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Emma White

More than 130 artists aged between 55 and 90 are set to take the stage for the coming second Hong Kong Creative Aging Arts Festival, a powerful celebration of how the arts can help seniors lead happier lives
Running from September 9 to 20 at the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre in Shek Kip Mei, Kowloon, the mainly Cantonese event will feature more than 40 performances, including an opening performance titled Measuring Love directed by the award-winning UK theatre director Alan Lyddiard.
Other highlights include a drama production by Guangzhou’s Third Act Theatre, visual art exhibitions, and talks focusing on creativity and well-being during later life stages.
The festival is organised by Arts’ Options, a non-profit charity established in 2011 to provide creative outlets and training for senior citizens in Hong Kong.
“We want to create a ripple effect that continuously [influences] others,” says Rebecca Po Wan-ting, the charity’s executive director. “We want more members of the general public to understand the importance and the benefits of elderly arts.”

The goal is not just fun, but also to give seniors the confidence to be cast in a professional environment, Po says. Since 2019, Arts’ Options has been running a “Train the Trainer” course for those who have completed drama training and want to teach others.
The ethos behind Arts’ Options aligns with a growing global recognition of the physiological and social benefits of engaging in the arts. Daisy Fancourt thoroughly investigated these benefits in her recent bestseller, Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health. The book has ignited fresh interest in how engaging in the arts – from listening to music and watching films to dancing and performing on stage – is good for you.
For Lucy Siu May-yee, a former lecturer at the Education University of Hong Kong, these benefits have been life-changing. When she started taking acting classes at Arts’ Options five years ago, she finally began to look after herself.
Until then, she had spent much of her time in retirement caring for her husband, who was nearing the end of his life. She loved him deeply, but the demanding role had taken a toll on her spirit, she says. Acting required the engagement of all her senses, and Siu soon discovered that it freed her mind and body, helping her regain a sense of purpose and agency.
“I [found] that I live not for my beloved. I live for my own self,” she says.
In the five years since her first class, Siu has gone on to write scripts and teach drama to other seniors. Her drama community was a major source of emotional support when her husband died last year, and she is looking forward to taking part in the coming festival, where she will be an exhibition guide.

Another Arts’ Options participant, retired businessman and former television actor Bobby Chow Chun-ming, has seen similar benefits first-hand.
Chow had a short television acting career from 1979 to 1982, before he transitioned into business. His business career kept him financially comfortable, but he missed the acting scene. Getting back into acting after his retirement has helped Chow exercise and improve his memory and mood, and has provided a respite from loneliness and the isolation that can come with retirement.
“I was really lost,” Chow says. “And it really changed my life after I joined the acting group and I made new friends.”
The therapeutic power of the arts is being recognised by institutions around the world. The National Gallery of Singapore has just become the first museum in the world to be recognised as a Healing Arts Centre of Excellence. The gallery offers programmes such as “Art With You”, designed to provide relief to people with dementia and their carers, and “Slow Art”, an experience that focuses on mindfulness-based art. It also provides tactile resources for visually impaired visitors and a “Calm Room” to aid neurodivergent visitors who may feel overstimulated.

Ong Zhen Min, director of learning and public engagement at the gallery, says museums across the globe are starting to incorporate wellness and inclusive offerings in their everyday visitor experiences.
“It also reflects an evolving understanding of the role museums can play in people’s everyday lives – not only as places to encounter art, but as welcoming spaces where they can pause, connect and feel a sense of belonging,” she says.
Cultural establishments are seen in Singapore as part of the country’s larger goals for community health.
“Museums do not replace clinical or social care, but they can offer welcoming, non-clinical settings where people can slow down, express themselves and connect with others through art,” Min says.
Siu says the lessons she has learned through teaching and acting have led to the one realisation that matters to everyone. As she was guiding elderly actors through a script about releasing negativity, saying goodbye and making peace with the end of life, her own fear of death started to subside.
“I find that through drama or through creative arts, I [have] no more fear about nearing death, because I can find meaning in my life,” Siu says. “I will face death as just a bridge – as a bridge from this atmosphere to another universe.”
The Second Hong Kong Creative Aging Arts Festival, Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, 30 Pak Tin St, Shek Kip Mei, Kowloon, September 9-20. For tickets and details of performances, click here (Chinese only).


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Lucy Siu (left), 76, a retired university lecturer, and Bobby Chow, 67, a former TV actor and retired businessman, are pictured at the launch ceremony of the second Hong Kong Creative Aging Arts Festival, in which they are both taking part, at Lok Fu Place on August 6, 2026. Photo: Nora Tam

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Actors take part in a performance at the launch ceremony for the Hong Kong Creative Aging Arts Festival at Lok Fu Place on August 6, 2026. Photo: Arts’ Options

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Lifestyle

Arts

Health

The Hong Kong Creative Aging Arts Festival will feature more than 40 performances highlighting the healing power of the arts for the elderly


The Hong Kong Creative Aging Arts Festival will feature more than 40 performances highlighting the healing power of the arts for the elderly.


World of performing arts

What to do in Hong Kong

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Ageing society

A Hong Kong festival shows how the arts can help seniors live happier lives

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The Hong Kong Creative Aging Arts Festival will feature more than 40 performances highlighting the healing power of the arts for the elderly

The Hong Kong Creative Aging Arts Festival will feature more than 40 performances highlighting the healing power of the arts for the elderly