The government-initiated “Art Macao”, a six-month-long international art festival organised in conjunction with Macau’s six gaming operators, has a budget of 34.6 million patacas, the co-organisers announced Tuesday.
According to the announcement, 16.6 million patacas will be borne by the government, while each of the six gaming operators will pay 3 million patacas.
The budget was revealed on the sidelines of the art-fest’s cooperation agreement signing ceremony between the government and the city’s three gaming concessionaires and three sub-concessionaires at Grand Lisboa yesterday.
The event in Portuguese is titled “Arte Macau”, while in Chinese it is billed as “Art and Culture Gathering in Macau”.
“Art Macao’s events will start on June 6 and go on until October. It will be a six-month art festival. We will gather artists from all around the world and present their work at different venues all around Macau,” Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam Chon Weng, the government’s top representative at the ceremony, told reporters.
Tam said the aim of the festival was to promote art and culture, and also to turn the city into a new cultural tourism destination.
“Macau is a cultural city. With our close ties with Portugal, Macau is a Western-Chinese hybrid-culture city,” Tam said.
According to a statement provided by the organisers, Art Macao comprises 40 events at 44 venues, which includes casino-hotel resorts, the Consulate-General of Portugal and other indoor and outdoor areas.
The statement said that through different media and platforms, Art Macao would aim to break through the limitations of space to present a large-scale art festival, and also would “surely turn each landmark into a photography hotspot”.
Tam said that “this event will showcase to the world a new cultural image of Macau.” He described the dimension of the event as “without precedent” for Macau.
The central government’s trading arm in Macau, Nam Kwong, as well as the consulates of Portugal, Hungary, Japan, Italy and Belgium will also take part in the festival.
Macau is holding a raft of events this year in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the New China, the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Lisbon and Beijing, and the 20th anniversary of Macau’s return to the motherland.
Government officials have pointed out that “Art Macao” is the longest festival ever held here.(Macaunews)
