Suhanya Raffel is the Museum Director of M+ Hong Kong, a flagship contemporary art museum in the heart of the West Kowloon Cultural District, now in its fourth year of presenting world class exhibitions and programming.
Prior to joining M+ in 2016, Raffel was a tour de force in the Australian arts and cultural sector. She served as the Deputy Director and Director of Collections at the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW) from 2013-2016, during which time she worked on its new North Building with international architectural practice, SANAA. Before that, Raffel worked at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) from 2002, first as its Curatorial Manager, Asian & Pacific Art, and then as Deputy Director.
Raffel spent her formative years at the University of Sydney in the late 1970s studying art history, and ‘it is from the 90s that my career began,’ she tells ArtsHub.
’I have always been interested in developing and expanding knowledge,’ continues Raffel. ‘When I was studying art history at the University of Sydney, I realised that what was taught did not include any of the histories that I had been a part of. I kept thinking, “How is that possible?”.’
This keen awareness around what was missing in the arts and cultural landscape has continued to shape Raffel’s mission, first working with grassroots institutions focused on supporting living makers, and then bringing that knowledge and experience into the big museums.
Raffel says, ’The first impulse for me was to work with the now. I worked with Artspace, going straight to the grassroots and they have been founding experiences… I still remember when I went to Queensland Art Gallery, knocking on the door and saying, “Look, you need me because I can bring you something that is so necessary in the conversation.” What was fabulous was that the institution said, “Yes, come on in.” It requires a two-way relationship.’
Could arts professionals today still get anywhere with cold-calling, as Raffel did with QAGOMA? ‘I think so, because in the end there was nothing to lose,’ she says.
’You make your opportunities – I don’t think anyone is entitled, you create them and you argue for them. To be persuasive, passionate and patient is really important.’
She was a change maker from the get-go, and felt ‘restless’ at the prospect of waiting around for things to improve on their own. ‘I felt that the big institutions took too long,’ Raffel continues. ‘But I also understand now why it takes longer.
’It takes longer because there are so many more stakeholders involved and so to bring everybody together takes longer. But I also felt that I needed to give energy to that end of the spectrum. That’s why I spent so many years in the Queensland Art Gallery building a collection, a research base and program around the Asia Pacific Triennial (APT), then onto AGNSW and Hong Kong. Each of those moves are substantial – they are long commitments,’ she says.
The Australian influence
Now leading a global institution in one of the most recognised art hubs in the world, Raffel says, ‘When I look back, I think [my experience in Australia] has been hugely important in shaping how I have brought that knowledge base to Hong Kong, and then built an institution with all the colleagues here.’
From her perspective, Queensland led the way when it comes to positioning Australia in dialogue with the arts and cultural spheres of the Asia Pacific.
She says, ‘APT began in the early 90s and it was groundbreaking and instrumental in shifting dialogues and unpacking some of these things that we are now looking across the international museum world – the necessity to recalibrate, to expand historical thinking to be more inclusive and diverse.’
Archie Moore and the Australian Pavilion’s Golden Lion win at the Venice Biennale, ‘Foreigners Everywhere’, also speaks to this. Both Moore and Ellie Buttrose were close colleagues of Raffel during her time in Queensland. ‘It’s such a profoundly moving piece of work to actually name people and put the whole idea of terra nullius into a place that is so inconceivable,’ says Raffel, who recently returned from Venice where she attended the Biennale’s opening.
Hong Kong’s presentation at the Venice Biennale, featuring artist Trevor Yeung and curator Olivia Chow, was co-selected by M+ and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Raffel explains, ‘Trevor’s work is timely and important in the context of “Foreigners Everywhere”, bringing his reference points of Hong Kong, but also looking at issues of sustainability and diversity.’
Responsibilities of a museum for the future
What were some of the key considerations when it came to building a new museum in the 21st century? Raffel says a three-year public consultation ‘has meant that the refined thinking around cultural infrastructure has really paid off’.
‘There’s no other [destination like M+] in Asia, that’s for sure,’ continues Raffel. Its cross-disciplinary interests in design, architecture, moving image art and more makes it unrivalled in Asia, equivalent of ‘the Pompidou in Paris or the Museum of Modern Art in New York’.
Hong Kong is an especially interesting case study in its positioning as “East meets West”, and its intimate cross-pollination between art, commerce, leisure and entertainment. How does a cultural institution situate itself in this context, but still stay true to its stewardship and educational mission?
’In the first five years, the voice of the institution is critical,’ says Raffel, ‘what we’re saying and how we’re saying it; who is hearing it, who is coming?
’This idea of visual culture is what drives the agenda at M+, but what’s also been very interesting to observe is that people are responding to that agenda in the broadest sense.’
In 2023, M+ welcomed almost 2.8 million visitors and was ranked in the top 15 art institutions in the world, just behind MoMA (Museum of Modern Art in New York). West Kowloon Cultural District saw over four million people visit – in a city with only 7.5 million in population. Raffel continues, ‘80% of that 2.8 million people who visited M+ are aged between 18 and 44 – it’s the future that’s walking through the door.’
While the district races to find new funding as the Hong Kong Government’s endowment is set to run out by March 2025, Raffel is confident about its future. Despite changes in economic climates around the world and adjusting to a post-COVID world, she says, ‘We all work within these constraints, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to stop.
’I can’t imagine Hong Kong now without West Kowloon, without M+ – I think it’s unimaginable for the world without M+ now.’
Read: Australian reflections on Art Basel Hong Kong 2024
On sustainability: how, when and for whom?
Raffel is currently serving as the President of CIMAM (International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art) with the upcoming CIMAM 54th Annual Conference to be held in Los Angeles this December.
The theme, ‘Sustainable Futures: How? When and for Whom?’ will ground the discussions and provide ‘a moment to reflect on what museums of modern and contemporary art are doing in terms of adding knowledge and drawing on history,’ says Raffel.
‘In Los Angeles, we can face to the Pacific and hear about Indigenous knowledge in relation to sustainability issues – it’s a critical voice that we need to make space for.’
The Conference Content Steering Committee includes Suzanne Cotter, Director, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Aram Moshayedi, Interim Chief Curator, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Clara Kim (Chair of the Contents Committee), Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and more. It will also engage with programs and practitioners as part of LA’s Pacific Standard Time festival, PST ART: Art & Science Collide.
The Conference will not only draw on frameworks for environmental sustainability in museum operation, but also social sustainability. Raffel adds that the conversation extends to ‘issues to wellbeing and knowledge development’, and ‘diversity is critical in that framework’.
She concludes, ’I always say that the 21st century is a very critical century … It’s a shift in where power structures lie [and] it’s moving into different spaces – the Asia Pacific, the Middle East [etc]. These voices are now becoming heard, seen, and insist on being a part of a bigger, broader understanding of humankind.’
