City's art museums are leading the nation

Shanghai's 96 art museums staged 950 exhibitions and 3,953 public educational activities last year, the newly released annual report on the development of art museums in Shanghai in 2021 reveals.

The report was initiated by the Shanghai Administration of Culture and Tourism.

The number of art museums in the city increased by seven from the previous year, making it number one in China. Among them, 71 are private museums, with 66 open free to the public.

The number of exhibitions local art museums organized last year increased by 58.3 percent from the previous year, and 80 percent of them are free.

In total, they received 6.21 million visits in the same year, a 53 percent increase from 2020.

They also organized 3,953 public educational activities such as lectures, workshops and parent-child activities last year, a 44.5 percent year on year, attracting more than 1.52 million participants.

According to the report, a cluster of art museums have already taken shape in the West Bund area in Xuhui District, Hongqiao in Changning District and the Bund in Huangpu District.

The most frequented art museums in town are China Art Museum (603,000 visits), West Bund Museum (583,000) and Museum of Art Pudong (456,000).

In line with the rapid development of art museums in Shanghai, museums' digital promotion also marked a big step forward in 2021. Nearly 73 percent use WeChat official accounts to update the information on exhibitions and the news of museums.

As a side-product of exhibitions, most museums also developed cultural and creative products with a total sales volume of 25 million yuan last year, 54 percent up from 2020.

Shanghai is building up both the image and infrastructure of art museums among other big cosmopolitans such as New York, London and Paris.

The Metropolitan Museum in New York received 1.958 million visitors and the Louvre 2.825 million visitors in 2021.