Exhibitions and Events-News- CAFA Art Museum

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Focusing on important exhibition and activity info of CAFA Art Museum, and updates the latest news of international museum industry.

: MoMA Reboots after $450 Expansion: Will the New Space Sparkle New Imagination?

2019-10-12

The Museum of Modern Art reopens on Oct. 21 after a $450-million, 47,000-square-foot expansion. With a Diller, Scofidio + Renfro /Gensler extension added to the 2004 building designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, the MoMA will be a mammoth complex that’s nearly blocklong.From 1939 till today, the art museum on the 53rd Street has gone through six revamps. The re-opening of MoMA once again triggered discussions among critics in terms of the “grow or die” museum mentality, which was prevalent in the 1990s and 2000s.The remodeled 53rd Street main entrance to the Museum of Modern Art with the new canopy, and buildings to the west. Credit Winnie Au for The New York TimesCritic Holland Cotter believes that judging from the art fairs, more art is not more, yet agile planning and alert seeing can be a game changer. According to him, the expanded MoMA is making obvious efforts to reshape its “Modernism Plus” image without going entirely off-brand - a further breakthrough from its “white, male and nationalist” obsolete history, with art from Africa, Asia, South America and African America and more women artists added.To go into details, the art history outline that MoMA is famous for, the “ironclad view of Modern art as a succession of marquee ‘isms’ (Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, etc.)”, is still in place in the collection galleries. But there are now more unexpected inclusions and theme-based detours along the main route. Cotter also hailed the new building’s mechanics for development, as the new MoMA calls for regular rotation of the collection - a third of the galleries on the second, fourth and fifth floors will be reinstalled every six months, and the new composition of artworks, especially in a museum with increasingly diversified collections and curatorial staff from increasingly diversified backgrounds, will sparkle new thinking.The new acoustic space at MoMA with “Rainforest V,” a sonic sculpture by David Tudor and Composers Inside Electronics Inc. Credit Winnie Au for The New York TimesHowever, what Cotter finds a promising expansion is “one of those classic, ruthless New York real estate tales” in critic Michael Kimmelman’s eyes. The new canopy that cantilevers over the 53rd Street sidewalk, the raised ceiling of Mr. Taniguchi’s lobby on the south side, the gift shop moved to the basement that now allows unobstructed views toward the new West Wing, even the “Hello. Again.” painted on the white wall in the lobby, a 2013 work by Haim Steinbach, were all sharply compared by Kimmelman to “an Apple store“.The new lobby at MoMA features “hello again,” a 2013 work by Haim Steinbach. Credit Haim Steinbach and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. Winnie Au for The New York TimesHe mourned the marginalization of the garden, which is “the historical heart of MoMA” that helped make the place feel friendlier, and the fact that MoMA is no longer what its former director Richard Oldenburg described - “a place where you can see the whole development of the modern movement, but which you feel you can still capture, at least remotely, on a single visit”. Instead of doubling down on Midtown Manhattan, Kimmelman said he was expecting MoMA to venture further to Brooklyn or Queens or the West Side. While New York is multi-centered now, by doing so MoMA could have altered the city’s cultural weather. However, Mr. Kimmelman does acknowledge that the multiple entry points that pepper the circuit of permanent collection galleries reflect the time when the story of modern art is no longer told as a linear sequence of -isms, and more diverse histories of modernism can be discovered in the new space.Source | The New York TimesEdited by Lu Yufan based on MoMA Reboots With ‘Modernism Plus’ by Holland Cotter and With a $450 Million Expansion, MoMA Is Bigger. Is That Better? By Michael Kimmelman
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: Anish Kapoor’s First Solo Museum Exhibition in China Opens in October

