabilities by diving into their creations that stem from their experiences.

The workshop is suitable for participants of all ages. Children under the age of twelve must be accompanied by an adult.

Drop-in events
• Stamp My M+
‘Stamp My M+’ inspires everyone to see the museum from a different perspective. Design studio Milkxhake reimagines the museum into a series of stamps that take inspiration from the architecture of the M+ building. Participants can boost their creativity by crafting a unique handmade badge using stamps of different contours, shapes, and textures.

This workshop is moderated by M+ Young Collective, which is supported by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Hong Kong and is suitable for participants of all ages. Children under the age of twelve must be accompanied by an adult.

• Family Day: Imagination Playground
Imagination Playground is made of large cubes and modules of different shapes and forms that can be easily configured and moved around. It inspires child-directed free play in a safe environment using hand-eye coordination skills to create and invent imaginary forms and structures. With no set rules and limitations, children can experiment with endless possibilities with their creativity.

Imagination Playground is suitable for children from aged four to ten with accompanying parents or guardians. We recommend one adult member to join the session together. The workshop is available on a first-come, first-served and drop-in basis. No registration is required.

• Family Pop-Up
Family Pop-up, designed by KaCaMa Design Lab, is a series of mobile stations providing a range of free activities that encourage children and families to discover, learn, and have fun within and beyond the M+ building on a drop-in basis.

Bubble Play invites visitors to explore alternative usage of everyday objects by focusing on their details and spaces like holes, cracks, and gaps. Visitors are encouraged to bring their own tools to create bubbles and inspire others around them. The event will be held outdoors near the Art Park Entrance on Ground level.

Book Play enables children to gain different perspectives in playful ways by piquing their curiosity in visual culture through reading sessions. A selection of children’s books are handpicked and will rotate periodically based on topics related to the exhibitions at M+. The event will be held in Main Hall on Ground level near the East Entrance.