About Us

Curating Whampoa is a community art and heritage project that seeks to collect curate and present the rich cultural and living heritage of Whampoa through a series of thematic events organized over the two-year period. The project will offer an interactive platform to research, engage and connect communities in relation to an ageing population in Whampoa. Through this project, we hope to encourage active ageing by equipping the elderly with heritage curation skills and handing them the reins to shape their ‘living museum’ across the heartland.

Objectives of project:

1. 1. To strengthen and enrich the current existing heritage ecosystem in Whampoa by revealing and curating the evolving stories, living wisdoms and vernacular knowledge of the elders.
2. 2. To provide resources and content for the establishment of a ‘living museum’ in Whampoa.
3. 3. To identify and build the capability of community of caretakers who will take on and sustain the initiative started by this project.

Curating Whampoa will involve the participation of local residents, artists, designers, students and community-based workers. A variety of media and presentation platforms will be deployed to showcase the collaborative efforts of the participants. Traditional curatorial practice is often situated within the confines of a museum and is concerned with a specific collection. On the other hand, Curating Whampoa involves a much wider context and a more diversified field of objects, people, spaces, activities, flora and fauna in various spatial settings. It is an expanded, and evolving environment that has layers of history and meanings while carrying different perceptions, aspirations and interests of long-time local residents, new arrivals, policy makers and those who work in or visit Whampoa. Through the yearly thematic events, Curating Whampoa strives to offer a broad, bottom-up and inclusive perspective of a changing neighborhood that goes beyond the repository of objects within a building. It will present an alternative museum experience that is people-centered, co-curated and reflects the memories, hopes and concerns of Whampoa residents, where the local and the familiar co-exist alongside the new, the foreign and the eccentric.

Co-conceived by the Tsao Foundation and Associate Professor Thomas Kong, Curating Whampoa is also supported by the National Heritage Board. The project is divided into four mini projects – Tangible stories, Photovoice – Everyday Whampoa, Tangible Companions and Social Archiving.