Shanghai Museum Plans O.C. Outpost
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| Shanghai Museum |
The Shanghai Museum has announced an agreement to open its first overseas branch at the Bowers Museum, Santa Ana. This will take the form of a collaboratively built permanent gallery for ancient Chinese art.
The two institutions have been collaborating since 2007, when the Bowers presented "Treasures from Shanghai: 5000 Years of Chinese Art and Culture." Loans of art from Shanghai and other Chinese institutions have since been an ongoing feature at the Bowers, with the long-term current installation "Ancient Arts of China: A 5000 Year Legacy." A reprise loan of the popular "Terracotta Warriors" is planned for this summer. It's not immediately clear how the new deal will change things.
Nor is it clear why the Shanghai Museum, if it is set on a global franchise, would pick Santa Ana. The China Daily explains that the city is "near Irvine town, 60 miles from the Los Angeles International Airport, providing easy access to global tourists."
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| Bowers Museum, Santa Ana. Photo: Eric Stoner |
Comments
Outposting a major Chinese museum in Santa Ana is ridiculous. The rationale, because it is "near Irvine town, 60 miles from the Los Angeles International Airport, providing easy access to global tourists," represents a failure to think through.
The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, as far as I'm aware, is the only excellent source in the state for ancient Chinese art. Los Angeles, and visitors, would benefit far more greatly than Santa Ana from access to a collection of Shanghai's quality.
Where do they find these people?
Technically correct, but the way those two words is used is quirky. BTW, a lot of Chinese expatriates or other Asians, including on visas, reside in the city (or town) of Irvine, along with many based in the San Gabriel Valley.
There are master-planned housing developments in China that have been made to look like parts of California, France, Britain.
I don't know how the Bowers displays artworks ("The museum's largest collections are in...Native American art, Pre-Columbian art, Asian art, art of the Pacific, art of Africa and Orange County history"), but the way that the new building of LACMA will handle collections from China and Korea, etc, is another reason why I pause about how Michael Govan (vis-a-vis Peter Zumthor) designed the Geffen Galleries in relationship to the Joe Price, Broad and Resnick buildings.
I wonder if the museum in Shanghai likes mixing contemporary art with, say, things like terracotta warriors made centuries ago? The Huntington is doing that and LACMA - even worse - does that based on race/gender/nationality.
Over 40% of Irvine's population is Asian, although not necessarily Chinese, while its white population is over 30%. Regardless, the subject of race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, etc, has become oddly way too self-conscious.
As for a museum in Orange County I rarely hear about, I notice the Marciano Art Foundation's collection in an old Masonic Temple several miles east of LACMA is still rattling on. After their flair-up with staff in 2019 claiming the museum wasn't paying them enough, I thought the place for the past 6 years had been mothballed. In fact, they're now doing things like a special multimedia exhibition organized with two other cultural institutions in LA.
Incidentally, some museums or non-profit organizations not only don't pay good salaries, they have on-site workers who come in as volunteers.