The inaugural Macau International Children’s Arts Festival kicked off yesterday at the Macau Cultural Centre’s Black Box Theatre, and Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) President Leong Wai Man said she expected the festival, in addition to broadening children and young people’s cultural horizons, to create a brand-new cultural tourism experience for tourists during the summer holidays.
While officiating at yesterday’s ceremony at the Macau Cultural Centre (CCM) in Nape, together with Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U and Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) Publicity and Culture Department Director-General Wan Sucheng, among other senior officials including Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Leong said in a speech that in the course of promoting its “1+4” strategy of ensuring the local economy’s appropriately diversified development, the government attaches greater importance to the all-round development of children and young people in the areas of ethics, intellectual ability, physical fitness, social skills and aesthetics.
Leong also said that the government was committed to working with parents to create a happy family and to plan a better life for their children: “Children and young people are the future pillars of society, and their healthy growth has a bearing on the well-being of families and the development of society”.
The festival, hosted by the Cultural Affairs Bureau in conjunction with Sands China, MGM MACAU and Wynn Macau, takes place until the end of August with the Macau Cultural Centre and its neighbouring areas in Nape as the main venues, featuring nine sections with more than 1,000 events in 45 programmes, including international performing arts, Broadway musicals, art exhibitions, film exhibitions, large-scale outdoor art installations, art camps, music camps, workshops and arts carnivals.
Fantastic Art World from CENTRE POMPIDOU
Meanwhile, co-presented by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, integrated resort operator MGM, and France’s Centre Pompidou, amongst programmes of the Macau International Children’s Art Festival, Fantastic Art World from CENTRE POMPIDOU also kicked off yesterday at the Macau Museum of Art (MAM), scheduled between tomorrow and October 27.
The Fantastic Art World from CENTRE POMPIDOU, with the Macau Museum of Art in Nape as the main venue and the former abattoir in Barra as a branch venue, aims to create a stimulating art environment through the use of light and shadow, colour, line and scale to guide children to participate wholeheartedly in exploring and creating, enjoying the fun of art, broadening their aesthetic horizons, while stimulating their creative potentials, according to a statement by the event organisers.
Centre Pompidou, named after late French President Georges Pompidou (1969-1974) is a multicultural, high-tech architecture complex, which includes a modern art museum and library, in Paris.
This photo taken yesterday shows children and their parents spending time at an art installation outside the Macau Cultural Centre in Nape. – Photo: Yuki Lei
