China Focus: Global museum conference in Shanghai explores new realms of collaboration

A Museum Night event during the M20+ International Museum Conference is held at the rooftop classical garden of the Shanghai Museum East in Shanghai, east China, Dec. 3, 2024. (Shanghai Museum/Handout via Xinhua)

SHANGHAI, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Wandering around the rooftop classical garden and soaking in the sounds of traditional stringed instruments at the Shanghai Museum East, Jameson Kelleher, COO and CFO at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the United States, was among a number of global museum leaders attending an enchanting Museum Night event this week.

Moving on to view painting, calligraphy and bronze works in galleries decorated with bridges, rocks and cobblestone paths, she said 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 told Xinhua while attending the M20+ International Museum Conference hosted at the Shanghai Museum East.

The conference, held on Tuesday and Wednesday, gathered leaders from 20 renowned museums in 11 foreign countries, according to Chu Xiaobo, director of the Shanghai Museum. Senior executives from 18 top Chinese museums were also in attendance.

"M20+ aims to provide an important platform for global museum professionals to share experience, exchange ideas, collaborate, and inspire creativity," Chu said.

MODEL FOR MUSEUM DESIGN IN CHINA

The Shanghai Museum East, the Shanghai Museum's new venue, took over seven years to complete and covers an area of nearly 120,000 square meters. It features 20 exhibition halls and interactive spaces. Since its trial opening in February this year, it has already received over 4 million visitors. M20+ marked the official full opening of the facility.

"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," said Chase Robinson, director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art in the United States.

Speaking of the Shanghai Museum East, Laurent Salom, director of the National Museum of the Palaces of Versailles and Trianon, noted that it was enormous and impressive, and elegant and light in a way.

"Shanghai was big already on the map of museums, but now it's becoming very big," Salom told Xinhua.

"It is a model of museum design in China," said Louis Ng, director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum. To Ng, the design of the exhibition space and the narrative flow at the Shanghai Museum East is meticulous. Accompanying facilities such as cultural and creative stores also reflect a deep understanding of visitor needs.

OLD AND NEW BONDS WITH CHINA

Luisa Penalva, senior curator at Portugal's National Museum of Ancient Art, said she had never worked with Chinese museums before, which is why she was keen to participate in the M20+ conference.

This type of gathering is very important as it allows people to share their experience and methods of preserving the world's memory, Penalva said. "And I think museums can play an important part when they come together and show how important the history of mankind is."

Some international museum professionals attending M20+, like Penalva, have just started to engage with their Chinese counterparts, while others have longstanding connections with China that span several years or even decades.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art, for example, has worked with Chinese colleagues for decades, with its first such partnership potentially dating back to the 1920s, Robinson said.

"Many of our curators work with conservators. They either had training here or spent considerable periods of time in China," Robinson said, using the terms "natural" and "highly collaborative" to define the museum's partnership with China.

He noted that powerful partnerships have resulted in exceptional exhibitions, such as "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 both the Palace Museum and the Palace of Versailles -- opened in Beijing and focused on exchange between China and France in the 17th and 18th centuries.

"My first day in China was two years ago. So it's a new story for me," Salom said. "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, executive director of the Kyushu National Museum in Japan, is an expert in Chinese calligraphy. Over recent decades, he has been involved in the hosting of several major 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," said Tomita, noting many Japanese people have been drawn to the museum to view rare Chinese calligraphy artifacts.

UNITING MUSEUMS

Kelleher sees M20+ as a platform to meet museum leaders in China and from other parts of the world, and to build 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," said Jannat Ismailova, director of the State Museum of the History of Uzbekistan, adding that M20+ is a channel to understand issues, developments and new trends in world museums.

In 2018 and 2019, her museum held two major exhibitions in collaboration with China, with many Chinese museums participating.

"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," said Jessica Harrison-Hall, curator of Chinese ceramics and decorative arts at the British Museum.

Liu Yanchang, director of the Shandong Museum, highlighted the museum's international collaborations, such as holding exhibitions on Confucius in Europe, as well as 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 said, noting that the conference has allowed him to exchange ideas with museum directors from multiple countries on joint exhibition planning, dialogue between cultures, and appealing to young audiences.

Salom told Xinhua that he would return home from China with the energy, curiosity and desire to exchange and to create new projects.

Chu said that over the past decade, Chinese museums have entered a period of high-quality development, reflected in the nearly doubled number of museum visitors, construction of new museums, and many innovative concepts designed to enhance visitor experience.

"In this context, organizing dialogues between top Chinese museums and foreign ones is necessary," Chu said, noting that everyone at the conference hopes to establish relationships of equal dialogue and mutual achievement.

Jannat Ismailova (R), director of the State Museum of the History of Uzbekistan, and Louis Ng, director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum, talk during the M20+ International Museum Conference in Shanghai, east China, Dec. 3, 2024. (Shanghai Museum/Handout via Xinhua)