Third Wave of Closures for Hong Kong

As the daily number of new, local Covid-19 cases has shot up in the past week, Hong Kong is heading into its third period of government-mandated measures to stop the spread of the virus. 

On July 13, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department announced that all of its facilities—which include museums such as the Hong Kong Museum of Art—will be closed again from Wednesday, July 15, until further notice, through at least the end of the month. The museum reopened to the public in May following a previous Covid-19-induced shutdown. The latest closure will be the third time that the museum has closed this year, with a brief two-week-long reopening in March between the first two waves.

Following the Hong Kong government’s announcement regarding restrictions on public gatherings, now again limited to no more than four people, many private cultural spaces have followed suit. West Kowloon Cultural District’s M+ Pavilion—where Shirley Tse’s installations from the Hong Kong Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale is being exhibited in “Stakes and Holders”—announced that it will be closed through at least July 28. The Centre for Heritage Arts and Textiles, part of the Mill6 complex in Tsuen Wan, will likewise be shuttered, as will Asia Society Hong Kong in Admiralty. In Central, Tai Kwun Contemporary will also be closed at least through July 28. 

During the past periods of closure this year, many Hong Kong commercial art galleries remained open to visitors, although some required advance registration and temperature checks in addition to face masks in order to enter.  

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