2019-10-12

Anish Kapoor CAFA Art Museum & Taimiao Art Museum CAFA Art Museum (CAFAM) 2019/10/25 - 2020/1/1Preview Day: 10/25Public Opening: 10/26 Taimiao Art Museum 2019/11/11 - 2019/12/28Public Opening: 11/11Internationally celebrated British artist Anish Kapoor will open a major solo exhibition in Beijing this October. As Kapoor’s first solo museum show in China, the exhibition will present some of the artist’s most significant and celebrated works of his last 35 years. The exhibition at CAFA Art Museum will open on October 25, featuring the artist’s powerful, self-generated installations; the exhibition that will open on November 11 at Taimiao Art Museum of Imperial Ancestral Temple will show his sensorial, geometrical sculptures.Fan Di’an, President of China Artists Association and Director of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), is the academic supervisor of the exhibition. Deputy Director of CAFA Su Xinping is the art director, CAFAM Director Zhang Zikang the chief curator, and CAFAM Deputy Director Wang Chunchen and Executive Director of Taimiao Art Museum Yue Jieqiong the curators. The exhibition also invites artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries, London, Hans-Ulrich Obrist to be its curatorial consultant. The exhibition is a deep exploration of Kapoor’s visual art language, as well as an important witness of China-UK cultural exchange.Anish Kapoor, Symphony for a Beloved Sun, 2013Stainless steel, wax, conveyer beltsPhoto credit: Dave Morgan ©Anish Kapoor, 2019The exhibition at the contemporary architecture CAFA Art Museum will present the dramatic and performative properties of Kapoor’s work, and focus on four of the most important works of the artist’s. The 2013 work Symphony for a Beloved Sun, exhibited at Martin-Gropius Bau in Berlin, will meet the public with a new look at the museum lobby. On the third floor gallery, there will display Kapoor’s debut exhibit at the Palace of Versailles in 2015, Sectional Body preparing for Monadic Singularity. The neighboring space will show Destierro, the industrial landscape work he showed in 2017 at Argentina’s Parque de la Memoria, or Memory Park, which features a lonely, ultramarine bulldozer in contrast with hundreds of tons of red earth. On the fourth floor of the museum, the automatic installation work My Red Homeland (2003) will be exhibited.Anish Kapoor, Sectional Body preparing for Monadic Singularity, 2015PVC and steel730 x 730 x 730 cmPhoto credit: Tadzio©Anish Kapoor, 2019Anish Kapoor, DestierroEarth, pigment and mechanical diggerDimensions variable©Anish Kapoor, 2019Anish Kapoor, My Red Homeland, 2003Wax and oil-based paint, steel arm and motorDiameter: 12 m©Anish Kapoor, 2019Except for these large-scale installation works, Kapoor will also exhibit models of the important public sculptures of his decades-long art practice, including the Cloud Gate (2004), Orbit (2010), Scheme for South Bank Centre (2001), Subway Stations, Monte Sant'Angelo, Naples (1999-2002), and the 56 Leonard Street sculpture model to be exhibited in New York this October.Sky Mirror, 2006Stainless steelDiameter: 10 mPhoto credit: Tim Mitchell©Anish Kapoor, 2019Tsunami, 2018Stainless steelPhoto credit: Dave Morgan©Anish Kapoor, 2019The other part of the solo exhibition will take place at the Taimiao Art Museum of Imperial Ancestral Temple, which belongs to the Forbidden City architecture group. The 600-year-old Taimiao is composed of buildings and courtyards of large volume. By reflecting and refracting the space using a series of stainless steel and pigment sculptures, Kapoor is having an unprecedented dialogue with the magnificent architecture and the history. His most impactful, interactive pair of works, S-Curve (2006) and C-Curve (2007) will be placed in the mid-court of Taimiao. “S-Curve” is a S-shaped sculpture formed by two seamlessly connected stainless steels. “C-Curve” is one large piece of curved stainless steel. The two art works, respectively in convex and concave shapes, directly reflects and retracts landscape around them. Located around these works is another group of important stainless steel sculptures by Kapoor, including Non-Object (Spire) (2008), and Non-Object (Door) (2008). These works show its environment up-side-down, make the audience immerse in the surrounding architecture and environment, and challenge the audience’s conceptive experience.Anish Kapoor, Svayambhu, 2007Wax and oil-based paintDimensions variablePhoto credit: Dave Morgan©Anish Kapoor, 2019Pigment sculptures will be exhibited in the two side halls of Taimiao Art Museum’s Xiang Dian. Kapoor’s use of pigment is the foundation of many of his original works. He quickly rose to fame with the 1000 Names series (1979-1982) due to its innovative use of pigment. Other pigment sculptures that ensued, including the Angel (1990) in blue and the To Reflect an Intimate Part of the Red (1981) in a variety of colors and shapes, will appear in this exhibition. The varied art works will fill the ancient architecture space. All kinds of shapes will put the audience in a daze.Leviathan, 2011PVC33.6 x 99.89 x 72.23 mExhibited at Grand Palais during the Monumenta, 2011Photo credit: Dave Morgan©Anish Kapoor, 2019The exhibition is co-organized by Central Academy of Fine Arts and the Beijing Municipal Federation Trade Unions, and co-hosted by the CAFA Art Museum and the Taimiao Art Museum. We would like to extend special thanks to our chief supporting organization Zhonghong Chuangyi (Beijing) Culture Development Co, Ltd., and other supporting organizations Lisson Gallery, Galleria Continua and the British Council. About the Artist Anish KapoorPhoto credit: Jillian EdelsteinAnish Kapoor was born in Mumbai, India in 1954 and lives and works in London. He studied at Hornsey College of Art, London, UK (1973–77) followed by postgraduate studies at Chelsea School of Art, London, UK (1977–78). Recent solo exhibitions include