Importance of Art Galleries and Museums - Term Paper Example

CHINESE MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY DEVELOPMENTS (Student Name) (Course Number) (University) (Date) Introduction The concept of art has been in practise since the past centuries and continues to be one of the most fascinating fields in the world today. Throughout the historic times, major artistic works have been done by the religious groups and monarchs, who provided the public with opportunities to view such product in art galleries and museums. The classical period, for instance, had the religious institutions such as the Roman Catholic Church endeavouring in artistic designs. Later in the medieval period in Europe, the concept of art was used by the monarchs in places such as the United Kingdom. Art refers to the use of human creativity in designing products such as paintings that are treasured because of their ability to spark up emotions as well as their beauty. Many artistic works are commonly exhibited in museum and art galleries which are structures that are constructed mainly for the purposes of exhibition of visual art. The most commonly displayed artistic works in galleries and museums are paintings and sculptures, although other products such as prints, collages, books and installation arts can also be shown. The art galleries and museums can also be used in hosting poetry readings, performance arts and music concerts which are audio visual. Art galleries can be broadly categorized into public and private galleries. Public galleries are commonly owned by governments with no intentions of making profits and are accessible to the public. Private galleries, on the other hand, are owned by individuals with the aim of making profits from the sale of art. In private galleries, there is the sale of the artistic objects available while, in public galleries, people are allowed to view art work and leave them in the gallery. Apart from displaying the artistic objects, art galleries and museums also have a lot of significance to the local communities and the economies of their countries as well. A primary importance of the art galleries and museums is the provision of education. Visiting museums can help learners in understanding better the theories learnt in class by interacting with the paintings and ancient sculptures. Also, art galleries and museums provide the learners with new insights to creativity as they get the urge to do some of the artistic works, thus helping students in discovering their interests. Another importance of art, galleries and museums is boosting the economies of the host nations. In many nations, art museums serve as tourist attraction sites where both domestic and international visitors stop by to see the existing works of art. This comes with a lot of revenue for the governments in terms of foreign exchange and taxes collected from the locals, thus helps in improving the economies of such countries. For instance, 85% of the foreign visitors in the United Kingdom were attracted by the wide variety of art galleries and museums within the country. Also, museums are commonly important sources of research. In countries where art museums are located, they are commonly used in research activities by individuals. Commonly, this is because of the large collection and depth of information that is commonly found in these structures. Museums also have many archives, trained professionals and scholars that are more experienced and can help individuals in research works. Museums are also important because of their social values. In countries with diverse social groups, the museums play an integral part in ensuring the continuity of the social practises of a given community. They conserve the cultural heritage of a people and display it to audience, who can learn important lessons from it. Art museums have significance in the world today because they exhibit some connection values. The collections of objects and artistic works in a museum enable the viewers to connect to them in one way or another. One way through which connections can be made is through the stories that a combination of art works may tell. Art museums have the ability to comment for instance, on the social relationships, thus giving individuals a sense of identity and sometimes, origin. Discussion Chinese Art History China is currently one of the nations that is growing rapidly in the world in terms of economy, including arts. The country has a wide variety of artistic infrastructure that is expected to spill to other regions of the developing nations in recent years. The artistic culture of China dates back to the ancient times and was influenced by the traditional Chinese dynasties as well as technological changes. The different forms of art in China today, were influenced by philosophers, teachers, politics and religion. Chinese arty began as early as the stone-age period, with the artists aiming at establishing the relationships between human beings and nature at the time. At this time, many art objects consisted of drawings and paintings of flowers, rocks, trees and animals. Migrations into China from regions such as India, West and Central Asia brought a lot of changes to the Chinese art, and new ideas were learnt from these interactions. The stone- age China was characterized by pottery, with beautiful decorations on the pots that were made. The Shang dynasty brought about the moulding of bronze materials with decorations of animals such as elephants on them. Then followed the Zhou dynasty in which the Chinese artists began to make all forms of coated boxes. However, the painting of people and landscapes came very late to China (Park, 2012, p. 51). Under the Hang dynasty, there was the massive spread of Buddhism from India to China, and the Chinese artists were able to learn Buddhism and Buddhist art styles. These also impacted greatly on the Chinese art as the sculptors also learnt to make bigger stone statues. At about the same time the Roman traders brought blown glass to the region and this enabled the Chinese artists to invent porcelain which became an interesting item for trade. Later, the discovery of the paper aided in painting. Today, the Chinese art is one of the most outstanding and fascinating with as many galleries and museums as possible. Development of museums in China The development of museums in China began in 1949 following policies by the government to nationalize cultural industries and institutions such as museums to position them in line with state socialism. The result was that the national and social governments constructed museums in line with this ideology. The Chinese Museum of Revolution was constructed after the liberation of Beijing to provide a notion of the party history. The 1950s marked the building of halls for the significant sites and leaders of the revolutionary history including cultural figures such as Lu Xun. The early exhibition styles and museum structures on the othr hand had Soviet influence. The Great Leap Forward Period saw the execution of a program, sponsored by the