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The International Council of Museums Committee for University Museums and Collections (ICOM-UMAC) announced on 18 September that The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)’s Art Museum has won the UMAC Award 2022 for its project Time Travel・Hong Kong. It becomes the first university museum in East Asia to win the award. Second place went to the project “Orchids Blossom: Botanical Art Collections from the University of Tokyo” by University of Tokyo (Japan) and the “THESIS Project” by Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios (Colombia).

 “Time Travel • Hong Kong”, sponsored by GS Charity Foundation, was at first designed to supplement a special exhibition “Hong Kong Impressions”, but it became a project by itself, “outliving” the exhibit. It is an online interactive tool for public engagement that leveraged the revival of local tourism in Hong Kong at times of travel restriction caused by COVID-19. Comprised of online tours, it effectively uses Google street views. The tour-tool offers an immersive and informative journey of art, history and culture, supported by developments in latest technology.

The 2022 UMAC Award is presented to the Art Museum of The Chinese University of Hong Kong “Time Travel • Hong Kong” for its innovation, creativity, excellence, transferability, and significant impact on the university, the community and society at large.

Professor Josh Yiu, Director of CUHK’s Art Museum, said, “The Art Museum is thrilled and honoured to be selected for such an accolade. I’d like to thank the team for their innovation in realising old Hong Kong artworks through Google street views. I hope to see more university museums make similar use of technology, integrating it with their exhibits.”

The winner last year was Aarhus University, Denmark, with its project “Profession and Passion: A Life in Science”. Second place went to Harvard Museum’s “The Pandemic Pivot” and Tel Aviv University’s “Plan(e)t: Plants Think, Think Plants”.

The presentations by the winner and finalists of the UMAC Award 2022 are available on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3LxKo2Y