CorpArtes, Santiago, Chile (2019); Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery, London, UK (2019); Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal (2018); 'Descension’' at Public Art Fund, Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 1, New York, NY, USA (2017); Parque de la Memoria, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2017); MAST Foundation,Bologna, Italy (2017); Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City, Mexico (2016); Couvent de la Tourette, Eveux, France (2015); Château de Versailles, France (2015) and The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow, Russia (2015). He represented Britain at the 44th Venice Biennale in 1990 with Void Field (1989), for which he was awarded the Premio Duemila for Best Young Artist. Kapoor won the Turner Prize in 1991 and has honorary fellowships from the University of Wolverhampton, UK (1999), the Royal Institute of British Architecture, London, UK (2001) and an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford, UK (2014). Anish Kapoor was awarded a CBE in 2003 and a Knighthood in 2013 for services to visual arts. Large scale public projects include Cloud Gate (2004) in Millennium Park, Chicago, USA and ArcelorMittal Orbit (2012) in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, UK. About the Organizers ╱CAFA Art MuseumThe history of the CAFA Art Museum can be traced back to the early 1950s. Originally called the Central Academy of Fine Arts Gallery, it was located on Wangfujing, Beijing. Designed by the noted architect Zhang Kaiji, the Gallery was the first professional art museum built after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. In 1998, the Gallery changed its name to the CAFA Art Museum. In October 2008, the museum moved to the No. 8 Huajiadi South Street in Beijing’s Chaoyang District, with a new building designed by the noted Japanese architect Arata Isozaki. In the end of 2010, the CAFA Art Museum was selected to be one of the firsts to be listed as the Key National Museums. The CAFA Art Museum is a professional and international modern art museum that conducts academic research, presents exhibitions, restores artworks and provides art education. The museum upholds the philosophy of open-mindedness and is rooted in the concept of using knowledge to serve society. It aims to bridge the past and the future through presenting great artistic and cultural accomplishments of our humanity, and share the culture of our times with all quarters of society.╱Taimiao Art MuseumThe Taimiao Art Museum is located in the Forbidden City architecture group, China’s highest-ranking architecture group that has lasted for 600 years. It is a combination of magnificent building, rich history, profound background and spirit of the era, an artistic and cultural palace of the new time against the ancient royal architectural background established in the Ming and Qing dynasties.The Taimiao Art Museum is co-operated by the Beijing Municipal Federation Trade, the Beijing Working People’s Cultural Palace and the Central Academy of Fine Arts. It has functions including exhibition, collection, research, public education and domestic and international cultural exchange, and keeps improving its operation mechanism and organization structures with high standard of sociability, professionalism and social benefits. About the Exhibition Academic Consultant: Fan Di'an Artistic Director: Su Xinping Curatorial Advisor: Hans Ulrich ObristChief Curator: Zhang Zikang Curators: Wang Chunchen Yue Jieqiong Organizers: Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing Municipal Federation Trade Unions Co-Organizers: CAFA Art Museum, Taimiao Art Museum Chief Supporting Organization: Zhonghong Chuangyi (Beijing) Culture Development Co, Ltd.Supporting Organizations: Lisson Gallery, Galleria Continua and the British Council CAFA Art Museum | Time | 2019/10/25 - 2020/1/1Open to the public on 10/26| Opening Hours |Tuesday to Sunday 9:30-17:30（Last admission 17:00）/ Closed on Monday Taimiao Art Museum | Time | 2019/11/11-12/28| Opening Hours |9:00-17:00 daily（Last ticket purchase 16:30） Ticketing Information * All kinds of ticket can be used throughout the exhibition starting 10/26.Scan the QR code to purchase ticketEarly-bird Ticket：90 yuan（Available from 2019/10/10-10/25）Adult ticket: 120 yuanDiscount ticket: 60 yuan（Please refer to discount ticket use policy below for eligibility）Family ticket: 260 yuan（2 adults and 1 child above 120 cm）*Group ticket: Groups of 10 or more may enjoy 20% discount off original price.Visitors with union membership card may enjoy 20% discount off original price.（Group ticket only available at the CAFAM front desk）For inquiries please call: 010-64771575 | Notes | * The ticket of Anish Kapoor exhibition at CAFA Art Museum is 120 yuan. Visitors with union membership card may enjoy 20% discount off original price, and visit the Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Taimiao Art Museum for free. Visitors to Taimiao without card could buy the bell exhibition ticket for 15 yuan, and enjoy the Anish Kapoor exhibition for free. The east and west side halls of Xiang Dian are open for free. Visitors may enter with 2-yuan palace ticket.* Teachers and students of CAFA, children under 120cm (adult company is required, and the adult needs to purchase ticket), elderlies above 60, military service men and disabled people may visit the exhibition for free.* Students above 120cm (graduates students included), visitors with CAFA Alumni Card, CAFAM VIP Card, CAFAM Membership Card and Museum Association Membership Card, museum employees may purchase discount ticket.Note: Free ticket and discount ticket can be purchased and verified upon showing credentials. CAFAM reserves the right for final explanation.
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: Lecture Info | Rethinking Video Art: The Materiality and Technicality of Video Installation / Sculpture

