Find Your Light

Tatler AMI honouree Lindsey McAlister has been working in youth theatre for decades. And while some mentees have found fame, her focus is always on how the arts make you a better person

- Karly Cox

"I imagine Tatler readers never would've heard of YAF.” This unassertive statement is far from characteristic of Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation (HKYAF) founder Lindsey McAlister. Anyone who has ever met her, let alone worked with her, would be more likely to describe her as a force of nature, both in personality (loud, uninhibited, tactile, very big on eye contact) and physically, her somewhat unruly long, blond curls catching in her mismatched earrings, her wild gesticulations, her boldly patterned outfits giving the impression she’s much taller than she is.

Far more typical is the chutzpah with which she has approached individuals and institutions over the years for funding-entrepreneur philanthropist Robert Miller (and definite member of the Tatler community) is “amazing and very, very generous”; she calls Standard Chartered a "dream partner” and Swire "amazing”—or how she has run projects over the years, from taking over spaces such as Victoria Park and West Kowloon for entire weekends to hold Arts in the Park, to organising apprenticeships for those interested in the technical side of the industry, running intergenerational arts projects with the Hong Kong Jockey Club and staging near-Broadway-worthy musicals.