Delegation of Mysterious Shu Culture Went to the USA for Inspection
Release Time: 2017-11-01
From Dec. 5 to Dec. 14, 2013, a delegation of 3 members from Sichuan Administration of Cultural Heritage went to USA for a discussion and determination on the exhibition site, exhibition design, collection inventory and delivery, installation and moving-out and popularization for the “Mysterious Shu Culture 2014-2015”. The Curator Assistant of the Museum and the director Wang Fang from the Display Design Department were in them.
During the 9-day investigation, the delegation visited the Bowers Museum in California and Houston Museum of Natural Science in Texas, the two borrowers for an on-site inspection of its environment, facilities, security and display level. The well arranged exhibitions, superior environment, sound facilities and solid security have left a deep impression on the delegation as they were completely in accordance with the requirements of Sanxingdui and Jinsha. During the inspection, the delegation also had an informal discussion with the principals of both museums, and professionals from their departments of collection preservation, marketing and exhibition education. The whole discussion was around the cultural and historical background of ancient Shu, features of cultural relics, disclosure of highlights, exhibition instruction, popularization and exhibit packaging and transportation, organization of cultural and creative products.
For better understanding on the cultural relics, before leave, staffs of the Museum prepared an Inventory of Cultural Relics and a Delivery Procedures of Cultural Relics in Chinese and English for the delegation as well as HP digital disk which gave a detailed description to the features, storage and micro-environment protection. Such a meticulous job has been highly recognized and praised by the museums, as said by the curator of Bowers Museum: “amongst all the cooperation he had before, this time, the materials were prepared the most sufficient and detailed; the curator of Houston Museum of Natural Science, who has been engaged in this field for 40 years, also made the same comment. Those materials have played a significant guiding role for the future preparation of both museums.
In addition to the two museums above, the delegation also visited some other museums with own features and themes (arts, site, special, children), including J. Paul Getty Museum, Bowers Museum for Children, Houston Aerospace Museum, Children’s Museum of Houston and San Diego Museum of the Ancient Town of Mexico, so that it had a better understanding on USA museums which are all “people oriented”. Their high-level exhibition design and manufacturing, volunteer programs have impressed the delegation deeply.
The inspection was highly cared by the Consulate General of China in the local that Liu Jian, the Consul General of Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles attended the merry Christmas party at Bowers Museum. Ms. Cai Lian, the leaving cultural counselor and Mr. Yang Song, the new counselor of Consulate-General of China in Houston met the delegation in the hotel they checked in for more information on the exhibition and expressed their supports, and wishes that the exhibition would be regarded as a chance to popularize the Chinese culture and enhance Sino-USA exchange in culture.
The 9-day inspection was properly arranged that the mission was completed and the delegation also learned and benefited a lot from USA museums. In the future, they would apply those experience in the management and practice of the Museum to achieve the prosperity of museum undertakings in Sichuan Province.
Information Linkage:
The Bowers Museum is an art museum located in Santa Ana, Orange County, South California, built by the merchant prince Charles W. Bowers with his wife at the beginning of the 20th Century to repay the society. Occupying 3, 3000 square feet, the Museum enjoys a history of over 70 years as the largest and longest one in the local, and a minor engaged in studying humans through arts. Permanent collections have exceeded 85.000, mostly covering the pre-Columbian era, native Americans and artworks from Africa and the Pacific Rim. Its positioning and preservation facilities contributed a lot to its capability to arrange world exhibitions and keep collection. Established in 1936 as a community-oriented museum, it went through transformation in 1980s and became a window through which the natives at South California look into the world. 2006 marks its 70th anniversary. Like a tree growing, Bowers has held many exhibitions with world museums in the past decade relying on its rich collections, including 13 in partnership with museums of Beijing, Nanjing, Tibet, Shanghai, Xinjiang and Shaanxi. Now it has turned to a key window to popularize the Chinese culture in USA. Its visitors consist of 95% Non-Asian Americans and 5% ethnic Chinese, amongst which, 6,000 are members and others are groups of the aged and students.
Houston Museum of Natural Science is the largest museum located on the northeastern border of Hermann Park, close to the bronze statue at Sam Houston and the foundation at the conjunction of Main Street and Montrose. Its fixed exhibitions cover the earth, space, chemistry, bacteria and microorganisms, gems and minerals, energy and wildlife in Texas, of which, the Germs is a highlight that every visitor shall never miss. The Energy part gives information on how petroleum is formed. The Cockrell Butterfly Center is a 3-storey round building where thousands of butterfly specimen are displayed. Moreover, the museum's permanent displays included a space museum, an Egypt museum, a IMAX theater. The special exhibition areas are in extensive cooperation with world museums to launch exhibitions in great varieties and elaborate design, so as to make them more vivid and lifelike, more shocking and more interesting.
