Notes from Fubon Art Museum International Director Forum 富邦美術館 國際館長論壇
It was an honor to participate in the Fubon Art Museum Forum as the Founder of HAGAI Art Zine. Fubon Art Museum, designed by the renowned architect Renzo Piano, is scheduled to open in May with the first exhibition of Auguste Rodin. The museum (presumably run by the Fubon Art Foundation) education team and their museum director, Maggie Tsai, gathered six museum directors such as Eugene Tan (National Gallery Singapore, NGS), Mami Kataoka (Mori Art Museum, MAM); Kamini Sawhney (Museum of Art and Photography, MAP), Lisa Havilah (Powerhouse Museum, Powerhouse), Eun-ju Choi (Seoul Museum of Art, SeMA), and Phillip Tinari (UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, UCCA) in Taipei, on a rainy afternoon of 27th January.
Here are some of the notes I find interesting:
UCCA (China)
1. UCCA is a private enterprise registered as a non-enterprise unit. It also welcomed its new board member, a Chinese-owned investment bank, after the founder decided to sell UCCA.
2. The sale of UCCA, along with the new shareholder, requires UCCA to confront the organization’s balance sheet, meaning they have to generate sufficient income to sustain the organization.
3. Here are some ways that UCCA has adapted:
* Raising ticket prices for the audience
* Responding to market demand by making commercial collaborations an official part of its offerings — the birth of UCCA LAB: This is a specific demand in China, where many private enterprises ask UCCA to help produce/organize exhibitions for them, e.g., HUAWEI’s showcase at Paris Photo.
* Diversifying its income sources — UCCA EDGE (Shanghai), Stores, and UCCA KIDS. UCCA KIDS, in particular, brings art education not only to children but also to their parents who might be shy to admit that they don’t understand contemporary art.
* This transition has led UCCA to consider that the positioning of an “Art institution” is a better fit than the Western traditional definition of an art museum, considering its variety of art audiences and UCCA’s direction.
Museum of Art and Photography, MAP (India)
1. MAP, funded by art collector and Indian industrialist Abhishek Poddar, caters to India’s youthful demographic — where most are under 25 — necessitating a robust digital strategy in its design and construction.
2. Young Indian audiences are quite accustomed to interacting with art using digital devices (e.g., filters).
3. The digital experience of museum visits can help create a different information source for young audiences.
4. The funding itself comes from enterprise resources and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).
Powerhouse Museum (Australia)
The Powerhouse Museum is a state-funded museum. Hence, it is important for the museum to present itself as a “catalyst” for the city’s economy by emphasizing its cultural significance and influence on young people, its ability to attract visitors, and as an important factor of the visitor economy, along with its emphasis on the nighttime economy. All of these become part of the institution’s communication strategy to the city, and the visitor and nighttime economies could attract more enterprise investment.
Mori Art Museum
Art is a long-term investment — Mami Kataoka
Mami Kataoka also stressed that it is shown that people who go to art exhibitions at a young age are more likely to visit museums as an adult. Therefore, art is a long-term investment. With this in mind, Mori designed its admission policy to include free entrance for audiences who are 12 years and under, along with a youth Pass.
Fubon Art Museum
1. Fubon’s strategy for its art museum is to start from the enterprise’s employees and their family members.
2. As an enterprise-owned museum, the Fubon Art Museum will benefit from its experience as a board of trustees and acquisition committees of LACMA.
