Expo Site to Become Cultural Center

Two brand-new art museums are to be housed in former Expo sites along the Huangpu River.

The former China Pavilion on the Pudong side will become home to a museum of modern art and the former Pavilion of the Future on the Puxi side will become a contemporary art museum, said Zong Ming, deputy director of publicity from the Shanghai municipal Party committee.

"Shanghai’s museum system will be complete with the addition of these two new museums," said Zong. "As we will have museums for ancient art, contemporary art and modern art."

Trial exhibitions at the two museums are planned for Oct 1, 2012.

Most exhibits for the modern art museum will come from the Shanghai Art Museum with the rest sourced from the China Pavilion, said Qian Zhiguang, the China Pavilion department director who has worked at the pavilion since 2009.

"The collection at the contemporary art museum will be completely new," he said.

The modern art museum will have 70,000 square meters of exhibition space, while the contemporary art museum will have 15,000, according to Pang Jie, spokeswoman for the Expo Shanghai Group, which has been operating site since the Expo ended.

Rumors that the Shanghai Art Museum might move from People’s Square in the city center to the Expo site emerged a few months ago and there were concerns that it might affect the number of people visiting the museum. But Lu Huan, curator from Shanghai Art Museum, said that there were many advantages.

"The biggest advantage is the huge exhibition space. Shanghai Art Museum is about 6,000 square meters while the new modern museum is almost 12 times bigger," said Lu. "Of course there will be challenges at the beginning, but it also means new opportunities and more space for experiments."

Lu said the museum might also benefit from a less retail-focused location.

"You have to remember the original intention for the venues after the Expo was for commercial activities, so it is admirable that they have decided to turn income into expense."

Cody Liu, curator assistant of the private-owned museum Minsheng Art Museum, said the area will become identified as an area for the arts as at least three private modern or contemporary museums plan to locate in Pudong.

"Rome wasn’t built in a day and you definitely shouldn’t expect a sudden explosion of arts atmosphere. But just be patient," she said.