SHANGHAI, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) — Wandering across the rooftop classical backyard and soaking within the sounds of conventional stringed devices on the Shanghai Museum East, Jameson Kelleher, COO and CFO on the Metropolitan Museum of Art within the United States, was amongst quite a few international museum leaders attending a fascinating Museum Night occasion this week.
Moving on to view portray, calligraphy and bronze works in galleries adorned with bridges, rocks and cobblestone paths, she mentioned that she felt calm and relaxed.
“I will be leaving the Shanghai Museum more inspired than ever in terms of what can be accomplished in the showcasing of art at an elevated global level,” Kelleher advised Xinhua whereas attending the M20+ International Museum Conference hosted on the Shanghai Museum East.
The convention, held on Tuesday and Wednesday, gathered leaders from 20 famend museums in 11 international international locations, in line with Chu Xiaobo, director of the Shanghai Museum. Senior executives from 18 prime Chinese museums have been additionally in attendance.
“M20+ aims to provide an important platform for global museum professionals to share experience, exchange ideas, collaborate, and inspire creativity,” Chu mentioned.
MODEL FOR MUSEUM DESIGN IN CHINA
The Shanghai Museum East, the Shanghai Museum’s new venue, took over seven years to finish and covers an space of almost 120,000 sq. meters. It options 20 exhibition halls and interactive areas. Since its trial opening in February this 12 months, it has already acquired over 4 million guests. M20+ marked the official full opening of the ability.
“When I was here in May, the museum was still finishing out its galleries and building out its extraordinary collection on display. I must say, coming back now, it’s quite extraordinary to see a museum of the scale, which is so thoughtful, and how it presents art in general and Chinese art in particular,” mentioned Chase Robinson, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art within the United States.
Speaking of the Shanghai Museum East, Laurent Salome, director of the National Museum of the Palaces of Versailles and Trianon, famous that it was monumental and spectacular, and chic and lightweight in a approach.
“Shanghai was big already on the map of museums, but now it’s becoming very big,” Salome advised Xinhua.
“It is a model of museum design in China,” mentioned Louis Ng, director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum. To Ng, the design of the exhibition house and the narrative stream on the Shanghai Museum East is meticulous. Accompanying amenities similar to cultural and artistic shops additionally mirror a deep understanding of customer wants.
OLD AND NEW BONDS WITH CHINA
Luisa Penalva, senior curator at Portugal’s National Museum of Ancient Art, mentioned she had by no means labored with Chinese museums earlier than, which is why she was eager to take part within the M20+ convention.
This kind of gathering is essential because it permits folks to share their expertise and strategies of preserving the world’s reminiscence, Penalva mentioned. “And I think museums can play an important part when they come together and show how important the history of mankind is.”
Some worldwide museum professionals attending M20+, like Penalva, have simply began to have interaction with their Chinese counterparts, whereas others have longstanding connections with China that span a number of years and even a long time.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, for instance, has labored with Chinese colleagues for many years, with its first such partnership doubtlessly courting again to the Twenties, Robinson mentioned.
“Many of our curators work with conservators. They either had training here or spent considerable periods of time in China,” Robinson mentioned, utilizing the phrases “natural” and “highly collaborative” to outline the museum’s partnership with China.
He famous that highly effective partnerships have resulted in distinctive exhibitions, similar to “Empresses of China’s Forbidden City” (2019), in collaboration with the Palace Museum, and a 2023 exhibition on Anyang, the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 B.C.) capital, developed with Chinese archaeologists and the Yinxu Museum.
This April, “The Forbidden City and the Palace of Versailles” — an exhibition held by each the Palace Museum and the Palace of Versailles — opened in Beijing and centered on change between China and France within the seventeenth and 18th centuries.
“My first day in China was two years ago. So it’s a new story for me,” Salome mentioned. “Now I’ve seen more of Shanghai and I also know Beijing, where we organized the exhibition at the Forbidden City. We are going to have this show in Hong Kong soon.”
Tomita Jun, government director of the Kyushu National Museum in Japan, is an skilled in Chinese calligraphy. Over latest a long time, he has been concerned within the internet hosting of a number of main Chinese calligraphy exhibitions in Japan.
“It is of great significance to introduce China’s advanced academic research to Japan, or to present Japan’s unique understanding of Chinese calligraphy to China,” mentioned Tomita, noting many Japanese folks have been drawn to the museum to view uncommon Chinese calligraphy artifacts.
UNITING MUSEUMS
Kelleher sees M20+ as a platform to fulfill museum leaders in China and from different components of the world, and to construct alliances. “I am very privileged to be part of this.”
“I came here with questions, and after hearing 11 presentations from 11 speakers, I found the answers I was seeking,” mentioned Jannat Ismailova, director of the State Museum of the History of Uzbekistan, including that M20+ is a channel to know points, developments and new tendencies in world museums.
In 2018 and 2019, her museum held two main exhibitions in collaboration with China, with many Chinese museums collaborating.
“I think global collaborations between museums are growing all the time in research, in exhibitions, in personnel exchange and also in ideas. China has now built more than 6,000 museums across the country. That is a remarkable achievement, and we can learn an enormous amount from that outside China,” mentioned Jessica Harrison-Hall, curator of Chinese ceramics and ornamental arts on the British Museum.
Liu Yanchang, director of the Shandong Museum, highlighted the museum’s worldwide collaborations, similar to holding exhibitions on Confucius in Europe, in addition to bringing in themed exhibitions from France and Kazakhstan. “Shandong is the hometown of Confucius and Mencius. We have built a cultural brand to foster mutual understanding and appreciation among civilizations, through initiatives such as exhibitions, seminars and personnel exchanges.”
“Our Chinese colleagues are promoting better international exchanges and cooperation in museums,” Ng mentioned, noting that the convention has allowed him to change concepts with museum administrators from a number of international locations on joint exhibition planning, dialogue between cultures, and interesting to younger audiences.
Salome advised Xinhua that he would return residence from China with the power, curiosity and need to change and to create new initiatives.
Chu mentioned that over the previous decade, Chinese museums have entered a interval of high-quality growth, mirrored within the almost doubled variety of museum guests, development of recent museums, and lots of revolutionary ideas designed to reinforce customer expertise.
“In this context, organizing dialogues between top Chinese museums and foreign ones is necessary,” Chu mentioned, noting that everybody on the convention hopes to determine relationships of equal dialogue and mutual achievement.