And.....

So that was that.
What a beautiful ending to Hope and Glory!

We had such a lovely last day, thousands came through the space, many friends dropped by to say goodbye to the exhibition. It was a joy to watch. Hope and Glory is just so different to any exhibition I've ever seen.
I stood in the corner with Amanda watching as little kids ran around laughing, arty teenagers taking thousands of photos, little old ladies looking bemused and people generally clambering over sculptures, screaming from the horror movie and laughing at the lighter films in the show.
A really wonderful energy running through the space.
The nicest thing was people came up to me constantly yesterday for photos or autographs but also to shake my hand and to thank me for the show! This was really very touching for me. That people understood the endeavor of the exhibition and recognised it in a simple and direct communication. It's nice when people say thank you.
I talked to a really old guy that just couldn't stop smiling and expressing his amazement at the scale and scope of the work. Another guy told me he'd been to the show twice a week since it had opened.
All very sentimental i know but it really cheered me up and made me realise we did something good in this town. It was worth all the time and effort.

So what next?

With much interest expressed for overseas to move the show I took the leap and rented a warehouse and am today packing the entire exhibition and putting it into storage. I will then offer the show for free to any museum anywhere in the world that's interested.

But what's really more exciting, is the next project. I won't reveal what it is yet but this thing will make Hope and Glory look like a school art project.

Thank you to all the people of HK and overseas who have made this show an unprecedented success. With limited time and money, no advertising other than a few posters and emails, we got 62,000 people to drag themselves all the way to Taikoo Place.
Overwhelmingly the reviews from press and public have been incredibly positive.
We pretty much achieved everything we hoped to. We ran a series of lively forums, had endless school and university groups, corporate and art tours, parties and fun stuff. We developed cultural software (we now have a team that are capable of running an entire art museum!). We got press all over the world including NY Times, Wall Street Journal and International Herald Tribune and even a pick of the month from ArtForum.
We came in under budget and achieved the numbers we set out to get and, from the responses from people interviewed, we have made a genuine positive impact on Hong Kong culture. Not everyone loved the show I'm sure but at the very least we certainly got people talking, on a massive scale, about art in HK, and hopefully inspired other artists to follow our level of ambition.

And on top of that, one of the coolest things was that Anthony Gormley came to see the show too! He's a British artist who is referenced in a couple of the films in the show and I had the pleasure of showing him those works. Super nice guy.

Me and Anthony!

We will be doing a pop up show sometime soon to launch the book and some other product that never made it to the show in time. Toys, t-shirts and certain bits of the show like the neon signs, will all be for sale.

Onwards and upwards!!

sb
x