2019-10-11

Time: Oct. 13, 2019 13:00-18:00 Place: CAFAM Lecture Hall / Conference Room
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: CAFAM Lecture Info |The Art of the Quantum Universe: Time, Consciousness and Chaos

2019-10-08

2019 Leonardo Art, Science and Technology Lecture SeriesThe Art of the Quantum Universe: Time, Consciousness and ChaosSpeaker: Paul ThomasDate: 10.10.2019 ThursdayTime: 18:30-20:00Language: English (with Chinese translation)Venue: CAFA Art MuseumCo-organized by CAFA Visual Art Innovation Institute,CAFA Center for Art and Technology, CAFA Art Museum, Chronus Art Center In collaboration with Leonardo / ISAST | About the Lecture | This talk will explore the synchronicity taking place between science and art in dealing with the speculative nature of the quantum universe. We are entering an age denoting a much broader paradigm shift away from the concrete and indivisible era towards an age defined by uncertainty. The talk is grounded in the contention that the quantum ‘turn’ in relatively recent developments of twentieth-century theoretical physics is denotative of a much broader paradigm shift in culture. The shift away from determinism and is reflected in experimental art of the modern era and into the present.The philosopher Henri Bergson, a major thinker on time at the beginning of the twentieth century, will be discussed in connection to current thinking on quantum time. Artists and scientists were attempting to visualise the invisible world in the early twentieth century. For example, Etienne Jules Marey influenced Cubism and Futurism with his chronophotographic indexical traces of movement, effectively making time visible. Since then, scientific imaging technology has advanced to where we are now: witnessing the mechanistic visualisation of the atomic world.My work as an artist contributes to this lineage. The artwork Quantum Consciousness (2016) is an audio-visualisation of atomic data that indexes the quantum "movement" of a phosphorus electron. Quantum Consciousness visualises the co-emergence of thought-data (viewer) and quantum-data (electron). The scientific research informing the work was conducted in collaboration with quantum physicist Professor Andrea Morello. Morello's research looks at controlling the spin of electrons and nuclei for the development of the processor in the quantum computer. The media artwork Quantum Chaos (2019) visualises quantum phenomena by exploring the liminal space between the classical and quantum world.The quantum world is hard to comprehend but science has revealed that it is fundamental to the core of our existence. The paradox of the quantum superposition (best articulated in the Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment) exists as an actual and empirical condition in which an electron occupies multiple positions in space simultaneously, but none specifically. This paper will ask questions relevant to artistic practice focused on quantum phenomena such as atomism, speed, time and the Epicurean swerve. | About the Speake r | Dr Paul Thomas is a Professor at University of New South Wales, Art and Design and currently the Director of the Studio for Transdisciplinary Art Research (STAR) as well as the co-chair of the Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference series 2010-2018. In 2000 he instigated and was the founding Director of the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth 2002, 2004 and 2007.His art practice takes not only inspiration from nanoscience and quantum theory, but actually operates there. Previous artworks exploring nanotechnologies and quantum phenomena have also been exhibited nationally and Internationally. ‘Quantum Consciousness’ was a visualisation of a quantum spin created from data of me reading sections of Feynman’s 1982 paper ‘Simulating Physics with Computers’, affecting the spin of a single electron. ‘Multiverse’ 2013 based on Richard Feynman’s diagrams on photons reflecting from a mirror, ‘Nanoessence’ 2009 which explored the space between life and death at a nano level and ‘Midas’ 2007 which researched what is transferred when skin touches gold. His current publication Quantum Art and Uncertainty (October 2018) and Nanoart: The Immateriality of Art (2013) are based on the concept that at the core of both art and science we find the twin forces of probability and uncertainty. He is currently editing the ‘Artist and Practice’ volume for the forthcoming ‘Encyclopedia of New Media Art’, Bloomsbury Press.《Quantum Art and Uncertainty》 (2018)The Immersive Vision TheatreTechnical support Luke ChristisonPhotography Mike PhillipsMultiverse（2012）
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: A Museum ‘Dating’ App Helps Visitors Fall in Love with Art

2019-09-27

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, America has successfully discovered a way to engage its visitors - with its new phone app that mashes up art and dating app released this Valentine’s Day.The High Museum of Art's Heartmatch appJust like its promotion slogan “Part game, part functional. It’s Tinder, but for art” described, the app named Heartmatch simply requires the user to interact with the museum’s collections like finding dates on Tinder - swipe right if they like the work, swipe right if they don’t.In order to maintain the wholesomeness of collections shown on the app without boring the users, the museum decided to show 100 works on the app, and pop up a map of the museum with all the works the user “liked” marked on it every seven images or so. The user could choose to visit now, send the map to their email as a pre-plan for later visit, or ignore the map and continue swiping.The concept was born in a meeting, where a curator of the museum suddenly came up with the idea. For the museum, engaging the visitors is not the only goal. There were three goals: First, they wanted to show on-site visitors the diversity of their collection; Second, they wanted to direct them to artworks they liked so they could experience the works in person; Third, they wanted to collect data on their visitors’ tastes. For example, the most liked works could be used in marketing materials, and the least popular works could be used in educational programming. In this way, the museum also aims to turn “swipe lefts” to “swipe rights”.In order to increase the app’s use, the museum chose to make a progressive web app instead of a native app that requires downloading. What’s more, they also directed a series of marketing efforts to it, such as producing a short video for the museum’s various social media platforms to generate excitement while showing the visitors know-how of the app; creating business cards specially of the app, to be distributed to visitors; and adding promotional signs near ticket desk, stairwells, elevators and on official website pages.Author | Julia Forbes and Ivey Rucket, High Museum of ArtSource | American Alliance of MuseumsEditor | Lu Yufan
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: CAFAM Lecture Info | Design Research Lecture Series: Sarah Teasley

