THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

US, China museums keen to share

US, China museums  keen to share

America has ample Chinese treasures in its collections, along with curator expertise

As The Palace Museum in Beijing stages the “Faberge Revealed” exhibition of Russian imperial treasures from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in the United States, more US museums want to share their collections with China.
Professionals from the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, and the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M Sackler Gallery under the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, on June 7 agreed on closer collaboration with the Palace Museum in Beijing.
Wang Yiyou, curator of Chinese and East Asian Art at the Peabody, says the museums will arrange professional exchanges and pursue partnerships in preservation and research.
The Peabody has displayed Chinese treasures since 1800, a year after its founding, while the Freer and Sackler are among the biggest repositories in the US of Chinese cultural relics.
All three institutions have worked with Chinese museums before.
In 2010-11 the Peabody worked with the Palace Museum on the “The Emperor’s Private Paradise” exhibition seen in Salem, New York, Boston and Milwaukee. It comprised exquisite decorative art from the Juanqinzhai studio made for Emperor Qianlong (1711-99). More than half a million visitors saw the show, Wang says.
Jan Stuart, curator of Chinese art at the Freer and Sackler, says they have been training “future leaders of Chinese museums” since 2000, and Li Ji, head of archaeology at the Palace Museum, was among the students, as were its conservators and exhibition designers.
Stuart says the new agreement between the American and Chinese museums will produce heavyweight exhibitions. “By pulling together our resources, talent and collections, we can create something that’s really beautiful,” she says.
“We are not yet ready to announce details, but we can say that the exhibitions will cover the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and the wives in the Qing court in a way that’s never been done before.” 
The publication of in-depth catalogues will also help foster new scholars in various fields. “One reason why we do exhibitions is to further develop scholarship in particular areas,” says Jay Finney, deputy director at the Peabody in charge of marketing. “The substance really is the scholarly writing and publication through the manifestation of artworks.”
According to China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage, there were 4,692 registered museums in the country at the end 2015, up from 3,415 at the end of 2010. But Chinese public museums in 2013 held only six art and history exhibitions in the US, while only two from US public museums came to China that year.
Hurdles remain. For one, the China Programme at the American Alliance of Art, an information-sharing platform for museums in China and the US, was put on hold earlier this year due to funding constraints, despite becoming increasingly popular, says Wang.
Finney says there’s a need to make exhibits “friendlier” for Americans who are unfamiliar with Chinese history. When the Peabody was designing the Juanqinzhai exhibition, he says, it was assumed the visitors would have some sense of Emperor Qianlong’s power and wealth.
“But when we spoke to them we heard things like, ‘He couldn’t have been the most powerful one’ and ‘I’ve never heard of him.’ So we have to tell people that these Chinese historical figures aren’t all that different from their own lives and try to make them more relateable.”
Marketing museums is still a new concept in the US, Finney says, but he’s found that some Chinese museums are good at it. Smartphone apps from the Palace Museum have gone viral on Chinese social networks in recent years, so the Peabody plans to send someone from its digital team for training in Beijing.
“China is in the news every day, positively or negatively,” Stuart notes. “Americans are interested in China, but many don’t know what China really is. So when we stage a good exhibition, it gives them a chance to understand a bit of Chinese history and also reflect a bit on China’s present, as well as what it’s likely to become.”
 
nationthailand