unesco high-level forum on museums opened in shenzhen on thursday with 200 guests including directors of the world’s top museums to discuss new museum sector trends and public policies; protection of cultural property and collections; and how to better engage and benefit communities.
in a letter of congratulations, president xi jinping pointed out that museums are the major places to protect and carry on human civilization, and a bridge to link the past with present and future. they play a unique role in promoting exchanges between the world's civilizations, the president said.
xi said he hoped specialists at the forum would elicit their best thinking, come up with ideas to enrich collections in museums around the world, and make contributions to protecting culture diversity, enhancing understanding among peoples in different countries and promoting the progress of human civilization.
vice premier liu yandong, guangdong party chief hu chunhua and governor zhu xiaodan attended the opening ceremony. francesco bandarin, assistant director-general for culture of unesco, was also present. organizers of the event include shenzhen municipal government and shenzhen zhizheng art museum.
emily rafferty, president emerita of the metropolitan museum of art in the u.s., said during an interview with the shenzhen daily that xi's letter delivers important information, showing the government's support for the development of museums.
"shenzhen should play a bigger role by enhancing international cooperation between museums and protecting cultural diversity through development of museums," said rafferty.
china so far has 4,692 registered museums and around 200 new museums are established every year.
according to liu yuzhu, director with state administration for cultural heritage, a total of 4,013 museums in china have opened to the public for free since the government adopted the policy in 2008, accounting for 85 percent of the current total. the central government spends about 3 billion yuan (us$441 million) a year to subsidize the free-entry policy.
shenzhen has been letting culture play a bigger role in its development. the city is home to three national-level cultural platforms such as the china (shenzhen) international culture industries fair, the shenzhen culture assets and equity exchange, and the china culture industry investment fund.
shenzhen has been awarded the city of design status and global model city for the promotion of reading by unesco. in 2015, the added value of cultural and related industries in the city was 175.6 billion yuan, making up 10 percent of the total gdp, which affirmed culture as one of the local economy's pillar industries.
