Plight at the museums

More than 30 higher education institutions have banded together in a bid to improve and develop the cultural repositories of the nation's universities.

Shortly after the China Design Museum was inaugurated on the Xiangshan Campus of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, the capital of East China's Zhejiang province, locals and fans of fine art from further afield have all had to endure long queues to enter the institution.

The scenario is not common for a museum of a Chinese college, and it has received more than 200,000 visits since it opened its doors in April.

Described by Xu Jiang, president of the CAA, as "China's first museum with a systematic collection of original Western modern design work", the museum houses more than 7,000 exhibits reflecting modern Western design－including 350 original design pieces from the Bauhaus, the world-famous German design school which was active from 1919 to 1933－which were bought by Hangzhou city government in 2011.

It is also home to myriad samples of Western fashion design and numerous film posters.

However, it seems that, only a few months later, the popularity of this extraordinary museum has abated somewhat: Most of its galleries look empty, except for some scattered visitors－mostly art students and teachers.

It's not just the chilly December weather that's to blame, and it has prompted the question from many Chinese universities: How do they make their museums more appealing to the public over the long term?

Earlier this month, delegates from more than 30 higher education institutions from all over the country gathered at the CAA to attend the annual conference for development of university museums in China.

According to Luo Jing, a department director in charge of museum development under the National Cultural Heritage Administration, there are over 400 museums in China's universities which have their own museum, and each one, on average, attracts less than 50,000 visits a year.

In comparison, China has about 5,100 registered non-university based museums nationwide, that, in 2017, held over 20,000 exhibitions which attracted over 900 million visits according to the administration's statistics.

"There's huge potential to make full use of the resources in the university museums," says Luo. "However, much more work needs to be done."

Luo cites a survey which reported the embarrassing statistic that about 70 percent of the country's university museums hold just three exhibitions, or fewer, a year.

"I've seen an extreme case where one museum didn't change its exhibition for 15 years," says Luo.

"A college museum should serve as a place to display its most recent research achievements," Luo says. "It should be mixed into the general development of the university."