governments, to expand cultural institutions such as museums. The program had numerous slogans such as” museums in every county” and “museums in all communes” resulting in 865 county museums by 1958, many of which collapsed. The Great Leap Forward also led to the emergence of Beijing’s major national museums such as the military museum and the Museum of Chinese Revolution, built with the primary purpose of preparing for the tenth anniversary of the founding of Peoples Republic of China. The Cultural Revolution saw severe attack of cultural institutions such as the museums by the radicals who viewed them as storehouses for old ideas, customs, culture and habits. This led to the closure of the Museum of Chinese Revolution in 1966 as the period marked opposition of the idea of museums in China. After the Mao period, the state began construction of more museums in response to the Cultural Revolution which almost made the Chinese culture insignificant (Varutti, 2014, p. 119). In the 1980s, the government placed more importance on the museums and such as their significance in fostering spiritual civilization, passing laws to enhance the protection of museums as well as the cultural works of art. The trend in the development of museums in China has continued with the recent constructions being massive in the past decade. The role of museums was emphasized in 1982, being mentioned in the constitution, leading to the construction of the Memorial Hall of the People’s War of Resistance against Japan and the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall. Recent developments As of 2013, the most visited art museums were not in the United States or Europe but in China. During this period, China’s Beijing National Museum was rated the third most visited museum in the world, recording a total of 7.45 million visitors, a 38.7% increase from 2012. There was also a marked increase in museum tours in the Asian region from a mere 7% in 2012 to 28% with local museums such as the Zhejiang Museum in Hangzhou recording remarkable performance. This move by China is competitive for the western countries such as the United Kingdom that also has an array of museums and art galleries. One of the major developments that have taken place in China in the field of arts is the high rates of erection of museums and art galleries within the country. The Chinese government, as well as the private sector, have been involved in the massive construction of museums and galleries with over a hundred structures being put up annually. There is the expansion of the existing museums and the establishing of new museums, both corporate and public for the exhibition of the diverse cultural values of the country. By 2011, China had 3415 museums nationally, a ten -fold increase from the previous numbers in the last decade before the reform and expansion policies. Another recent development in the art gallery and museums in China is the diversification of the museums. The museums and galleries in China have been diversified, making the Chinese history and culture museums, a tip of the iceberg of the museum culture in the country. At the national, provincial and local levels in China today, the construction of comprehensive museums has increased. Niche museums are also on the rise. Examples of such museums are the corporate museums with the mandate of exhibition of the histories of private sectors or state owned companies, local culture and history museums, industry museums such as rail, tea, aviation and cartoons as well as science and technology museums. The Chinese museums and galleries have specific topical focus hence are not politically or ideologically entrenched (Blumenfield and Silverman, 2013, p. 46). An example is the Qingdao Brewery Museum, which portrays a strong public reputation of the company as well as its brand by exhibiting the long history of the company, its entrance into the global market as well as the environmental concerns. The museum, however, uses the commercial ideology of the Chinese regime suggesting that the CCP market program facilitated the growth of the company. The diversity and extensiveness of museums in China can be explained using the Nantong city, a middle level city in China with a population of approximately seven million inhabitants. The city houses close to 20 museums and memorial halls with different themes such as textiles, fork arts, kites, architecture, sports, water technology and old age. Another recent development in the Chinese art gallery and museum infrastructure is the construction of private museums. The emergence of private museums in China is attributed by the need by the noble within the country to display their collections and share them with the rest of the country. The development of the private museums have resulted from the increased entrepreneurial activities in China in the last decades. The private museums in China are commonly fine art museums, with few private history museums and social conscience museums also on the rise. The Liu Family Museum is an example of a privately owned museum in China. The other recent development in the Chinese art gallery and museum field infrastructure is the increased exhibitions of the artefacts found in these places. The growth of the museums in China has attracted both domestic and foreign visitors resulting in increased exhibitions of the products of art. The media coverage of the exhibitions has also increased in the recent years, exposing the Chinese culture, art work and technological innovations to the world. For instance in 2013, the number of exhibitions held in China increased with Zhejiang leading with 1029 followed by Jiangsu and Guangdong with 960 and 769 exhibitions in that order. The architectural designs of the museums and galleries being constructed in China is another issue of concern in the art gallery and museum infrastructure. Recently, the museums that have been built in China are the latest in terms of architectural designs and are considered as state of the art buildings. Currently, the 2008 Olympic park is being turned into a cultural site with an inherent national art museum, expected to store more than 100, 000 art work from the Chinese history. The completion of the site in 2017 is expected to make it the busiest museum in the world with an annual average of twelve million visitors. The opening up of the Chinese art galleries and museums to the world has also been a major development in this field in the recent years. Apart from the massive construction of the museums, there has also been the internationalization of the Chinese museums through both social and print media. By establishing very strong links with the western countries and hiring foreign designers to make the museums of high technology, China has been able to penetrate into the international arts markets, making Chinese museums some of the most visited museums in the world. The upgrading of the 2008 Olympic Park, for instance, was done by a French designer. Reasons for the developments One of the major reasons for the recent developments in the art