The museum is housed in the former China Pavilion of Expo 2010
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Established | 1956 (as Shanghai Art Museum) 2012 (as China Art Museum) |
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Location | Pudong, Shanghai, China |
Coordinates | 31°11′10″N 121°29′24″E / 31.186°N 121.490°E |
Visitors | 2 million |
Director | Shi Dawei (施大畏) |
Public transit access | China Art Museum Station on Shanghai Metro Line 8 |
Website | www |
The China Art Museum, also called the China Art Palace (Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Yìshù Gōng; Shanghainese: Zongwu Nyizeh Ghon), is a museum of modern Chinese art located in Pudong, Shanghai, China. The museum is housed in the former China Pavilion of Expo 2010. It is one of the largest art museum in Asia.
The predecessor of the China Art Museum was the Shanghai Art Museum, which was established in 1956 in a former restaurant on West Nanjing Road, and completely rebuilt in 1986. On 18 March 2000, the Shanghai Art Museum was moved to the former Shanghai Race Club building on the People's Square, which had housed the Shanghai Library until 1997. With the move its exhibition space increased from 2,200 to 5,800 square meters.
Shanghai hosted Expo 2010 from 1 May to 31 October 2010, and the China Pavilion received close to 17 million visitors. Due to its popularity, the China Pavilion was reopened for six extra months after the end of the Shanghai Expo. On 13 November 2011, the Shanghai Municipal Government announced that the China Pavilion of Expo 2010 would become the new home of the Shanghai Art Museum and be renamed to China Art Museum, while the Urban Future pavilion would be converted to the Power Station of Art, a museum for contemporary art.
The China Art Museum and the Power Station of Art both opened on 1 October 2012, China's National Day. The old Shanghai Art Museum remained open until 31 December 2012, receiving more than 12,000 visitors in the last two days. The China Art Museum is more than ten times bigger than its predecessor.