Museum Processes in China Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures, tables, and illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Romanization
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Revisiting the Historical Trajectories of Modern Art Museums in China
- 3 He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen
- 4 Guangdong Times Museum in Guangzhou
- 5 Hong Kong Museum of Art in Hong Kong
- 6 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Guangdong Times Museum in Guangzhou
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures, tables, and illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Romanization
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Revisiting the Historical Trajectories of Modern Art Museums in China
- 3 He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen
- 4 Guangdong Times Museum in Guangzhou
- 5 Hong Kong Museum of Art in Hong Kong
- 6 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Abstract
This chapter examines the museum circuit of the Guangdong Times Museum, a private art museum led by a real-estate company in Guangzhou. It argues that the urban private economy has opened up a new space for the development of private museums independent of the state activities, one that arguably favours the development of civil society. The museum's cultural intermediaries, based upon a strong network of local and global independent cultural actors, arguably have contributed to constructing a ‘public cultural sphere’, which imagines a shared community and directs it towards becoming an autonomous and independent public. The museum's visitors, mainly educated young adults, can be categorized into six distinct identities. The majority of them can explore new meanings and engage in this ‘alternative museum culture’.
Keywords: private museum, contemporary art, private economy, civil society, public cultural sphere
The Guangdong Times Museum (abbreviated as Times Museum) in Guangzhou originated from an architectural and artistic idea for responding to the urbanization process and stimulating artistic production in the Pearl River Delta region. It is located at the northern edge of Guangzhou city and occupies the top floor of a middle-class residential building owned by the company the Times Property. Since its inception in October 2010, the museum's reflexive artistic and curatorial practices can be seen as striving to transcend the local-global boundary and to construct a new regional identity, making it an alternative institutional model for art museums in the region. This nongovernmental organization offers a distinctive cultural circuit that can help to form a particular kind of cultural public sphere that is relatively independent of the state and relies on nongovernment organizations operating under the purview of the private economy in contemporary China.
Based on the analytical framework of the ‘museum circuit’, this chapter specifically examines the primary factors involved in the creation and operation of the museum, including the real estate developer, the state and other institutional factors, the museum intermediaries and their practices, and the various types of museum visitors. This chapter is divided into four sections. The first section examines how the museum is initiated by creative professionals and regulated by both the real estate developer and the state.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Museum Processes in ChinaThe Institutional Regulation, Production and Consumption of the Art Museums in the Greater Pearl River Delta Region, pp. 141 - 176Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019