Arts Resource Hub's Success in Achieving Its Goals and Plans to Benefit Arts Community

43 Ms Usha Chandradas asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) whether the Arts Resource Hub has achieved its intended goals; and (b) what further plans are underway to develop this resource for the benefit of the arts community.

Mr Edwin Tong Chun Fai: The National Arts Council (NAC) set up the Arts Resource Hub (ARH) in 2019 after extensive consultations with over 370 arts and culture practitioners across disciplines and practices. The ARH aims to enable Self-Employed Persons (SEPs) in the arts to develop their practices, unlock opportunities and grow meaningful careers.

SEPs in the arts have less access to some resources compared to their peers in regular employment. For instance, many companies have human resource professionals to support employees in upskilling and career development, legal professionals to provide advice in case of any contract disputes and venues to rehearse and exhibit their works.

The ARH provides arts SEP with these resources. Since its establishment in 2019, the ARH has implemented an array of initiatives and programmes to support SEPs in these areas, including:

(a) Professional career development guidance to help SEPs chart out their skills and career progression pathways. The recently launched Ignite Mentorship is one example. It was designed for new and emerging practitioners to develop critical skills, such as entrepreneurship, personal brand management and project management. The Coaching for Creatives programme is another example. It provides opportunities for SEPs to work with certified life and career coaches, to develop clarity on their career goals and explore strategies to enable sustainable careers.

(b) Seminars and digital resources on topics, such as intellectual property, copyright and fair use, arts entrepreneurship, financial planning for healthcare and retirement, and more. For instance, ARH recently collaborated with creative director, curator and producer Mr Jeremiah Choy to create a series of videos, equipping arts practitioners with the know-how to start and sustain their own arts businesses.

(c) Access to co-working and collaboration spaces for SEPs to create, network and collaborate. These include meeting rooms, a rehearsal studio, a black box and co-working spaces. Many of these affordable spaces are utilised by younger and less-well-established artists and arts groups to help them kickstart their careers.

(d) Events for arts SEPs to build community and networks. SEPs have shared that they often feel isolated in their work and would benefit from structured programmes and events to build their sense of community and peer support networks. NAC has organised various "ARH Connects" events to upskill arts SEPs and provide opportunities to meet other SEPs in the arts space.

(e) Resources for SEPs to learn how to protect their own well-being. ARH has collaborated with an arts collective, Care, Intimacy, TRaUma-informed and Safer (CITRUS) practices, to put together resources, including a series of peer-sharing sessions and workshops, designed to help improve care and wellbeing for arts workers.

(f) ARH also serves as a way for NAC to reach out to the community of arts SEPs to better understand their needs. This was particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact of ARH has been significant. During the pandemic, for example, the ARH was an important sensemaking and community outreach platform that allowed NAC to engage SEPs and roll out the Self-Employed Persons Grant (SEPG) based on their feedback. The SEPG supported more than 800 SEPs to carry out projects that generated more than 5,000 work and training opportunities. Physical spaces provided by ARH are well-used, with an average utilisation rate of around 75%. Nine in 10 survey respondents who attended the 2023 "ARH Connects" events were satisfied with the programmes and indicated that they would attend again. Today, ARH has more than 3,200 members and the number is still growing.

In the coming years, NAC will further enhance the ARH with a focus on two key areas. Firstly, the ARH will provide SEPs easier access to professional expertise. Two specific examples that are in the works include, greater access to legal knowledge and advice as well as programmes relating to mental and physical well-being. Secondly, the ARH aims to create more platforms for SEPs to meet, network and collaborate. This will be especially useful for young and emerging SEPs.

More details on these initiatives will be announced soon. NAC will continue to work closely with the arts community to improve the resources and offerings of ARH.