Club Meeting on 17 April 2012

Date & Time: Tuesday, 17 April 2012, 1pm-2pm

(Registration starts at 12.45pm)

Place: The Hong Kong Bankers Club

43/F Gloucester Tower, The Landmark, Central, Hong Kong

Mr Chan Shing Wai

Chief Curator (Conservation)

Central Conservation Section

Leisure and Cultural Services Department

Topic: " The Museum in Greater Context"

Conservation is a primary function of museums, which serves to preserve the invaluable and irreplaceable cultural property for the future generation. It basically consists of preventive and interventive conservation. In essence, preventive conservation emphasizes on preserving the physical condition of cultural property through the control of environmental parameters, biological activities, and human factors; whereas interventive conservation addresses the treatment needs of individual items and execution of the identified treatment plans. Conservation is therefore a long term commitment which requires the provision of proper care for the cultural property with life-long responsibilities. Inadequate provision of such can result in the loss of cultural property through courses of deterioration, and very often the loss is irrecoverable.

Central Conservation Section is equipped with 13 conservation laboratories; which help the Conservation Office to devise, implement and evaluate conservation programmes for museum artifacts and heritage objects. The types of collection materials being cared for by the Conservation Office vary greatly in nature. They include paintings, paper artifacts, textiles, metals, ceramics, ethnographic objects, wooden artifacts to archaeological finds.

The Conservation Office also provides the necessary conservation support for thematic exhibitions and the management of some 200,000 collection items pertaining to the public museums and Art Promotion Office, and assists in the preservation of some 800,000 repository items of the Antiquities and Monuments Office. The work of the Office is to preserve these items as best they can for future generations to study and enjoy, and to present them as honestly as possible.

We are very delighted to have the Chief Curator (Conservation), Mr Chan Shing Wai to share with us the joy and challenge in their everyday work at the Club Meeting on 17 April 2012. As always, you are most welcome to join us.

To learn more about their works in advance, you may click here to view a TVB Programme - "開館有益" which broadcasted on 28 March 2012.

Guests and Visiting Rotarians are always most welcome at our weekly luncheons.

(Please register online in advance)

Lunch Cost : HK$300 (by cash) / HK$310 (by credit card)

to be collected at the door