2019-09-24

Two lectures of the Design Research Lecture Series - Global Design History and Urgent Issues Facing Design History - will take place at CAFA Art Museum on Sep 25 and 26.
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: CAFAM Workshop | "Liu Xian: Wood-Engraving Master" Exhibition Workshop Series

2019-09-21

Building New China, 9x10cm, Wood-engraving, 1949I would like to express my love and hatred with painting.I love art more than my life.- Liu Xian"Liu Xian: Wood-engraving Master" exhibition opens at CAFAM on September 18, 2019. Mr. Liu devoted his life to wood-engravng art, and is an artist that has made great contribution to Chinese printmaking and art in general. He not only challenged the wood-engraving art, but also created a great deal of wood-engraving works in his life. The Department of Public Education of CAFA Art Museum has planned a series of public events to interpret Mr. Liu's academic ideas.All The Other Flowers of the Hundred Flowers Blossom series, Liu Xian, Wood-engraving, 19581"Liu Xian's History with Wood-engraving" sharing sessionTime: 2019.09.20 18:30-20:00Venue: Multi-functional Conference Room, CAFAMSpeaker: Wang Renyin| About the Speaker |Ms. Wang Renyin is Mr. Liu Xian's only child. She is a researcher and promotor of Mr. Liu's work and life.| About the Session |Mr. Liu Xian is an important figure of modern Chinese art history. He persisted in wood-engraving art creation, built the root of wood-engraving in China for further development, and created many popular artworks. This session will show us Mr. Liu's art creation, and his affection for wood-engraving, from the perspective of a family member and a researcher.Note: The session is free of charge.Consolidate Unity, Fight to the End, Liu Xian, Wood-engraving, 9cm x 11cm, 19382"Flowers: From Literati's Refined Taste to Daily Life" LectureTime: 2019.09.21 10:00-12:00Venue: Multi-functional Conference Room, CAFAMSpeaker: Rao Xiang| About the Speaker |Rao Xiang, Doctor of Letters of Peking University, deputy chief editor of Wenhui Supplement of Guangming Daily, specially invited researcher at the National Muesum of Modem ChineseLiterature. His published works include the books Back to Literature Itself and On the Public Affairs and Private Emotions. He has received awards including the China News Award. He is interested in tending flowers and plants in his leisure time.| About the Lecture |In 1958, renowned poet Guo Moruo published his poem series "Hundred Flowers Blossom", chanting about one hundred flowers with one hundred poems, which echoed with the social and political situation of the time, and futher attracted painters to compete to create illustrations for the series. The People's Daily Publishing House later published the anthology of Hundred Flowers Blossom, including engraving works by Liu Xian and other artists. Why did Guo Moruo create the series? How do we examine the poems and the engravings today? Flowers seem to have a natural, close relationship with poems, paintings, literati and artists, so that art is usually connected with the flower appreciation activities. From appreciating flowers to planting them, flowers as an object of appreciation could reflect the typical desire for beauty of the people.Note: The lecture is free of charge.Mimosa of the Hundred Flowers Blossom series, Liu Xian, Wood-engraving, 1959Cockscomb of the Hundred Flowers Blossom series, Liu Xian, Wood-engraving, 19593The History of the "International Wood-Engraving"Time: 2019.09.21 14:00-16:00Venue: Multi-functional Conference Room, CAFAMSpeaker: Yang Hongwei| About the Speaker |Deputy Director of the Department of Printmaking, CAFA, professor and artist.| About the Event |Professor Yang Hongwei is a top-notch wood-engraving scholar and artist in China. The lecture will play the documentary film "International Wood-engraving" for the first time, introduce the history and development of wood-engravng, and the latest progress of the wood-engraving on the international stage, to give the audience an idea of the classic but less known art form of wood-engraving.Note: The event is free of charge.Crime and Punishment I: Moscow, Liu Xian, 9×10cm, Wood-engravingWhite Night (Work of Dostoevsky) Illustration No.6 (10 in total), 10×9cm, Wood-engraving, 1935
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: Female Artists Made Little Progress in Museums Over the Past Decade

