China, U.S. museum leaders gather in Chicago for more cooperation

CHICAGO, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Museum leaders from China, the United States and Canada gathered Wednesday at the Field Museum in downtown Chicago to seek more exchanges and cooperation.

Under the theme of "Now/Next: Make an Impact Together," leaders from more than 20 museums in China, the United States and Canada exchanged views on topics such as "Museum Collaboration during the New Globalization Era: Opportunities and Challenges," "Exhibiting Asian Art and Culture in the East and West," "Research and Exhibiting the Art and Archaeology Collections: Collaborations between Museums and Academia" and "AI, the New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of Museums" at the Pritzker China-U.S. Museum Leadership Forum.

The Pritzker Art Collaborative and the Chinese Museums Association, the U.S. and Chinese sponsors of the forum, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the forum, aiming to further promote exchanges among the museums in the two countries.

In his welcome and opening speech, David Pritzker, director and chief curator of the Pritzker Art Collaborative, said the aim of hosting the forum is to build trust and collaboration, as "the best way to build trust is to have shared experience."

The Pritzker Art collaborative was originally created to collaborate with the Dunhuang Academy. "During that time we became very close with a number of museums around China and also with the Chinese Museums Association," Pritzker said.

By signing the MOU, "we would like to organize more events to bring museum directors in the U.S. and in China together to speak, to share, to get to know one another," Pritzker said. "The Pritzker Art collaborative can be a bridge to try to make it happen."

"Museums are windows for the learning of civilizations," said Chinese Consul General Wang Baodong in Chicago in his opening remarks. "The forum is a highlight of the China-U.S. cultural dialogue."

"We firmly believe that the improvement and development of China-U.S. relations are the common wishes of the people of the two countries," wang said.

A program has been funded jointly by the China Museums Association and the Tencent Foundation to bring Chinese museum professionals to the United States for fellowships from six months to one year.

Douglas Dillon, chairman of the Department of Asian Art of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, expressed the hope that U.S. museum professionals may go to China in the future to get a better understanding of Chinese museums.

"Chinese museums are developing very fast, in the way they display and the method they restore relics. There are lots that we can learn," Dillon said.