Culture

Cultural awakening for director of art museum

By Li Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-22 07:58

Wang Limei, director of the Beijing World Art Museum, stands beside a Roman sculpture. [Zou Hong / China Daily]

"Can you hear running water?" asked Wang Limei, director of the Beijing World Art Museum, as she walked into the exhibition hall showcasing Mesopotamian culture.

"This is jewelry from the Royal Cemetery of Ur, a famed head of Gudea. This is an inlaid column from Tell al Ubaid, which is very rare, even in Iraq," said Wang."All of them are on loan for free."

Referring to her management position at the museum, the country's first to display art items from around the world, she said:"I was a little worried when I first took on the role."

Working at the State Administration of Cultural Heritage for more than 30 years, and responsible for international cultural exchanges, Wang, 59, has traveled abroad frequently and organized numerous large-scale exhibitions of Chinese artifacts to other countries.

When she started her career at the dusty museum in 2006, she took a fresh approach and decided to showcase Western treasures to Chinese art lovers."They were surprised at my idea of holding a world art museum in China," Wang said.

But art owners responded positively to the idea of showcasing the world's art to China's young generations, and free loans of artifacts flooded from such places as US and Italy.

"They trusted me and shared the same passion I had for cultural heritage," Wang said."Their support has been selfless."

As a specialist of Ming and Qing dynasties, Wang needed to start from scratch to master the field of world art.

"Before I could ask for help, I needed to have an idea of the exhibition, such as the theme and how it would look. I needed to know what was required. This was a real challenge."

It pushed her to read around the subject. She flew through books on planes and her two offices became submerged in textbooks.

"Attractive artifacts are a must for every exhibition, and I choose them according to my years of experience," she said.

In 2006, the museum organized its first exhibition, Italian Renaissance Art .Following a range of high rate exhibitions and after five years of preparation, an idea, based on the Qin and Han Dynasties and Roman civilization, was born to bring two ancient empires back to life after two thousand years in 2009.

She invited experts from China and Italy to develop the story.

"Although there was a great gap in culture and distance, after 12 rounds of discussion, we finally agreed on the direction.

The exhibition is now running on a world tour, visiting Milan this month and Rome in September," she said.

However, ashortage of visitors continues to be a key concern for the museum.

"Though we are academically recognized in cultural circles, the average person does not want to come to our museum," she said.

"Promotion helps bring in a few visitors but the key issue is a public lack of knowledge about world art."I hope all our exhibitions can provide an education."

Instead of just displaying objects, the museum also provides various services such as lectures, instructors, prints, videos and detailed demonstrations, to offer a multi-sensory feast for visitors, Wang said.

She is now preparing for three exhibitions from next May, showcasing international sculptures lent by the Mexico museum, the Prez Simn Collection, from the 18th and 19th century and European artworks from the 16th to 19th century, provided by the Italian museums.

The museum will close for maintenance from September to April next year.