The mission of the Hong Kong Arts Centre is to nurture creativity, arts and cultural engagement through its two-pronged approach in promoting contemporary performing arts and visual arts as well as film and video arts and providing lifelong and life-wide arts education.

    Home to artists' bold and creative explorations, the Arts Centre in 2002 featured numerous presentations in various art forms, including film and video arts programmes In Praise of Godard and The 7th Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards 2001; visual arts programmes Toys Paradise and Young Artists' Exhibitions; and performing arts programmes WAVE 2002 and Little Asia Theatre Exchange Network.

    Established in 2000, the Art School, which is the Art Centre's education arm, offers integrated programmes ranging from short courses to certificate, diploma, higher diploma, associate degree, first degree and higher degree courses. These courses cover the Humanities and five academic areas: Fine Arts, Applied Arts, Media Arts, Arts Education and Arts Management. More than 7 000 students were enrolled in 2002. Activities included research and development projects Developing Drama-in-Education and Pilot Project on Life-wide Learning in the Arts; academic conference Theatre in School Conference; and artist-in-residence schemes Residency Project for Renowned International Visual Artists and Professional Diploma in Media Arts (Master Class). In addition, there were training courses such as refresher training courses for primary and secondary school teachers on the use of information technology in education.