How China's private museums are navigating a post-boom era

"All booms must end, and mainland China's spectacular period of new museum building in the 2010s was probably destined to fizzle even before the twin tripwires of Covid-19 and an economic slump. Nonetheless, China's art world was shocked when the news came in August 2022 that Guangzhou's beloved Times Museum would be shutting that autumn. Since 2003, Times's small space atop an apartment block had hosted some of the most provocative exhibitions and nuanced scholarship in Asian art and built a strong community around it."

"Times Guangzhou relaunched last year as a project space. But there have been plenty of other more definitive demises. The Shanghai location of OCAT, a chain of property developments that at one point also had museums in Beijing, Shenzhen and Xi'an, closed indefinitely in summer 2021 after outrage over a video work it exhibited ranking women's attractiveness. As Covid restrictions deepened, the museum never reopened."

"Qingdao's TAG Museum this summer announced it was suspending operations. Nanjing's much vaunted Sifang Art Museum now appears to be a rental space for events, while other standouts like Yinchuan MoCA and Shanghai MoCA have scaled back to mount only modest, occasional exhibitions. In 2023, when the wealthy owners of Long Museum in Shanghai and Chongqing auctioned part of their massive collection, that institution's future also seemed precarious, though it has continued operating."

Mainland China experienced a rapid museum-building boom in the 2010s that has now cooled. Financial strain from a collapsing property sector, compounded by Covid-19 and an economic slump, forced closures and operational suspensions of several private museums. Guangzhou's Times Museum closed in autumn 2022 and later relaunched as a project space. OCAT's Shanghai branch closed indefinitely after controversy and never reopened. Qingdao's TAG suspended operations; Nanjing's Sifang has become an events rental; Yinchuan MoCA and Shanghai MoCA have scaled back exhibitions. Long Museum faced uncertainty after owners auctioned works. Many institutions lacked sustainable funding models, prompting a post‑boom contraction.

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