When I moved to Hong Kong in 2007, the arts scene felt very slight, but it was quietly bubbling away under the surface. I’d just left the British Museum and missed being around artists, thinkers, curators and collectors.

I hadn’t set foot in Sheung Wan before, an area with a limited sense of identity, when I started working at the Cat Street Gallery. It had been championing international artists long before any blue-chip galleries moved to the city. The footwear exhibition it hosted for David Lynch in collaboration with Christian Louboutin was a sensation.

Many others followed, including survey shows of Australian art, established British artists such as Sir Peter Blake and, most recently, a show featuring five Hong Kong artists, giving a strong platform to homegrown talent.

Today, Sheung Wan is full of young designers, hip bars and cafes, and destination restaurants, but it has lost none of its local charm – and the Cat Street Gallery remains a must for any art lover visiting the city.
• Cat Street Gallery is exhibiting at Art15, 21-23 May, at Olympia, London