Take advantage of the Chinese museum Zeitgeist or miss out - Museums Association

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Take advantage of the Chinese museum Zeitgeist or miss out

I have just returned from a British Council-sponsored visit of Chinese museums with a group of colleagues from the UK. …
Hedley Swain
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I have just returned from a British Council-sponsored visit of Chinese museums with a group of colleagues from the UK. It was a trip of a lifetime and left me reeling from the number and nature of new experiences – all of them positive.

The 21st century is China’s century and the major advances in museology during the century will probably take place there. Along with the incredible pace of development that is taking place in China, museums are being built, rebuilt and extended.

Linked to this, the nature of public programmes, interpretation, design, commercial activities and philanthropy are being considered, experimented with and developed. UK museums will survive without engaging with China, but it will be a serious missed opportunity if they don’t.

Some UK museums and museum professionals are already involved in China. The British Museum and V&A are developing sophisticated partnerships based on shared and mutually supportive research interests and exchange programmes.

The British Council has a key role offering opportunities for exchange visits and research grants. It can also offer advice on the cultural protocols and etiquette required in building good partnerships. A few regional museums such as the Fitzwilliam are also seizing the opportunity. And it is good to see suppliers such as Click Netherfield building a strong reputation and winning contracts.

But there is room for much more. I was repeatedly told by Chinese museum professionals how much they wanted to share experience with UK colleagues and how hungry they are to fill their growing exhibition spaces with shows from abroad and, in return, to lend their own material. The Chinese are fiercely proud of their cultural heritage and they want to see it on a world stage.

It is clear that the Chinese museum community has already carefully considered and made use of recent UK experience. Community and outreach programmes are being developed, learning projects and volunteers are prominent, as is free entry.

In some areas UK museums would appear to still be leading in best practice: Chinese museums are not yet on the whole using interpretation and design to engage visitors as well as we do.

But there are areas where we should be envious, not least in their ability to attract a mass audience. Many Chinese museums are huge and have queues for entry, and many are full of teenagers and people in their twenties – the very audiences we find hardest to attract.

The Chinese museum community is developing at a startling rate and very soon there will be few new lessons they will need to learn from the UK. Now is the time to make links and build partnerships.

Hedley Swain is the director of programme delivery at the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council

www.ctc.britishcouncil.org.cn/


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