On the afternoon of April 17, 2024, the first expert meeting of the project "Guidelines for the Arrangement and Fixing of Cultural Relics in Museums" of the Chinese Museums Association was held at the China Women and Children's Museum.
Liu Chaoying, vice chairman of the Chinese Museums Association and chairman of the Beijing Museum Society, attended the meeting and delivered a speech, and Liu Lu, director of the Art Committee of the Chinese Museums Association, attended and presided over the meeting. Wang Rui, the leader of the research group and the director of the exhibition and information department of the China Women and Children's Museum, reported the basic situation and work plan of the project on behalf of the research group, and Deng Minliang, director of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, introduced the experience and exploration of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in the display of cultural relics.
As an important place for the protection and display of human civilization, museums have extremely strict requirements for the protection and display of cultural relics, especially for the exhibition environment in the process of cultural relics exhibition. At present, after more than 20 years of leapfrog development, driven by the growing diversified business needs, the formulation of industry norms and standards has been increasingly improved. At present, the industry has relevant standards and working specifications for the display of cultural relics, the temperature and humidity of the exhibition hall, and the lighting environment, but there is a lack of relevant rules and regulations for the standardization, management and protection of the display of cultural relics in museum exhibitions.
Especially in the early stage of the exhibition, the review of the design plan for the deepening of the cultural relics exhibition; In the middle of the exhibition, the results of the implementation of the cultural relics exhibition plan (fixed cultural relics exhibition) are accepted; In the later stage of the exhibition, there is no corresponding system and specification in the industry as the basis for operation in the important exhibition stages such as the daily inspection and maintenance of the cultural relics on display. The protection system of Chinese objects displayed in museums at all levels varies greatly, and they are all operated according to industry practices and customary practices, which invisibly increases the risk of the exhibition environment of cultural relics and cannot achieve accurate and appropriate interpretation and dissemination of cultural relics. Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish a set of scientific, complete and standardized industry guidelines to promote the safety of museum cultural relics.
The purpose of this project is to establish a scientific, complete and standardized industry guidance reference manual, as a guide for the work of museums and exhibition construction units, so as to standardize the exhibition and reinforcement of cultural relics in museums, standardize the display form of cultural relics, improve the safety of the cultural relics exhibition environment, and lay the foundation for the introduction of relevant industry standards.
The project was jointly applied by the Exhibition Art Committee of the Chinese Museums Association and the Exhibition Design Committee of the Beijing Museum Society, and the six members of the research group were from the China Women and Children's Museum, Guangdong Provincial Museum, Nanjing Museum, Chengdu Museum, Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution and Hubei Provincial Museum. Wang Rui, the leader of the research group, is the deputy director of the Art Committee of the China Museum Association and the director of the Display Design Committee of the Beijing Museum Society, the research team will combine the experts and resources of the two special committees to investigate at least 60 museums across the country through the Internet, telephone, questionnaire and other ways, and focus on at least 30 museums on site, and comprehensively study the existing academic achievements of the existing cultural relics protection, fixation, exhibition arrangement, etc., and finally form a report on the guiding principles of museum cultural relics exhibition and fixation.
The experts at the meeting spoke highly of the necessity, urgency and practicability of the topic, and believed that the research tasks of the project were clear, the research ideas were clear, and the technical route was reasonable. At the same time, it is suggested that the literature research should be further sorted out, more attention should be paid to the safety and professional measures in the exhibition of cultural relics in small and medium-sized and grassroots museums, increase the assessment of the exhibition environment, and take into account the display and protection of cultural relics, encourage display innovation, and suggest that some advanced cases in the research should be used as ancillary results for the training and promotion of museums across the country.
Liu Chaoying, vice chairman of the China Museum Association and chairman of the Beijing Museum Society, pointed out in his concluding speech that this topic is based on the current development reality of museums, starting from practical experience, refining and rising to the theoretical level, which can effectively guide all kinds of museums to arrange cultural relics according to professional procedures, minimize the probability of damage to Chinese objects in exhibition-related work, and also have guiding significance for the exhibition of non-cultural relics collections. At the same time, she pointed out that in the process of compilation, it is necessary to fully investigate, discuss and solicit opinions from various museums to ensure that the results of the project can be truly universal, scientific and practical.
In the next step, the research group will carry out extensive research on museums across the country. In the process, an expert demonstration meeting will be held, and the project is expected to be completed in December.
Source: Beijing Museum Society