How an unknown choreographer built Hong Kong's leading youth arts foundation

Lindsey McAlister was an unknown choreographer and director when she set out in search of funds to create arts programmes for children. Looking for contacts, she cold-called phone numbers from the Yellow Pages. Her determination paid off. This year marks the 20th anniversary of her baby, the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation (YAF). It's unheard of. [The sponsors have] been with YAF longer than most marriages Lindsey Mcalister, founder Over her two decades with the foundation - originally named the Hong Kong Youth Arts Festival - the bubbly Briton, 52, has mastered the steely art of fund-raising. At 1.8 metres tall and with long blond hair, once she has her boot in your door there is no getting rid of her. In 1992, scouring the phone book, she had a chance to meet DHL tycoon Po Chung. She inundated him with ideas, but came away with the feeling that he was uninterested. So she gambled on a one-year bank loan, and then had her first breakthrough. "The day after [the loan was approved] Po rang me up," she says. He wrote her a cheque covering the overdraft for the first year of the loan. "I never worry about funding any more," McAlister says. The first festival was a modest affair, with what has become the foundation's annual flagship musical. But within just a few years, the two-week festival mushroomed to three months. So in 2006, McAlister changed direction. The festival became the foundation, and hundreds of activities now run continuously throughout the year. McAlister has seen hundreds of thousands of youngsters join the YAF's myriad projects over the years: performing arts, visual arts, corporations volunteering with underprivileged children, flagship projects such as the well-known Standard Chartered Arts in the Park Mardi Gras, and the annual musical. These days, YAF projects involve 800,000 youngsters from across the territory each year. "We only have 12 full-time staff," McAlister says. "We're like a family." Anyone turning up for an interview sits down with a coffee with all the staff to see if she or he will be a good fit. But the YAF also has hundreds of volunteers - stage managers, choreographers, costume designers, school pupils and corporate volunteers called Art Angels. Dancer Candy Lo Hang-yin was inspired by her experiences at the foundation. The 30-year-old recently trained to become a dance therapist, sometimes working in hospitals to help patients work through their issues. "The experiences I had there were great," says Lo, a proud "Yafie", as the YAF's participants are called. "It was the first time, at age 14, that I put on my own production. It was my first time as a playwright and choreographer; the first time as a director," she recalls. "The production, called Pretending, we staged at the Fringe Club. It was a theatre show with dance, acting and singing involved. It was about how what we see of a person might not be how they feel. I did it with Anca Chung [now the YAF's performing arts manager] and two other girls." While some of its protégés land dance and art careers, McAlister emphasises that the foundation is not about creating the next generation of performers. It is more about giving children the confidence to get out on stage, whatever their talents, and use that sense of self-worth and creativity in their career paths later on. Corporate sponsorship has played a large role in the foundation's success. It regularly partners with corporations for particular projects. Several of Hong Kong's property firms provide performance venues and offices. Some long-term partners, such as Standard Chartered, Swire Group and Bloomberg, have supported McAlister's organisation for years. "It's unheard of," she says. "They've been with the YAF longer than most marriages!" Benjamin Hung, executive director and CEO of Standard Chartered Hong Kong, says: "We feel extremely privileged to have been partnering with YAF for the past 18 years. Thanks to the unique and creative programmes by YAF, many young people in Hong Kong get the opportunity to enrich their lives through art and discover their own potential." Kadoorie Charitable Foundation director Christopher Lavender, a member of the YAF's board, says, "The key thing about YAF is that it is totally holistic", with thousands of young people from different ethnic and economic backgrounds involved. "When I was young, the arts were not presented in this appealing way on a plate. Now, children who might feel socially or economically disadvantaged have access to the arts side," he says. Lavender also notes how visual arts exhibitions and installations have sprouted up around Hong Kong in recent years. "There's graffiti, street art, there's so much energy and imagination." This is the eighth year that Venus Tong Wai-lan, 37, is working as the arts foundation's corporate communications person. She, too, has witnessed a sea change in the territory in terms of attitudes towards the arts. "In recent years people have become much more aware of art education," Tong says. "Previously, it was much more difficult to get it in the news, it was quite difficult to compete for the space. "But the arts are still perceived often as a pastime, as a leisure activity, which can make it difficult for local emerging artists, many of whom have been involved in YAF projects," Tong says. McAlister notes that in all the 20 years of the foundation's operations, she has not received a cent of government money. "I don't think they understand what we do." But foundation board chairman Nick Sallnow-Smith reckons that is an advantage. "We benefit from not having government money," he says, "by not getting supervised". Despite the corporate support, McAlister is not shy about pushing the boundaries to discuss controversial issues. The first musical staged by McAlister was Curiouser and Curiouser, based on the film Sophie's Choice, which deals in part on the protagonist's experience in a concentration camp. Some of the musicals have been safe options, such as Bugsy Malone, but McAlister has been happy to court controversy, staging edgier musicals such as Rent, about life and love under the shadow of Aids; Sweeney Todd, ostensibly about a serial killer; and Spring Awakening, which dealt with topics of sex and abortion and included a masturbation scene. Heading towards the autumn, McAlister says 600 young people turned up for auditions for the next musical, A Chorus Line. So after her summer holiday, it's straight back to rehearsals. life@scmp.com

How an unknown choreographer built Hong Kong's leading youth arts foundation

As the Youth Arts Foundation celebrates its 20th anniversary, its founder tells about its rise against the odds