Northwestern Michigan College’s Dennos Museum Center Executive Director, Eugene Jenneman will leave for China on November 8 for a week of visits in Beijing, Qingdao and Shanghai with artists and colleagues, before attending a conference in Nanjing, China, being organized by the Nanjing Museum and the American Federation for the Arts in New York, November 17-20, 2014.
Quoting from the conference program overview – With growing interest in collaboration between U.S. and Chinese museums, institutions in both countries are exploring opportunities to share exhibitions, staff, and technical expertise. Some U.S. museums have already begun to collaborate and develop programming with Chinese museums, part of an expanding network of programs and initiatives which this Forum and Exhibition Expo will expand upon.
The Nanjing Museum and the American Federation of Arts are co-presenting a program, Meeting the West: Exhibitions from American Museums, focusing on exhibition exchange and collaboration, which will provide ample opportunity to build cultural dialogue and bridge experiences between institutions in the U.S. and China. The program offers two integrated components: an Exhibition Expo to present potential exhibition projects from U.S. museums to Chinese museums; and a Forum for museum leaders to discuss possible opportunities and challenges around exhibition exchange.
For the Exhibition Expo, each participating U.S. museum will provide information on up to three exhibitions that may be made available to travel to China. Held at the Nanjing Museum, the Expo will open on November 18, 2014, and remain on view for approximately one month. Well over one hundred Chinese museum directors will visit the Expo, and all U.S. exhibition presentations will also be presented through a catalogue to be published and distributed by the Nanjing Museum.
Envisioned as an opportunity to build relationships and explore collaborations between museum leaders, as well as to discuss the practical needs and requirements around exhibition exchange, a two-day Forum will feature panel presentations and discussions in conjunction with the opening of the Exhibition Expo.
The Dennos Museum Center is one of 20 US Museums (confirmed as of Sept 16) who have been invited to participate in the Exhibition Expo. The Dennos has proposed three potential traveling exhibitions from its collections. They include its traveling exhibition of Inuit Art, for which the Dennos is known internationally; its collection of woodcut prints by the Hungarian artist, Josef Domjan, who was given the recognition as Master of the Color Wood Cut during his 1955 visit to China, an award given only once every 100 years in China; and an exhibition of photography of Northern Michigan by Traverse City artist, Gregory D. Seman, who donated the entire collection of work from his 2013 exhibition Shine On, at the Dennos, to the museum’s collection.
“The Dennos Museum Center has made an ongoing effort to bring work by artists from China to the Dennos, including having Chinese artists visit, give lectures and do residencies. We have not however worked closely with museums, though some connections have been made,” says Executive Director Eugene Jenneman, “the Nanjing conference will offer the opportunity to begin those discussions and introduce the Dennos to museum’s in China.”
While the Dennos has shown Chinese artists, we have not had the opportunity to introduce American artists from our area to China in the same way. The proposal for the Gregory D. Seman exhibition will be our opportunity to open a dialogue with museums, who may express interest in Greg’s work, about other artists from our region. “I have been having ongoing conversations with a Chinese artist who has shown here, about a project that would engage artists from here and China, coming and going to each other’s country to paint the landscape of each, leading to an exhibition that would then travel in both countries,” says Jenneman, “It would be a huge undertaking to accomplish, but I believe could lead to a wonderful exchange between artists from both countries. I hope we might explore the idea at this conference.”
The Nanjing Museum will host the visiting American Museum officials for the duration of the conference with housing and meals.
The Dennos Museum Center is open Monday to Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM, Thursday until 8 PM and Sundays 1-5 PM with admission charged. For more information on the Museum and its programs, go to www.dennosmuseum.org or call 231-995-1055. The Dennos Museum Center is located at 1410 College Drive, Traverse City, MI 49686, at the entrance to the campus of Northwestern Michigan College.