2019-09-20

Only 11 percent of all acquisitions and 14 percent of exhibitions at 26 prominent American museums over the past decade were of work by female artists, a joint investigation by artnet News and In Other Words discovered.What rings an alarm is that although museums claim that they are embracing alternative histories and diversities, the number of works by women acquired decreased from 10 years ago. The problem is even more serious for encyclopedic museums, which collect fewer works by female than modern and contemporary museums.Barbara Kruger, Belief+Doubt, 2012, at the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden. ©Barbara Kruger. Photo: Cathy CarverThere are a number of reasons why museums have failed to increase their representation of female artists. For one thing, their work is often seen as a pursuit parallel to the authoritative art history, while many institutions held an unspoken belief that “they will only be recognized as an important institution if they acknowledge the greatest hits,” said Maxwell Anderson, the president of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation. Such bias may further be consolidated by the museums’ past collections.Another reason is a lack of research about female artists. One example is a recent study by Yale School of Art students, which discovered that although graduation rates reached parity in 1980s, female alumni were written about in books and academic publications two to three times less than their male peers.While museum collections is an important record of history, the bias in gender may have great impact on how the posterity understand the past. However, it is often challenging for curators to convince their acquisition committees to purchase the work, especially by older, overlooked female artists, who usually lack auction history that could be a reference for validation of the asking price. Moreover, as museum collections rely markedly on donated work, the museums had to go with the trend that people tend to buy male artists.For the museums, striving for parity is not only a matter of doing the right thing, or telling a more accurate history, but also a significant method to ensure their relevance and financial sustainability.“The public that you are selling to is not monolithic - it is not all white males,” commented Susan McPherson, founder of McPherson Strategies consultancy and an expert on corporate social responsibility. “So if your viewpoint is narrow, you won’t be able to grow membership and your customer base.”Opening for “Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future.” Photo: Paul Rudd © Solomon R. Guggenheim FoundationHowever, while some museums, such as the Baltimore Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, made their moves by selling works by canonized white men to diversify their collections, there are also some opposite voices, arguing that putting a gender quota on the museum’s acquisitions might lead to too much attention on gender instead of the work’s quality. Responding to this doubt, artist Micol Hebron said: “I think we are going to have conversations that are uncomfortable for a lot of people about quotas. There has been a quota of more men than women for centuries.”Source | artnetAuthor | Julia Halperin & Charlotte BurnsEditor | Lu Yufan
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: A New Definition of “Museum” Sparks International Debate

2019-09-05

The British MuseumThe forthcoming International Council of Museums (ICOM)’s 25th General Conference will witness members voting for a new museum definition. Before that, a new definition proposed by Jette Sandahl, Danish curator who leads ICOM’s commission on the new definition, has sparked international controversy.Believing that the current museum definition, adopted at ICOM’s 22nd General Assembly in Austria in 2007 (Check the definition here), lacks “language of the 21st century” by ignoring demands of “cultural democracy“, Sandahl amended the definition that reads as follows:“Museums are democratizing, inclusive and polyphonic spaces for critical dialogue about the pasts and the futures. Acknowledging and addressing the conflicts and challenges of the present, they hold artifacts and specimens in trust for society, safeguard diverse memories for future generations and guarantee equal rights and equal access to heritage for all people.Museums are not for profit. They are participatory and transparent, and work in active partnership with and for diverse communities to collect, preserve, research, interpret, exhibit, and enhance understandings of the world, aiming to contribute to human dignity and social justice, global equality and planetary wellbeing.”The proposal soon pulls criticisms, many from professionals in museology. Juliette Raoul-Duval, chair of ICOM France, denounced it as an “ideological” manifesto. Hugues de Varine, a former director of ICOM and an early upholder of the “new museology” movement in the 1970s, was reported by the Art Newspaper to be surprised by the “over inflated verbiage” of an “ideological preamble,” which does not identify a museum from a cultural center, library or laboratory.François Mairesse, professor at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle and the chair of the International Committee of Museology, also criticized the proposal as “a statement of fashionable values”, which is “much too complicated and partly aberrant“, far from a definition that is supposed to be “a simple and precise sentence characterizing an object”. She then told the Art Newspaper: “it would be hard for most French museums, starting with the Louvre, to correspond to this definition, considering themselves as ‘polyphonic spaces’.” Her opinion is shared by many critics who regard the new definition as too political and too vague for defining museums. Not only do the professionals disapprove of the new definition, as the Museums Association posted the definition on its Twitter account with a poll, there are also 62% of the 226 votes against it.ICOM also has also called for new museum definitions from the public around the world since April. While there are 269 entries listed on their website, the proposed definition was not chosen from any of these submissions but picked internally by Sandhal’s commission. The voting will take place in Kyoto, Japan on September 7.Author | Zachary SmallSource | HyperallergicEditor | Lu Yufan
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: Autism in Museums: A Revolution in the Making

2019-08-28

Diversity, equity, accessibility - these qualities of modern museums require them to attend to the needs of neurodiverse visitors and staff. Clarie Madge, founder of the UK-based Autism in Museums, shares her view on how museums should do to support autistic visitors and employees.For Madge, mother of two autistic children, it was mind blowing when her family visited the Early Birds at the Science Museum event in 2012: Opening early at 8 a.m., the event was specially designed for people with autistic spectrum, with number of visitors kept low, visual support for visitors well provided, staff all trained in autism awareness and the museum environment well attended - for example, the museum turned off loud interactive media and hand dryers in the restrooms.As a family with autistic members, it is not easy to enjoy a family day out. The fantastic experience at Science Museum made Madge realize how much the autistic families need such event, and how important it is for the museums to learn how to support autistic visitors. She then founded Autism in Museums, working with museums to make them a more accessible space for the autistic.Early Birds at the Science MuseumWhat does it mean to be autism-friendly? Firstly, the museums should avoid crowded hours, overly bright or dark galleries, loud interactive media and audio triggered without warning. They also need to highlight unwritten rules, such as what one can or cannot touch.While most museums don’t have the condition to do early opening, they can instead provide materials that allow autistic visitors to prepare in advance for a visit, so as to reduce anxiety over visiting a new place. Examples include Museum of English Rural Life’s visual story and sensory map of their galleries, collaborated with local autism groups, as well as Google Streetview tour on its website.Except from the increase of physical accessibility, it is of the same importance for museums to think about displays and interpretation of artworks, as 44-52% of autistic people have learning difficulties.Autism in Museums has by far cooperated with museums including the National History Museum and the V&A, to support their programming for autism families. Madge believes that by creating an accessible environment for the autistic people, the museums are also benefiting from it, as autistic visitors often prove to be incredibly loyal, have an intense focus on a particular topic, and are potential to be future volunteers and staff members. Author | Claire Madge, founder of Autism in MuseumsSource | American Alliance of MuseumsEdited by Lu Yufan
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Do you need any accessibility service?
Wheelchair service

