International Traveling Exhibitions: Comparison of Two Case Studies from China

Abstract

This study examined two international exhibitions that were imported into The People’s Republic of China: Masterpieces of Early Chinese Painting and Calligraphy in American Collections and LIGHT, FIRE, LIFE-Swedish Glass of 20th and 21st Centuries. The goal of this research was to describe the process of developing and traveling international exhibitions in collaboration with Chinese museums and to hear the museum professionals’ voice. International collaboration with Chinese museums seems to be a trend due to globalization. Chinese museums have worked with foreign museums on exhibitions for more than four decades; however, there has been very little documentation in the literature about it. Interview was the method used to gather data on this topic from five museum professionals in China, the US and Sweden involved in the two exhibitions studied for this research. The results of this thesis suggested that both the origin and host sites experienced some rewarding and challenging aspects when collaborating with Chinese museums. By working internationally, involved museums achieved much more worldwide impacts and improved their institutions. There were two limitations to this study, including the limited number of case studies and the limited number of individuals participating in the interviews.