A daughter of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has joined the new Hong Kong museum of visual culture as its ink art curator.
Lesley Ma (馬唯中), a museum studies graduate who has been residing in Hong Kong since early this year, started to work for the M+ Museum Tuesday, according to an official of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority.
“She will be responsible for the development of the museum’s ink art collection, exhibitions and other ink art programs,” said Wendy Lam (林婉梅), head of the authority’s communication and public affairs department.
Lesley Ma, who once worked for Chinese artist Cai Guoqiang (蔡國強) in New York, was hired through regular recruitment procedures, Lam said, adding that she will work part-time for the museum.
Born in the US in 1980, Lesley Ma grew up in Taiwan. She has a bachelor’s degree in life sciences from Harvard University and a master’s degree in museum studies from New York University.
News of her marriage to Harvard classmate Allen Tsai (蔡沛然), who works at a financial institution in Hong Kong, caused a stir in Taiwan in March as the media took issue with her father for keeping it a secret. The couple registered their marriage in New York last year.
The M+ Museum is one of 17 core arts and cultural venues to be built under a West Kowloon Cultural District project to boost cultural and entertainment development in Hong Kong.
Although the museum’s buildings have yet to be completed, the authority has started to recruit staff and collect materials.
The museum, set to open in 2017, has appointed a Korean modern art expert as its chief curator. It has also named curators for the major fields of visual culture, including contemporary art, ink art, architecture and design, but has yet to appoint a moving image curator, Hong Kong media reported.
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