Volunteer service

I agree to the Group Visit Agreement and Statement Please agree to the Group Visit Agreement.

Submit

Adult Public Education Event Reservation Form

*
Event name
*
Event time
*
*
Gender
Male

Female
*
*
*
*
*
Do you need any accessibility service?
Wheelchair service

Volunteer service

I agree to the Group Visit Agreement and Statement Please agree to the Group Visit Agreement.

Sumbit

Group Public Education Event Reservation Form

*
Event name
*
Event time
*
Group type
University

Institution

Group
*
*
*
*
Participating group type
Children

Youth

Adult

Seniors
*
*
Wheelchair service

Volunteer service

I agree to the Group Visit Agreement and Statement Please agree to the Group Visit Agreement.

Submit

Group Visit Agreement
and Statement

CAFA Art Museum Publication Authorization Agreement

I fully agree to CAFA Art Museum (CAFAM) submitting to CAFA for publication the images, pictures, texts, writings, and event products (such as works created during participation in workshops) related to me from my participation in public events (including museum member events) organized by the CAFA Art Museum Public Education Department. CAFA can publish these materials by electronic, web, or other digital means, and I hereby agree to be included in the China Knowledge Resource Bank, the CAFA Database, the CAFA Art Museum Database, and related data, documentation, and filing institutions and platforms. Regarding their use in CAFA and dissemination on the internet, I agree to make use of these rights according to the stated Rules.

CAFA Art Museum Event Safety Disclaimer

Article I

This event was organized on the principles of fairness, impartiality, and voluntary participation and withdrawal. Participants undertake all risk and liability for themselves. All events have risks, and participants must be aware of the risks related to their chosen event.

Article II

Event participants must abide by the laws and regulations of the People’s Republic of China, as well as moral and ethical norms. All participants must demonstrate good character, respect for others, friendship, and a willingness to help others.

Article III

Event participants should be adults (people 18 years or older with full civil legal capacity). Underage persons must be accompanied by an adult.

Article IV

Event participants undertake all liability for their personal safety during the event, and event participants are encouraged to purchase personal safety insurance. Should an accident occur during an event, persons not involved in the accident and the museum do not undertake any liability for the accident, but both have the obligation to provide assistance. Event participants should actively organize and implement rescue efforts, but do not undertake any legal or economic liability for the accident itself. The museum does not undertake civil or joint liability for the personal safety of event participants.

Article V

During the event, event participants should respect the order of the museum event and ensure the safety of the museum site, the artworks in displays, exhibitions, and collections, and the derived products. If an event causes any degree of loss or damage to the museum site, space, artworks, or derived products due to an individual, persons not involved in the accident and the museum do not undertake any liability for losses. The event participant must negotiate and provide compensation according to the relevant legal statutes and museum rules. The museum may sue for legal and financial liability.

Article VI

Event participants will participate in the event under the guidance of museum staff and event leaders or instructors and must correctly use the painting tools, materials, equipment, and/or facilities provided for the event. If a participant causes injury or harm to him/herself or others while using the painting tools, materials, equipment, and/or facilities, or causes the damage or destruction of the tools, materials, equipment, and/or facilities, the event participant must undertake all related liability and provide compensation for the financial losses. Persons not involved in the accident and the museum do not undertake any liability for personal accidents.

CAFA Art Museum Portraiture Rights Licensing Agreement

According to The Advertising Law of the People’s Republic of China, The General Principles of the Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China, and The Provisional Opinions of the Supreme People’s Court on Some Issues Related to the Full Implementation of the General Principles of the Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China, and upon friendly negotiation, Party A and Party B have arrived at the following agreement regarding the use of works bearing Party A’s image in order to clarify the rights and obligations of the portrait licenser (Party A) and the user (Party B):

I. General Provisions

(1) Party A is the portraiture rights holder in this agreement. Party A voluntarily licenses its portraiture rights to Party B for the purposes stipulated in this agreement and permitted by law.