gallery and museum infrastructure in China is the growth of the middle class. China, being one of the fastest developing countries currently in the world has achieved great economic development leading to the rising of the middle class within the country. This has attracted the need of cultural artefacts since most of the people have disposable incomes. The development of the art market in the region has increased the number of consumers thus causing the need to build museums to meet these demands. Another reason for the recent museum boom in China is the recognition of the significance of culture in the urban economies. One of the most important roles of culture in any nation or city is the branding of the city which makes it easy to recognize hence competitive globally (Jacobson, 2014, p.10-23). The recent proliferation of museums in China in driven by the need to have its cities compete other cities in the world and hence culture is at the heart of the motive. The branding of the different Chinese cities through the building of state of the art museums is expected to make China one of the most competitive destination of art in the international markets. Currently, many Chinese cities are increasingly using branding as an attempt to increase recognition in the world market. For instance, the opening of the Chinese Character Museum in 2009 branded Anyang city as the original home of the Chinese writing systems. Tourism is another major reason for the development of art and gallery museums in China. The country is not rich in natural heritage such as the wild animals like other Asian countries. This gave the Chinese the challenge of using the cultural practises and traditional artefacts as a way of attracting tourists to the region through the building of world class museums. The construction of museums and increased exhibitions have helped the country in noticing dramatic changes in both local and domestic tourism, with the Chinese museums being rated as the third most visited museums in the world. The development of museums in China recently is also attributed to the city building operations that have taken place in China in the recent years. Museums and galleries are used as landmarks for the development of new towns and cities in China in the same way that churches and town halls are used in citing new cities in the western countries. For instance, the construction of the Power Station of Art and the China Art Museum in Shanghai were due to the development of former World Site Expo in the region (Li and Luo, 2011, p. 160) The development and diversification of art gallery and museums in China recently gas also been facilitated by economic competition. This is attributed widely to the realization that for effective competition with other cities in the world, there is the need for China to have outstanding competitive features including landmarks such as museums. This way, the country is able to attract both local and foreign investors, hence improve its capacity of economic growth. Gaining a competitive advantage in the world market requires that the cities have special brands that can outstand in the global market place. Implications on the international art and museum world One of the implications of the recent developments in the art gallery and museum field in China to the international museum world is increased competition in the global market. The increased proliferation of art gallery museums in China has increased its competition in the world market, making it one of the most attractive museum destinations in the world. The increase in the number of museums in China has made the country more competitive, being ranked the third most visited country in the world because of its many and diverse museums. This portrays high competition for countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States that for a long time have been dominating the international arts market. Internationalization of the art galleries and museums in China is also likely to sell the Chinese culture and traditions, increasing the income for the country hence making it outstand globally in terms of artistic work and culture. The increased participation of the Chinese artists in international art fairs has the potential to expose the Chinese culture and narrative skills to the world, making it a centre of artistic works in the world. This way, the Chinese government is able to earn foreign exchange from the museums and galleries, making it competitive in the world of arts. The increase in contemporary and private museums in China also has great implications on the international world of art. As opposed to many countries in the world where the museums and galleries are publicly owned, the Chinese government has encouraged the development of private and contemporary museums. This way, the Chinese government encourages the private sector to invest in museums, thus promoting the Chinese culture not only through the traditional and historic museums, but also through private investment hence expanding the Chinese niche in the global arts market. The diversification of the Chinese museums and gallery is another major threat to the international world of arts. As opposed to the artistic developments in other areas of the world, China has taken a different path by encouraging the diversification of museums. In China today, as a part of the recent developments in the field of arts, there has been an increase in the variety of museums, each having very specific themes that they make accessible to the public. Examples of such museums in China include; the science and technology museums, local culture and history museums as well as contemporary museums. These diversifications are most likely to place China at the top of the other countries, especially the western countries such as the United Kingdom that have for a long time dominated the world of arts. Conclusion With close reference to the above discussion, it is evident that the recent Chinese investment in the expansion of arts through building of museums in almost all towns within the country is a strategic move towards achieving an international status in art gallery and museumification. With these museums attracting many visitors from all over the world today, it is important that plans be put in place to hold the museums in the intended standards, with much importance being tagged to the operations of the museums rather than just putting up big structures with unique architecture. References Blumenfield, T., & Silverman, H. (2013). Cultural heritage politics in China. New York, NY, Springer, p 46. Jacobson, C. (2014). New museums in China, p. 10-23. Li, X., & Luo, Z. (2011). China's museums. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, p. 160. Park, J. P. (2012). Art by the book: painting manuals and the leisure life in late Ming China. Seattle [Wash.], University of Washington Press, p.51. Varutti, M. (2014). Museums in China. The politics of representation after Mao. Woodbridge, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, p. 119. . Read More

