Rural Museums: Past, Present, and Future.

Ke Art Museum, Shanghai. Courtesy of ARTouch Consulting.

We are thrilled to invite you to the international symposium Rural Museums: Past, Present, and Future, that will take place at Ke Art Museum, Shanghai, on November 18, 2018.

Located in ubiquitous Asian wild rice fields of Qingpu District – the western-most suburban district of China’s Shanghai Municipality - the newly-established Ke Art Museum has been labeled the most beautiful in rural China because of its elegant architecture modeled on classical Chinese garden design. This privately funded institution aims to bring a new discourse to China’s museum building boom along with the country’s rapid urbanization and ambitious soft power initiative.

Over the past few years, an average of 100 new museums annually have opened their doors in China. Like most resources in the country, the distribution and growth of such museum explosion has been highly polarized, with urban areas dominant. Rooted in its beautiful green landscape, the Ke Art Museum is non-for-profit and free to all and has a particular mission statement to encourage the attendance of local residents, who rarely visit art museums, in order to rebalance this cultural elitism. The curatorial team expects to revitalize “田” (tián, Chinese character and radical, the pictographic representation of a field) in today’s society, through a series of exhibitions and programs.

With speakers from the UK, Japan and China, the symposium of Rural Museums: Past, Present, and Future will explore the unique characteristics and current models of rural museums, shed light on successful global practices, discuss the role of rural museums in placemaking and local development, and forecast the trend and development pattern of rural museums. The symposium will also bridge the dialogue of “Western Model, Chinese Way”, to find the most suitable development plan for Ke Art Museum, based on individual’s expertise and experiences.

ARTouch Consulting is proud to invite experts from the UK to share their insights in China:

                From Private Collection of Rural Art to Rural Collection of Public Art:

                Andrew Kalman, Owner of Crane Kalman Gallery with family collection of folk art displayed in Compton Verney, UK.

                Beyond the Capital: The Role of the Museum Outside the Metropolis:

                Chris Stephens, Director of the Holburne Museum, Bath, UK.

                What is a rural museum? Exploring the landscape and sustainability of ‘rural’ museums in the UK and China in the 21st century:

                Katie Hill, Director of the Office of Contemporary Chinese Art, Oxford, UK.

Date: November 18, 2018

Venue: Ke Art Museum, No 428 Jintian Road, Liantang town, Qingpu district, Shanghai, China.