(2) Party B (CAFA Art Museum) is a specialized, international modern art museum. CAFA Art Museum keeps pace with the times, and works to create an open, free, and academic space and atmosphere for positive interaction with groups, corporations, institutions, artists, and visitors. With CAFA’s academic research as a foundation, the museum plans multi-disciplinary exhibitions, conferences, and public education events with participants from around the world, providing a platform for exchange, learning, and exhibition for CAFA’s students and instructors, artists from around the world, and the general public. As a public institution, the primary purposes of CAFA Art Museum’s public education events are academic and beneficial to society.

(3) Party B will photograph all CAFA Public Education Department events for Party A.

II. Content, Forms of Use, and Geographical Scope of Use

(1) Content. The content of images taken by Party B bearing Party A’s likeness include: ① CAFA Art Museum ② CAFA campus ③ All events planned or executed by the CAFAM Public Education Department.

(2) Forms of Use. For use in CAFA’s publications, products with CDs, and promotional materials.

(3) Geographical Scope of Use

The applicable geographic scope is global.

The media in which the portraiture may be used encompasses any media that does not infringe upon Party A’s portraiture rights (e.g., magazines and the internet).

III. Term of Portraiture Rights Use

Use in perpetuity.

IV. Licensing Fees

The fees for images bearing Party A’s likeness will be undertaken by Party B.

After completion, Party B does not need to pay any fees to Party A for images bearing Party A’s likeness.

Additional Terms

(1) All matters not discussed in this agreement shall be resolved through friendly negotiation between both parties. Both parties may then sign a supplementary agreement, provided it does not violate any laws or regulations.

(2) This agreement comes into effect on the date that it is signed (sealed) and the relevant boxes are selected by Party A and Party B.

(3) This agreement exists in paper and electronic forms. The paper form is made in duplicate, with Party A and Party B each retaining one copy with the same legal efficacy.

Event participants implicitly accept and undertake all the obligations stated in this agreement. Those who do not consent will be seen as abandoning the right to participate in this event. Before participating in this event, please speak to your family members to obtain their consent and inform them of this disclaimer. After participants sign/check the required box, participants and their families will be seen as having read and agreed to these terms.

I have carefully read and agree to the above provisions.

Group Visit Agreement
and Statement

CAFA Art Museum Publication Authorization Agreement

CAFA Art Museum Event Safety Disclaimer

Article I

Article II

Article III

Event participants should be adults (people 18 years or older with full civil legal capacity). Underage persons must be accompanied by an adult.

Article IV

Article V

Article VI

CAFA Art Museum Portraiture Rights Licensing Agreement

I. General Provisions

(1) Party A is the portraiture rights holder in this agreement. Party A voluntarily licenses its portraiture rights to Party B for the purposes stipulated in this agreement and permitted by law.

(3) Party B will photograph all CAFA Public Education Department events for Party A.

II. Content, Forms of Use, and Geographical Scope of Use

(2) Forms of Use. For use in CAFA’s publications, products with CDs, and promotional materials.

(3) Geographical Scope of Use

The applicable geographic scope is global.

The media in which the portraiture may be used encompasses any media that does not infringe upon Party A’s portraiture rights (e.g., magazines and the internet).

III. Term of Portraiture Rights Use

Use in perpetuity.

IV. Licensing Fees

The fees for images bearing Party A’s likeness will be undertaken by Party B.

After completion, Party B does not need to pay any fees to Party A for images bearing Party A’s likeness.

Additional Terms

(2) This agreement comes into effect on the date that it is signed (sealed) and the relevant boxes are selected by Party A and Party B.

(3) This agreement exists in paper and electronic forms. The paper form is made in duplicate, with Party A and Party B each retaining one copy with the same legal efficacy.

I have carefully read and agree to the above provisions.

Group Visit Agreement
and Statement

CAFA Art Museum Publication Authorization Agreement

CAFA Art Museum Event Safety Disclaimer

Article I

Article II

Article III

Event participants should be adults (people 18 years or older with full civil legal capacity). Underage persons must be accompanied by an adult.

Article IV

Article V

Article VI

CAFA Art Museum Portraiture Rights Licensing Agreement

I. General Provisions

(1) Party A is the portraiture rights holder in this agreement. Party A voluntarily licenses its portraiture rights to Party B for the purposes stipulated in this agreement and permitted by law.

(3) Party B will photograph all CAFA Public Education Department events for Party A.

II. Content, Forms of Use, and Geographical Scope of Use

(2) Forms of Use. For use in CAFA’s publications, products with CDs, and promotional materials.

(3) Geographical Scope of Use

The applicable geographic scope is global.

The media in which the portraiture may be used encompasses any media that does not infringe upon Party A’s portraiture rights (e.g., magazines and the internet).

III. Term of Portraiture Rights Use

Use in perpetuity.

IV. Licensing Fees

The fees for images bearing Party A’s likeness will be undertaken by Party B.

After completion, Party B does not need to pay any fees to Party A for images bearing Party A’s likeness.

Additional Terms

(2) This agreement comes into effect on the date that it is signed (sealed) and the relevant boxes are selected by Party A and Party B.

(3) This agreement exists in paper and electronic forms. The paper form is made in duplicate, with Party A and Party B each retaining one copy with the same legal efficacy.

I have carefully read and agree to the above provisions.