Sustainable Development of Private Art Museums in China: A Narrative Inquiry Study

<p>Private art museums are a relatively new phenomenon in China, having first appeared in the 20th century. This brief timeline in the larger history of art museums, coupled with the fact most Chinese private art museums close after just a few years of operation, has led many to question how to promote the sustainability of these institutions. These questions became even more pronounced with the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic, which brought a greater sense of uncertainty to the museum industry and society at large. This dissertation inquires similarly, asking how sustainability is conceptualized by Chinese private art museum professionals and factors that affect sustainable development of this subset of museums. To respond to such questions, this study adopted a three-pronged framework that examined the cultural, economic, and social factors impacting museum sustainability (adapted from Stylianou-Lambert et al.’s (2014) study), which was then applied to interviews conducted with 10 museum professionals from private art museums throughout China. The interviewees often spoke of a Western museum model being applied to private art museum operations in China, with both positive and negative effects. Moreover, they presented sustainability as a multifaceted concept, one predicated on multiple factors or concerns. Some of the factors influencing the sustainability of private art museums that were explored include (a) desire for greater government support but more curatorial autonomy and less censorship, (b) desire to cater to changing audience preferences while maintaining the integrity of exhibits, and (c) desire to become more financially self- sufficient without being influenced by the whims of the individuals privately funding museum operations. These tensions were examined in depth to provide recommendations for increasing the visibility of Chinese private art museums, thereby promoting their long-term sustainability.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Year dc:date.available

2024

Author dc:creator

• Li, Chaoran

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dawn Hunter
• Doug Havard
• Jamie Larkin

• Private art museums
• China
• sustainability
• narrative inquiry
• new museology
• Museum Studies

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/education_dissertations/89

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.chapman.edu:education_dissertations-1088