Held from 17 to 19 June, M+’s Community Festival: Joining Hands invites the public to reunite with family and friends through a shining programme of performance, tours, workshops and drop-in events. 

Held from 17 to 19 June, M+’s Community Festival: Joining Hands invites the public to reunite with family and friends and dive into the world of visual culture through a shining programme of performance, tours, workshops and drop-in events. In the three-day festival, creative practitioners across all fields will guide visitors to explore our surroundings. Here are the highlights.

1. Performance: From Island to Neverland

M+ collaborates with Ear Up Music and invites musicians Yuki Lovey and CHOR in a live performance, From Island to Neverland, that complements M+’s opening exhibition, Hong Kong: Here and Beyond. The performance begins by weaving together virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies and takes audiences on a journey in search of the Island and Neverland.

2. Tours – Young People Meet-up: More Than ‘Check-in’

The Young People Meet-Up series encourages young people to exchange their perspectives of the everyday through regular workshops, conversations, and talks. Architect Human Wu and M+ Young Collective will take participants to explore some of the most ‘Instagrammable’ locations across M+. 

3. Visual Culture Bus Tour: City Thoughts Flow 

Participants will hop onto a shuttle bus and begin an audio-visual journey from Kowloon Tong to the museum, exploring this charming city while novelist and cultural critic Lawrence Pun narrates his stories and ways to see the city through excerpts from his works, accompanied by an a cappella performance by SENZA.

4. Workshop – L Community: Call for ‘Idea Sculptors’!

Artist Pak Sheung Chuen takes participants to a wonderland with his ‘Idea Cards’. Using these plastic cards with strange shapes and words, participants will discover interesting details of everyday life. Pak’s creation will stimulate their visual senses and open their imagination by asking them to integrate rational and emotional thinking to generate bold and new ideas.

5. Family Day Thematic Workshop: Messy Play

‘Messy Play’ allows children to stimulate their senses and imaginations, encouraging participants to use their personal experience to create colourful paintings that explore textures, lines, and shapes.

6. Family Day Thematic Workshop: Eyes on Me

Guided by M+ Educators, ‘Eyes on Me’ is a portrait drawing workshop where families will transform depictions of happiness, sadness or angriness into artful paper masks. Participants can express their impressions of those around them by going beyond conventional. They will also be able to explore portrait works by other artists and makers in the M+ galleries.

7. Workshop: In the Moment of Seeing

Participants have the chance to explore different corners of the M+ building with photographer Kevin Cheng. Cheng will share how he captures his surroundings from unique angles with creative methods as a wheelchair user. Participants can learn to observe the space from an unexpected perspective and snap photos of everyday objects using their phones.

Learn more about the festival here