1.0 The Introduction
1.1 Jiangsu Art Museum
Jiangsu Art Museum (JAM)is a provincial museum in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. The predecessor of JAM isNational Art exhibition hall, founded in 1936, which was first national museumduring the period of the Republic of China (ROC, 1912-1949). JAM has two parts,old museum (figure 1) and new museum (figure 2). The old museum is called‘National Art exhibition hall’, covers an area of 4700 square meters. The styleof the museum is western with traditional Chinese elements. The new museum wasbuilt in 2009 in the 10600 square meters area, designed by KSP (Engel undZimmermann Architekten). The number of permanent staffs is 85 in 2010.JAM undertakes and holds 60-80 exhibitions annually.
1.2 Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Art
Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Art (AMNUA) is a college art museum in Nanjing, built and put into use in 2012.The museum covers an area of 15,000 square meters.AMNUA almost has not its collections. The number of permanent staffs is 10 in 2014. Most of the staffs were born in 1980s. AMNUA undertook and held 30 exhibitions in 2014.
2.0 Similarity
2.1 The type of organizationsand ownership
JAM and AMNUA are‘public institutions’. According toProvisional
Regulations on the registration and administration of public institutions(2004),‘public institutions’ is held by state organs or governments and focuses on publicbenefits but it is not state organ. The state-owned museums, hospitals,colleges are all public institutions.Public institution has similar objectives in comparison with NPO or NGO.They are opened to the public for free from Tuesday to Sunday and closed onMonday. The general operational mode of the state-owned museums is plannedeconomic system.
2.2 The financialstatement
In terms of thedefinition of public institution, it doesn’t have responsibility to publish itfinancial statement on annually or quarterly on its website. It is managed bystate organs, so it has responsibility to report its financial situation togovernment departments. In this case, there is no any financial information ontheir websites.
2.3 The location and accessibility
JAM is located at Yangtze River Road, near the Presidential palace and the Great Hall of thePeople of ROC (the historic buildings). Viewers could access JAM by publictransportations, such as bus and subway. The price of a bus or subway ticket is2 RMB (0.4 AUD). AMNUA is located in Huju North Road, near the Jiangsu provincial government.
2.4 The background of permanent staffs
88.4% of permanent staffs are the professionals in art field. According tothe recruitment announcement of Jiangsu Art Museum in 2015, theexam has two parts, the professional skill of fine art, which occupies 70% oftotal mark, and the general ability, which is 30% of total mark. Most of thepermanent staffs in AMNUA graduated from the universities of arts.
3.0 Difference
3.1 The types ofexhibition
The types of exhibitionin JAM include solo, group and touring exhibitions. The collections hasdisplayed in Japan, Canada, Mexico and Europe. The types of exhibition in AMNUAinclude solo and group exhibitions. The group exhibitions are mainly teachersand students’ artworks.
3.2 The viewers
As previous mentioned,the JAM is near the historic buildings and the old museum is also a historicbuilding. In this case, a number of tourists may occupy a percentage of theviewers. AMNUA as a college museum, most of its viewers are its students ingeneral, especially the student who are major in design or fine arts. However,during the graduation exhibition, which is held annually, a large number ofstudents from other universities and general citizen will visit AMNA.
3.3 The curators and the operational mode
Li (2015), the directorof AMNUA states that although most of the state-owned museums don’t have enoughfood to eat, renting venue is the laziest way to survive. On this occasion,since 2012, AMNUA intended to find a sponsor or cooperator. For example, AMNUAhas curated an exhibition for the new product launch of Porsche. According toExhibition informationin JAM,JAM could not be operatedcommercially and rented as a venue for commercial purpose. Namely, JAM cannothold commercial exhibition. The main reason caused this difference may be thepolicy. Although JAM and AMNUA are all public institutions, JAM is supervisedby the government department directly and AMUNA is guided by Nanjing Universityof Arts.
JAM almost does notcurate exhibition by itself. For example, in last three months (from June 24thto August 5th), JAM has held 11 exhibitions. However, only 2exhibitions were curated by JAM and displayed the collections in JAM. Mostly, itis rent by other organizations or artists as a venue. The routine work of thestaffs is probably to determine whether the application of an exhibition couldbe held in JAM. In this case, JAM may only have 1-2 curators. It is a maincharacter of public institution.
Li said that thestate-owned museums lacked curators, so they should commission the independentcurators, which are not permanent staffs in the museums. Since AMNUA wasfounded, it started to build an accountability system. This is a character ofcommercial gallery. Li also indicates that the curators in AMNUA lack theindependent curating experience and participation in large-scale exhibitions. However,AMNUA prefers to curate exhibitions by itself and focused on training curators.
3.4 The collections andthe exhibition content
JAM focuses oncollecting the artworks of traditional Chinese painting, especially thepaintings of New Jinling (another name of ‘Nanjing’) School (founded in 1920s).The collections also include engraving, Chinese oil painting, Chinesewatercolour, contemporary calligraphy and folk arts.
As previous mentionedJAM has held 11exhibitons in last three months. Only one theme of exhibitionsis not relating to Arts. One theme of 11exhibitons is Chinese oil painting.Others are traditional Chinese painting and contemporary calligraphy. Publicinterest is a main reason. Gao (2013), the director of Today Art Museum,Beijing, said that ‘Many people understand classical or traditional art but forthe contemporary we need to do a lot of educational programmes to help peopleunderstand.’ In this case, when JAM plans to hold an exhibition, they shouldconsider the public interest in arts.
As a new museum, AMNUA almost does not have any collections. Nevertheless, it has its own ambition. Itprefers to collect the artworks relating to contemporary design andcontemporary arts worldwide. AMNUA has held 12 exhibitions in last 7 months.Three exhibitions are the student graduation exhibitions, including design,media, fine art and craft. Sin exhibitions are relating to contemporary art. Inother words, contemporary art is AMUNA’s main focus.
Reference
Li,
Xiaoshan (2015), The Sunflower Bible of AMNUA, Artron, ,viewed in August 9th, 2015.
Gao Peng interviewed by Shen Ting ‘Debating China’s Art GalleryDevelopment’, In the spotlight, CRI English Radio China, broadcast 4 June 2013.
Exhibition information in JAM, jsmsg, ,viewed in August 9th, 2015.
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