A delegation of UK museum leaders accompanied British prime minister Keir Starmer on his visit to China last week.

The museum leaders were among 60 representatives from British business, sport and culture that were on the trip, which included visits to Beijing and Shanghai to meet government representatives and Chinese business leaders and investors.

Keith Merrin, the director of North East Museums, was a museum leader among the British delegation. He said: “This has been an amazing opportunity to promote the history and creativity of the communities of north-east England as well as making connections and exploring ways we can potentially work with museums and cultural institutions in China – another country with a long and fascinating history.”

During the visit, National Museums Liverpool director Laura Pye announced that an exhibition of Chinese fine art would come to the World Museum in October. The show will feature material from the Shanghai Art Collection Museum.

“Liverpool has one of the oldest and largest Chinese communities in Europe, whose history is deeply woven into the city’s identity,” Pye said. “Liverpool has been twinned with Shanghai since 1999, so we’re looking forward to bringing this vast collection to our city.

“National Museums Liverpool’s work with Chinese cultural institutions reflects Liverpool’s long-standing global connections and our responsibility to represent and engage with the cultures and communities that shape the city today.

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“At National Museums Liverpool, we believe in cultural diplomacy, the exchange of ideas, and the power of art, history and culture to inspire and connect. We are committed to promoting understanding, dialogue and cultural exchange through our work. Our international partnerships are grounded in the belief that cultural engagement can foster critical thinking and mutual understanding across borders. Working with institutions in China allows us to present history, culture and ideas in ways that encourage reflection and discussion.”

Another on the trip, Tim Reeve, the deputy director and chief operating officer at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), had been part of an earlier trade delegation to China in 2013. He was among those accompanying the prime minister at the time, David Cameron, on a visit that was hoped would herald a “golden era” of UK-Sino relations.

Writing on LinkedIn, Reeve said: “Clearly a lot has changed since the hazy sunshine of Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai in 2013. A decade of protest in Hong Kong and a volatile geo-political context for this visit sees confidence and optimism replaced by diffidence and pragmatism; not so much a ‘golden era’ of promise and ambition, but what the prime minister has described as a 'consistent, durable and respectful relationship'.”

Reeve continued: “But for cultural institutions like the V&A, as guardians of one of the most comprehensive collections of Chinese art and design outside East Asia, a pro-engagement strategy forged over 150 years of working in and with Chinese creative practice and traditions – clear-eyed and sensitive to the huge complexity of historic and modern China, but alive and curious to its fascinating, chaotic and fast-moving creative landscape, and its inescapable global impact – it has been a decade of collaboration and exchange.”

The V&A has recently taken its exhibitions to a number of Chinese visitors through its partnership Art Exhibitions China. Ten of its exhibitions have travelled to 29 venues and been visited by over 4 million visitors since 2020.

The UK delegation also visited the Forbidden City, a Unesco World Heritage site that is now a museum, to meet counterparts from across the cultural sectors in China. The British group then travelled to Japan at the end of the visit. 

UK museum leaders in China
  • Sara Wajid, co-CEO, Birmingham Museums Trust
  • Anne Lyden, director-general, National Galleries of Scotland
  • Laura Pye, director, National Museums Liverpool
  • Doug Gurr, director, Natural History Museum
  • Keith Merrin, director, North East Museums
  • Paddy Rogers, director, Royal Museums Greenwich
  • Shri Mukundagiri, deputy chief executive, Science Museum Group
  • Tim Reeve, deputy director and chief operating officer, Victoria and Albert Museum