An image shared by Alistair Spalding, artistic director and co-chief executive at Sadler’s Wells, London, during a panel discussion at the second International Cultural Summit hosted by West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK) on Monday epitomized the spirit of the event.

The photo showed a foyer at Sadler’s Wells, with onlookers surrounding its glass walls, enjoying the scene in which a motley group, including small children, a mother with a baby perched on her hip, and an older woman, were dancing with abandon.

“Whenever there is a dance class, people come by to have a look and then start joining in,” said Spalding, highlighting just one aspect of the dance institution’s community-oriented approach. The idea that cultural centers should place the public front and center of their activities resonated across the six panels featuring the leaders of influential cultural institutions from Sao Paulo to Bangkok.

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Several panelists — such as Toufic Maatouk, artistic programming advisor at the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation, and Fatima Bintou Rassoul Sy, director of programs at Raw Material Company, Senegal — referred to their audiences as their co-creators, while Suhanya Raffel, director of M+, reminded the audience that during the lead-up to the founding of the museum, several rounds of public consultations were held over matters of design and architecture, collection, and cultural identity, with some public suggestions taken on board.

A key takeaway of the two-day summit was a heightened awareness that cultural institutions today — be it museums, performance art centers, or cultural districts — must go beyond being mere purveyors of culture, and play a social role to enrich the lives of the communities they serve.

“Chaillot is no longer a place where we just show art,” said Rachid Ouramdane, the director of Chaillot – National Theater of Dance in Paris. “We try to play a role of social curation … for dialogue and participation in the building.” He also mentioned that rather than waiting for community members to visit Chaillot, the center prefers to reach out to them in their own familiar environments.

“For us, connecting artists with the community means trying to identify spaces where we can go beyond the curatorial field, working in the areas of health, education, social intervention, tourism and scientific research. … We try to interfere in the daily lives and activities of the people, rather than bringing them to the artistic projects we develop,” said the dancer-choreographer.

Sadler’s Wells and Chaillot are among 12 cultural and educational entities that signed memorandums of understanding with WestK on Sunday, ratcheting up the cultural district’s count of global partnerships to 46.

Among the new signatories, the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and Australia’s RMIT University are expected to exchange resources with Hong Kong in the area of professional development in arts management.

The MoU signed with the China Association of Auctioneers aims to strengthen talent development and promote professional exchanges between the art markets of Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. This aligns with the HKSAR government’s current focus on developing the city as a premier global art trading hub.

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In her opening address, Hong Kong Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui expressed the city’s ambition to become a global leader in art logistics. Referencing Hong Kong’s strengths as a city that is “deeply rooted in Chinese culture while maintaining a long history of global connections”, Law said the local government “is fully committed to strengthening our role as an East-meets-West center for international cultural exchange”, adding that “this vision is also a national priority”.

“This year marks the beginning of the (nation’s) 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30). The HKSAR government is actively aligned with the plan, and we are in fact drawing up our own plan, an important element of which will be facilitating greater arts and culture exchange between the Chinese mainland and overseas countries. This summit is an integral part of that proud mission,” she added.

Contact the writers at basu@chinadailyhk.com