Over 100 creative pieces of works by more than 300 graduating students from the creative arts undergraduate programmes of the School of Arts and Social Sciences of The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) are now being showcased online.

Organized by the Graduation Show Student Organizing Committee, the theme of this year’s Graduation Show is ‘Variations’. It is derived from the concept of the stream of consciousness, emphasizing the inseparable relationship between arts creation and consciousness. It also reflects a desire and pursuance of creative arts through personal mind. The Graduation Show allows students to demonstrate their unique self-consciousness and talent in creative arts, as well as the fruition of the past four years of study.

OUHK President Prof. Yuk-Shan Wong commended the students for their efforts in completing the final year projects and organizing the Graduation Show during the difficult time under COVID-19 pandemic, enabling the public to feel their passion, boundless imagination and social expression through their extraordinary works. He said, ‘Many students from the OUHK's creative arts programmes have won prestigious awards in local and international competitions over the past few years. Moreover, a graduate was recently presented with the “Award for Young Artist (Xiqu)” at The 14th Hong Kong Arts Development Awards. All these achievements reaffirm the professional competencies of our students.’ He took great pride in the students' accomplishments in showcasing their talents at different platforms and bringing honors to the university.

Prof. Wong added that creativity of young people is an important driving force for the sustainable development of the community as well as the impetus for enhancing competitiveness of the economy. He encouraged the students to always keep up their passion and desire to uplift their creativity even after graduation. He also said that the OUHK will continue its commitment to cultivate students' creative thinking, provide them with platforms to realize their imagination, and enhance their learning experience for grooming talents with innovation to foster the prosperity and advancement of the community.

The annual OUHK Creative Arts Graduation Show features final year projects of students in the Bachelor's degree programmes in Creative Writing and Film Arts, Animation and Visual Effects, Cinematic Design and Photographic Digital Art, Creative Advertising and Media Design, and Computing and Interactive Entertainment. It exhibits artworks in a variety of formats, including novel and creative writing, photography, animation, short film, multimedia installation, 3D installation art and more. With the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Graduation Show is hosted virtually instead of a physical exhibition, allowing participants to appreciate the artworks anywhere.

Some of the highlights include: a short film titled 不求人 (project by Creative Writing and Film Arts student) which shows the life and stress of an old man who personally takes care of his wife suffering from stroke; an animation titled Hearing from Water (project by Animation and Visual Effects students) which talks about how a performer gets over the failure because of the appreciation and encouragement from a cat; an expanded imaging titled illumináre (project by Cinematic Design and Photographic Digital Art students) which provokes thinking on 'learning'; an advertising campaign titled Chemistry of Love (project by Creative Advertising and Media Design students) which adopts the concept of chemical effect for promoting a local hand-made candy brand ‘Hey Candy’; and a virtual reality game titled Dr Cell (project by Computing and Interactive Entertainment students) which is inspired by the fighting against virus as background to promote health awareness.

For details, please visit the website of the virtual exhibition: https://cagradshow.hkmu.edu.hk/2020

About the OUHK:
Established by the Government in 1989, The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) has developed into a full-fledged university providing high quality and flexible university education at various levels to secondary school graduates and working adults. As a dynamic and innovative university, the OUHK currently offers over 200 programmes of different academic levels to about 10,000 full-time students and 9,000 part-time students. Our mission is to advance learning, knowledge and research that meet students’ learning aspirations and society's talent needs, focusing on practical and professional programmes.

OUHK comprises six Schools, i.e. School of Arts and Social Sciences, Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration, School of Education and Languages, School of Nursing and Health Studies, School of Science and Technology, and Li Ka Shing School of Professional and Continuing Education (LiPACE). LiPACE provides lifelong learning opportunities by offering full-time sub-degree programmes, community learning and professional programmes.    OUHK website: www.hkmu.edu.hk