Also, museums are commonly important sources of research. In countries where art museums are located, they are commonly used in research activities by individuals. Commonly, this is because of the large collection and depth of information that is commonly found in these structures. Museums also have many archives, trained professionals and scholars that are more experienced and can help individuals in research works. Museums are also important because of their social values. In countries with diverse social groups, the museums play an integral part in ensuring the continuity of the social practises of a given community.

They conserve the cultural heritage of a people and display it to audience, who can learn important lessons from it. Art museums have significance in the world today because they exhibit some connection values. The collections of objects and artistic works in a museum enable the viewers to connect to them in one way or another. One way through which connections can be made is through the stories that a combination of art works may tell. Art museums have the ability to comment for instance, on the social relationships, thus giving individuals a sense of identity and sometimes, origin.

Discussion Chinese Art History China is currently one of the nations that is growing rapidly in the world in terms of economy, including arts. The country has a wide variety of artistic infrastructure that is expected to spill to other regions of the developing nations in recent years. The artistic culture of China dates back to the ancient times and was influenced by the traditional Chinese dynasties as well as technological changes. The different forms of art in China today, were influenced by philosophers, teachers, politics and religion.

Chinese arty began as early as the stone-age period, with the artists aiming at establishing the relationships between human beings and nature at the time. At this time, many art objects consisted of drawings and paintings of flowers, rocks, trees and animals. Migrations into China from regions such as India, West and Central Asia brought a lot of changes to the Chinese art, and new ideas were learnt from these interactions. The stone- age China was characterized by pottery, with beautiful decorations on the pots that were made.

The Shang dynasty brought about the moulding of bronze materials with decorations of animals such as elephants on them. Then followed the Zhou dynasty in which the Chinese artists began to make all forms of coated boxes. However, the painting of people and landscapes came very late to China (Park, 2012, p. 51). Under the Hang dynasty, there was the massive spread of Buddhism from India to China, and the Chinese artists were able to learn Buddhism and Buddhist art styles. These also impacted greatly on the Chinese art as the sculptors also learnt to make bigger stone statues.

At about the same time the Roman traders brought blown glass to the region and this enabled the Chinese artists to invent porcelain which became an interesting item for trade. Later, the discovery of the paper aided in painting. Today, the Chinese art is one of the most outstanding and fascinating with as many galleries and museums as possible. Development of museums in China The development of museums in China began in 1949 following policies by the government to nationalize cultural industries and institutions such as museums to position them in line with state socialism.

The result was that the national and social governments constructed museums in line with this ideology. The Chinese Museum of Revolution was constructed after the liberation of Beijing to provide a notion of the party history. The 1950s marked the building of halls for the significant sites and leaders of the revolutionary history including cultural figures such as Lu Xun. The early exhibition styles and museum structures on the othr hand had Soviet influence. The Great Leap Forward Period saw the execution of a program, sponsored by the governments, to expand cultural institutions such as museums.

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