In March 2013, Asia Art Archive and the Hong Kong Museum of Art commenced work on the collaborative ‘Hong Kong Art History Research - Pilot Project.’ This marks the beginning of a long-term endeavour to develop a publicly available resource platform to support art historical research on recent art in Hong Kong. Building on previous and existing research efforts, this pilot aims to develop a framework for a richer contextual picture of Hong Kong’s art ecology in the 1960-70s.

The Pilot pursues strands of inquiry that include exhibitions, pedagogy, art writing in Chinese and English, and modes of exchange between Hong Kong and other geographies. Centered around a new series of professionally documented interviews that include multiple voices and perspectives, the Pilot has also digitised a selection of materials from the archives of Asia Art Archive, the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and the personal collections of leading arts professionals.

In attempting to map Hong Kong’s artistic milieu in the 1960-1970s, the Pilot Project follows several lines of inquiry that function as: entry points; guidelines for research; framing interview questions; as well as assessing and collecting archival materials. They include exhibitions, art writing, pedagogy, and modes of exchange. Research is conducted via interviews, compilation of timeline and bibliographies, and digitisation of archival materials