Hong Kong’s M+ announced on October 21 that French luxury house Chanel has signed on as a lead partner for the visual culture museum, backing its new multiyear project series “Pioneering Visions.” The agreement renews and extends M+’s current partnership with the brand, which began in 2023, for a further three years.

“Pioneering Visions” will incorporate an expansive calendar of exhibitions, public programs, and collection-focused activations highlighting figures such as Kimsooja, Duan Jianyu, Cao Fei, and Yu Ji. As part of the initiative, a solo exhibition of Sarah Sze, titled “Centrifuge,” will open in the museum’s Focus Gallery in February 2027. In keeping with its title, the series intends to highlight fresh perspectives and transformative practices by artists and creatives across Asia and abroad.

Through the Chanel Culture Fund, the brand has supported M+ since the museum’s opening. In 2022, it underwrote the presentation of Mark Cousins’s 14-hour documentary project Women Make Film, along with an accompanying screening and educational seminar series at M+ Cinema. The house became a major partner in 2023, funding the curatorial post of Chanel senior curator, head of moving image, and supporting initiatives including M+ Restored and the Asian Avant-Garde Film Circulation Library to preserve and distribute regional experimental cinema. 

Museum director Suhanya Raffel welcomed Chanel’s extended commitment. In a press release, she stated that the collaboration “will provide deeper access to lesser-known stories of significant artists of our time, creating new opportunities for engagement, exchange, and discovery for audiences in Hong Kong and internationally.”

Harison Butler is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.