Museums: Do "big schools" and tell "good stories"

In the Xingyao Museum in Lincheng County, Hebei Province, Zhang Zhizhong, the representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage project of "Xingyao Ceramic Firing Technique", introduced the Xing porcelain collection to the students who visited the museum. Photo by Liu Yiming/Guangming Pictures

【Ask the people's livelihood】

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the National Museum is bustling with people. Enjoying cultural relics exhibits with your family and celebrating the New Year in the museum has become the "New Year custom" of Li Danyang, a beijing girl after the 90s. "The whole family is a lover of culture and literature, and the Spring Festival has seen more than a dozen exhibitions in one breath, and the harvest is full." She said.

According to the data, by the end of 2020, the number of museums on record in the country reached 5788, achieving the goal of having an average of one museum per 250,000 people. However, uneven levels of development remain prominent problems. "Net red" museums are hard to find, and some niche museums are full of surprises.

A museum is a "big school". How should museums revitalize the "bottom of the family" and give back to the audience with more exciting exhibitions? How to "break the circle" with strength and tell the Chinese story in a more creative form? The deputies and members have many suggestions and opinions on this.

1. Curating, making a fuss about heart and affection

The soul of the museum is the collection. Deputy Wei Xuefeng, chief expert of the Sichuan Museum, pointed out that the current problem of "a thousand exhibitions and one side" reflects the dilemma of insufficient renewal of cultural relics collections. "The problem of cultural relics in museums needs to be solved urgently." Deputy Wei Xuefeng explained that since many museums and archaeological institutes were "separated" in the 1980s, the collections of some museums have not been updated in the past 40 years. He suggested that the national cultural relics department should solve this problem from the system, open up blockages in the allocation and transfer of cultural relics, and promote the timely renewal of museum collections in various places.

Collection is only the first step, how to present the collection to the audience more accurately and more wonderfully, also tests the vision and ability of museum workers. Lu Chenglong, director of the Artifacts Department of the Palace Museum, has a deep understanding of this point: "Curation should be based on research, especially the identification and generation of cultural relics, if the research is not in-depth enough, it may mislead the audience." He introduced that in 2021, the Palace Museum Ceramics Museum reopened, through two-dimensional codes, micro-videos, exhibition panels and other forms to introduce porcelain appreciation knowledge, excavate and display the story behind the cultural relics, is a good attempt.

To plan an exhibition that the audience likes to hear, it is necessary to "make a fuss" with heart and affection. Wu Weishan, member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of the National Art Museum of China, has selected the article "Uncle Lei Feng, Where Are You" in the human-taught version of the language textbook. On March 5 this year, on the anniversary of Lei Feng, the National Art Museum of China held a poetry recitation of the same name, printing the sculpture image into a card and distributing it to the audience. "We have created the 'Beauty Of The Beautiful Moment' column, using more than 130,000 collections to tell Chinese stories at important time points such as the festival and the Beijing Winter Olympics, and practice has proved that the reputation of the spread is very high." Member Wu Weishan introduced.

2. "Cloud Exhibition" allows more people to enjoy the beauty of art

In recent years, the "cloud exhibition", "cloud punch card" and "cloud experience" have flourished, meeting the needs of the audience to visit the exhibition without leaving home, and also making the good exhibition "never end".

The "cloud exhibition" that impressed Guo Yuanyuan, deputy dean of the School of Culture and Communication of the Capital University of Economics and Business, is a large exhibition of Dong Qichang's calligraphy and painting art planned by the Shanghai Museum. "In addition to displaying calligraphy and painting works, the 'Cloud Exhibition' also uses animation, tree diagrams and other technologies to show Dong Qichang's life trajectory and 'circle of friends', and wearing VR glasses can also drill into his 'Eight Views of Qiuxing' to play, which is interesting with the offline exhibition."

Once received 30,000 visitors a day at its peak, now that the epidemic prevention and control is normalized, the daily visit volume of the National Art Museum of China is limited to less than 1,800 people, how to let more people enjoy the beauty of art? "'Going to the clouds' is the trend of the times." Member Wu Weishan said, "We have put many large-scale exhibitions and special exhibitions from 2004 to today on the website, which not only extends the vitality of the artwork, but also allows beauty to subtly integrate into the genes of our cultural self-confidence." ”

"Using digital technology to showcase cultural heritage makes 'no walls' museums possible." "Cloud exhibition" is not simply equivalent to digitalization. Deputy Wei Xuefeng pointed out, "At present, most of the 'cloud exhibitions' are relatively single in presentation, and the content mining is not deep enough. In the future, with the further improvement of network information technology, the audience's demand for visual and aesthetic experience will also increase, which is a very important topic for the majority of museums. ”

3. Cultural creation should emphasize innovation, deep excavation, and strong guidance

Nowadays, cultural and bo programs such as "Shangxin Forbidden City" are out of the circle, national style makeup and costumes are sought after, and archaeological blind boxes are sold out... National tide fashion, cultural and creative IP, cross-border cooperation, etc. have given the cultural and expo circle a new atmosphere.

As the "top stream" of wenbo IP, the cultural creation of the Forbidden City has attracted wide attention. "In the process of product research and development, we must carry forward the excellent traditional culture, and we must not make the dregs into cultural creation." Member Lu Chenglong introduced that the Forbidden City has set up a special cultural and creative review group, invited professionals to participate, and held regular meetings to review and strictly control all kinds of cultural and creative products.

In the development environment of the cultural and creative industry in which "those who get the IP win the world", there are also problems such as homogenization and low-level imitation of cultural and creative products.

"In the research and development of culture and creativity, we should emphasize innovation, deep excavation and strong guidance, and create characteristic products that can not only inherit history and culture, disseminate cultural values, but also meet the needs of contemporary aesthetics." Committee member Guo Yuanyuan said that if museums want to develop the cultural and creative industry well, they must do a solid job in this "homework."

At the same time, there are still many museums across the country that are not highly motivated in cultural creation. "The reason is that most of the museums belong to the national public welfare first-class public institutions, and the funds are basically only enough to maintain normal operation, and there are very few funds that can be used for cultural and creative research and development." Deputy Wei Xuefeng suggested, "Looking forward to the state's introduction of funds or support policies to encourage cultural creativity, we can try to return the income from cross-border and cultural creation to museums, so as to achieve 'using literature to nourish literature' and 'supplementing literature with literature'." (Reporters Zhang Yun and Jia Yueyang)