On November 20th, a heavyweight international exchange event was held in Zhejiang Art Museum – “The U.S.-China Museum Leaders Forum”. Nearly 30 curators from important galleries in China and the United States enjoyed a happy get-together by the West Lake and discussed the new possibilities of future communication and cooperation among the cultural organizations in China and the United States. As one of the projects of the U.S.-Chine Forum on The Arts and Culture, the U.S.-China Museum Leaders Forum was hosted by Asia Society and the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and co-hosted by Zhejiang Art Museum, China Academy of Art, the Power Station of Art, MOCA Shanghai and Long Museum. Its aim is to build a close bond between China’s galleries with America’s so as to promote cooperation and communication between two countries. The U.S.-China Museum Leaders Forum included two agendas: A case study of the international cooperation among galleries of two countries and a discussion of the possibilities to launch an international cultural public welfare program.

In the forum, Professor Shi Hui, the chief curator of the first Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art made a keynote address on the important international exhibition “Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art” hosted by Zhejiang Art Museum in 2013. She introduced the curatorial philosophy, exhibition preparation, the progress and achievements of the International Artist Program and the social impact of Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art, which got thumbs-up from all the curators.

In addition, Dan L. Monroe, the CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum in America, Michael Edward Shapiro, curator of the High Museum of Art in America, Fu Zhongwang, the curator of Hubei Art Museum and Zhang Linsheng, the curator of the Shanghai Aurora Museum, introduced respectively their own cooperative cases in the area of exhibition and cultural exchanges between China and the United States.

American curators attending the forum also included Neal David Benezra, the curator of The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Melissa Chiu, the curator of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, William Maverick. Griswold, the curator and chairman of the Board of The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dorothy Mary Kosinski, the curator of the Phillips Collection, Glenn David Lowry, the curator of The Museum of Modern Art, Lawrence Robert Rinder, the curator of University of California, Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, Kimerly Rorschach, the curator of Seattle Art Museum, Peggy Loar, the curator of Asia Society Art Museum, Jay Xu, the curator of Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and Connie Wolf, the curator of Cantor Arts Center.

Chinese curators attending the forum also included Luo Ning, the curator of Shanxi Province Art Museum, Chen Xiangbo, the curator of Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Si Shunwei, the deputy curator of Zhejiang Art Museum, Hang Jian, the curator of The Art Museum of China Academy of Art, Wang Hengsheng, the curator of The Art Museum of China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Li Lei, the deputy curator of China Arts Museum, Zhang Qing, the director of the Department of Research and Planning of National Art Museum Of China, Gong Mingguang, the curator of MOCA Shanghai, Lu Xun, the curator of Sifang Art Museum, Larys Frogier, the curator of Rockbund Art Museum and Wang Wei, the curator of Shanghai Long Art Museum.

In the section of communications between China and America on cultural public welfare programs, representatives of three of the most famous art fund in America – James Cuno, the director and executor of Los Angeles J•Paul•Getty Trust Fund and, Elizabeth Glassman, the director and executor of Chicago Terra Foundation for American Art, and Mimi Haas, the chairman of Los Angeles Haas Fund, along with Hallam Chow, the founder of Haoran Art and Education Foundation, Christy Maclear, the executive director of Robert Rauschenberg Fund, Li Lin, CEO of JNBY, and Xiang Xingliang, the curator of Quan Shanshi Art Center and vice chairman of Quan Shanshi Art Foundation made their speeches in turns. They introduced the different modes of cultural charity in the two countries and had a heat discussion on how to promote the Sino-U.S. international cultural public welfare program with the support of art foundations.

The U.S.-China Museum Leaders Forum provides a beneficial platform for communications among elites in the field of art in the two counties. In the next few days, curators of two countries will have further discussions on how to develop an in-depths and substantial cooperation. Through this forum, more beneficial Sino-U.S. international cultural public welfare programs will be developed continuously among the art museums in two countries.