News Communications Department Asia Society 725 Park Avenue New York, NY 10021-5088 AsiaSociety.org Phone 212.327.9271 Contact: Elaine Merguerian 212.327.9313; [email protected] E-mail [email protected] Asia Society To Bring Together American and Chinese Museum Directors at Forum in Hangzhou and Shanghai, November 19–21 Book Launch Event and Discussion for Making a Museum in the 21st Century To Be Held at Shanghai's Long Museum, November 19, 6:30 p.m. Asia Society will convene the second U.S.-China Museum Leaders Forum, a part of the U.S.- China Forum on the Arts and Culture and the Asia Society Arts and Museum Network, in Shanghai and Hangzhou, November 19–21, 2014, to continue a dialogue that began with the first such gathering in Beijing in 2012. Nearly thirty American and Chinese museum directors, as well as several American art foundation leaders and Chinese cultural philanthropists, will meet to discuss potential areas for partnership and projects for collaboration. Co-convened by Orville Schell, Arthur Ross director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations, Asia Society, and Melissa Chiu, director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the U.S.-China Museum Leaders Forum aims to foster collaboration and exchange among museums in the two countries, first and foremost by enabling American museum leaders and their Chinese counterparts to connect on a personal level. The biennial Forum was initiated to address challenges faced by museums in China and ways to establish, operate, and sustain the thousands of new institutions the Chinese government plans to build in the next decade. The Forum is one of the only channels providing a non- political platform for top-level players from both sides to engage. Topics of discussion will include case studies for successful examples of international exchange and cooperation, different models of cultural philanthropy in China and America, public and private museums, and actionable, collaborative projects for the represented institutions. Participating museum directors from the United States include: Neal Benezra, Director, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Melissa Chiu, Director, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Kaywin Feldman, Director and President, Minneapolis Institute of Arts William M. Griswold, Director and President, The Cleveland Museum of Art Dorothy Kosinski, Director, The Phillips Collection Peggy Loar, Interim Vice President for Global Arts and Culture and Interim Museum Director, Asia Society Page 1 of 4 Glenn Lowry, Director, The Museum of Modern Art, New York Dan L. Monroe, The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Director and CEO, Peabody Essex Museum Lawrence Rinder, Director, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Kimerly Rorschach, Illsley Ball Nordstrom Director and CEO, Seattle Art Museum Michael Shapiro, Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr. Director, High Museum of Art Connie Wolf, John and Jill Freidenrich Director, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University Jay Xu, Director, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco Participating museum directors from China include: Chang Lin-Sheng, Director, Aurora Museum, Shanghai Chen Xiangbo, Director, Guan Shanyue Museum, Shenzhen Larys Frogier, Director, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai Fu Zhongwang, Director, Hubei Art Museum, Wuhan Samuel Kung, Director, Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art Sean Lu, Director, Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing Luo Ning, Director, Shaanxi Province Art Museum, Xi’an Ma Fenghui, Director, Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou Shi Dawei, Director, Shanghai Art Museum (China Art Palace) Sun Xiaoyun, Director, Jiangsu Art Museum, Nanjing Wang Huangsheng, Director, Art Museum of Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing Wang Wei, Director, The Long Museum, Shanghai Wu Weishan, Director, National Art Museum of China The invitation-only Forum will also include the following participants: Hallam Chow, Founder, H2 Foundation for Arts and Education James Cuno, President and CEO, The J. Paul Getty Trust Elizabeth Glassman, President and CEO, Terra Foundation for American Art Mimi Haas, President, Mimi and Peter Haas Fund Li Lin, Chief Executive Officer, JNBY Christy MacLear, Executive Director, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Andras Szanto, Cultural Consultant Making a Museum in the 21st Century: The Changing Landscape of Museums Today A public reception and discussion will be held on November 19 in Shanghai at the Long Museum (West Bund) from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., to mark the launch of the book Making a Museum in the 21st Century. The discussion will be in English and Chinese with simultaneous interpretation. Panelists include Wang Wei, Wang Huangsheng (invited), Glenn Lowry, and Neal Benezra. Moderated by Chiu and Ye Ying, editor-in-chief of The Art Newspaper China (invited). Making a Museum in the 21st Century provides an overview of some of the most pressing issues for museums around the world in a new era of popularity and audience engagement. The book contains essays from luminaries in the field—prominent museum leaders, Page 2 of 4 directors, and curators, alongside top architects and artists—that tackle questions about the form and function of museums today. The book’s commissioned sections include artist Walid Raad’s visual essay; writer and critic Rustom Bharucha’s new take on the development of museums in Asia; Adam Lerner’s argument for humor in museum programming; and design critic Ou Ning’s analysis of the growth of museums in China, where a vigorous, government-led campaign has produced more than 3,500 new museums in five years. Making a Museum in the Twenty-first Century contains transcriptions of selected discussions and speeches from the inaugural Asia Society Arts & Museum Summit held in Hong Kong in 2013. These include keynote addresses by Glenn Lowry, who assessed significant issues that museums face in a changing environment, and Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, whose presentation was based on his 2011 publication in Japanese, Sense of Space, a critical review of museum buildings from an artist’s perspective. Making a Museum in the 21st Century was made possible with the support of H2 Foundation for Arts and Education, Hallam Chow, and Fanzhi Foundation for Arts and Education. The U.S.-China Museum Leaders Forum is co-organized by Asia Society and the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. Institutional partners include Zhejiang Art Museum and the China Academy of Art. The Art Newspaper China is the media partner for the Forum and book launch event. About the Asia Society Arts and Museum Network The Asia Society Arts and Museum Network is an initiative designed to strengthen arts communities across Asia by encouraging and creating opportunities for collaboration, exchange, and the sharing of knowledge and expertise among art institutions and professionals in Asia, Europe, and North America. About the U.S.-China Forum on the Arts and Culture The U.S.-China Forum on the Arts and Culture is a bilateral exchange that the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations began in 2010 with the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and in close collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and the U.S. Department of State in Washington. The on-going events of the Forum were started in order to help bridge the cultural divide between our two countries through open dialogue between accomplished American and Chinese cultural figures. About Asia Society Founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, Asia Society is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational institution headquartered in New York, with major cultural centers in Hong Kong and Houston and global centers in the United States and Asia. Through museum exhibitions and public programs, Asia Society provides a forum for the issues and viewpoints reflected in Asia today. Page 3 of 4 Asia Society Museum organizes groundbreaking exhibitions of both traditional and contemporary Asian and Asian American art. The Asia Society Museum Collection comprises a traditional art collection, composed of the initial bequests of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd, and a contemporary art collection. The Rockefeller Collection is known for its masterpiece-quality traditional Asian artworks, including objects from cultures across Asia that date from the eleventh century BCE to the nineteenth century CE. Asia Society Museum was one of the first American museums to establish a program of contemporary Asian art in the early 1990s. A recognized leader in identifying and fostering contemporary Asian and Asian American artists, the Museum announced the establishment of a Contemporary Art Collection in 2007. Find out more at AsiaSociety.org/museum In seeking new ways of building mutual understanding between the U.S. and China, the Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations undertakes projects and events which explore areas of common interest and divergent views between the two countries, focusing on policy, culture, business, media, economics, energy and the environment. It was established in 2007 with a generous gift from the late Arthur Ross and is based at Asia Society’s New York City headquarters # # # Page 4 of 4 .