Various and Colorful Activities Held Around China to Celebrate International Museum Day

To celebrate the 2012 International Museum Day, various and colorful activities were held around the country.Here attached are just a few, enjoy!

1. Fujian Provincial Museum, Fuzhou, Fujian Province

Temporary Exibitions: Smiling terracotta figures—the Underground Realm of Emperor Hanjing

Hanyang Mausoleum is the tomb of both Liu Qi, the fourth emperor of Xihan dynasty, and his queen. The exhibition displays 120 articles of cultural relics from Hanyang Mausoleum, including terracotta warriors, animal’s clay figures, utensils and so on. The exhibition will be a miniature of the society in Xihan dynasty.

2. The Museum of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Guangxi Museum), Nanning, Guangxi Autonomous Region

On International Museum Day, after the opening ceremony of Cultural Relics Protection Promotion, the museum organized some cultural performances on the square in front of the Guangxi Museum.

Meanwhile, inside the museum building there was a verification of cultural relics. Experts in various fields of the museum were invited to provide consulting service on verification of relics, preservation of cultural relics, relic-maintenance, relevant legislation and so on.

Guangxi museum cooperated with more schools and social communities, inviting more children of migrant workers to visit Guangxi Museum in the future, and carried out more donation activities, in order to give those children more chances to experience museum culture. Besides, there are also some activities such as lottery-attached interlocution, and Teenagers’ Photo Competition and temporary exhibitions to enrich exhibition content.

3. Liaoning Provincial Museum, Shenyang, Liaoning

These two competitions," Approach to history, the treasures of my heart -- essay competition of pupils "and " Approach to history,the treasures of my heart -- crafts competition of pupils " were organized by Liaoning Provincial Museum, encouraging all the pupils in Liaoning to participate.  The theme of their works should be focused on artifacts conserved in the museum. On April 15th, all excellent works were awarded and exhibited in Liaoning Museum.

4. The Palace Museum, Beijing

On the morning of May 18, 2012, ten volunteers were gathered at the Jianting Square of The Palace Museum,interpreting and disseminating the history of Cultural relics for the passer-bys. The interpretation includes the history of pottery, one of China’s name card, “the delicacy of clocks in the Palace Museum”, “folding screen of the forbidden city” and so on. The activity were extended to communities and schools to gain an extensive social impact.

Consulting activity: To provide necessary consulting services for the audiences, the stuffs disseminated cards to all the audiences, which introduce the history, architecture and also the map of the Palace Museum. 

5. Shanxi Museum, Taiyuan

On May 17, 2012, the "Exhibition of Calligraphy and Painting Works by Famous Shanghai-style Artists" opened to the public. Over 70 pieces of artwork by famous calligraphers and painters, including Ren Bonian, Ren Xiong, Zhang Xiong, Xu Gu, Pu Hua, Zhao Zhiqian and Wu Changshuo, were shown. The exhibition will last for 50 days.

On May 18, the Museum Day of 2012, a photography exhibition themed "I Love Museum" was held, showing all the participant works selected from the public-oriented photography competition with the same theme. Experts, visitors and internet users were welcome to vote for the prize-winners. The final list of the awarded will be announced at the awarding ceremony to be held on June 9, 2012.

6. Shaanxi History Museum, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province

Exhibition and education activity

1. The opening ceremony of the “Digital Museum” of Shaanxi Museums

The “Digital Museum” exhibited the digital construction, display, conservation and exchanges on collections of museums in Shaanxi. It is displayed as 10 parts, including exhibition on cultural relic collections, exchanges for museum professionals, national movable cultural heritage and so on.

2. Education activity on “Tour for finding its cultural routes of Shaanxi History Museum”

This activity is based on “dragon year culture” and “the lifestyles of ancient Chinese” with a list of activities to enhance the awareness of middle and primary school students for Chinese culture and encourage their DIY ability. A PPT will be shown to the students illustrating the evolution of Chinese character. The organizers will lead the students to a visit the museum and learn the songs about dragon.

7. Suzhou Museum, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province

Forum : The sixth session of forum of Museum Directors, Suzhou

Theme:  New Challenges and New Inspirations Encountered by Museums

This forum is jointly organized by Suzhou Museum and Suzhou Association of Museums, aiming to provide a stage for museum directors to share views on new changes and new ideas on museum development.    

8. Hunan Provincial Museum, Changsha, Hunan Province

Around this year's theme of “Museums in a Changing World: New challenges, New inspirations”, Hunan Provincial Museum plans to hold a series of events on “Imagine the museum in the future”, in the hope of, through the platform of new media, widening the range of museum education, helping the public to better understand the theme of IMD and inspiring the people, especially students to explore and experience the museum in new way.

Events:

1. Leading the audience to preview the new Hunan Provincial Museum after renovation through volunteer docents’ interpretation

2. Organizing the children of rural migrant workers in cities to visit the museum and attend colorful exhibition-based activities.

3. Disseminating knowledge about the International Museum Day in such interactive platforms as website, microblog, etc.