Suzhou
Municipal Center of Public Culture is a non-profit and fully government-funded
institutional organization at assistant municipality level, affiliated with
Suzhou Bureau of Culture, Broadcasting, Television and Tourism. The Public
Cultural Center contains several art museums, namely Suzhou Art Museum, Suzhou
Cultural Center, Suzhou Celebrity Museum, Wu Zuoren Art Museum (Suzhou Academy
of Seal Cutting Art), Yan Wenliang Memorial (Suzhou Academy of Oil Painting),
Suzhou Academy of Woodcut Printing (Suzhou Taohuawu New-year Painting Museum),
Hang Mingshi Pastel Painting Art Museum (Suzhou Academy of Pastel Painting),
Suzhou Academy of Public Arts, etc.
1. Suzhou Art
Museum
Suzhou Art Museum, founded by
Yan Wenliang in 1972, is known as “the first museum in Chinese art history”.
The new building of Suzhou Art Museum completed in 2010 is situated in the
northern Renmin road which is the arterial road of Suzhou’s historic district. The museum
consists of a large exhibition hall of 800 square meters on the first floor and
6 small-and medium-sized ones ranging from 200 to 500 square meters with a
length of 463 meters and outdoor exhibition area as large as 800 square meters,
in addition to muti-functional academic halls and a storeroom of constant
temperature and humid, etc.
As
the old Chinese saying goes, “Great achievements only come from ambition and
diligence”. Adhering to the purpose of studying and inheriting the cultural art
from Yan Wenliang, Suzhou Art Museum has independently designed and held a
series of high-quality exhibitions in a large scale, such as “Suzhou
Yangtze--Suzhou Oil Painting Exhibition”, “Focus on the New Era--Chinese Master
Oil Painting Exhibition”, “The First Suzhou Documents Exhibition” and “The 90th
Anniversary of Suzhou Art Museum --Yan Wenliang Documents Exhibition”, etc.
Location:
No.2075, Renmin Road,
Suzhou
Opening
hours: 9:00-17:00 (no adimission after 16:00)
Open
from Tuesday to Sunday and on official holidays
Tel:
0512-65816230
2. Suzhou Cultural Center
Suzhou Cultural Center,
a first-class national cultural center named by China’s Ministry of Culture, was
designed according to the corresponding standard and well-equipped with
facilities. There is a multi-functional theater which can accommodate 543
audiences. Besides, it includes many other cultural facilities such as public
cultural plaza, public gallery, academic hall, dance rehearsal room, vocal
music rehearsal room, piano room and tour stage, etc.
Suzhou Cultural Center
actively organizes activities centering on the creation and exhibition of mass
culture in the whole city and endeavors to develop backbone teams of art
amateurs, so as to enrich people’s social and cultural life. It has launched a
series of popular activities including “Home in Suzhou--Our
Festivals” for celebrations, “Home in Suzhou--Full
Love for the Water City” as the theme of tour performance to promote
mass culture in the grassroots community, “Visit to Suzhou--Nationwide Tour Exhibition of
Photography Works”, “Taste Suzhou--Handicraft Experience and Exhibition” , etc.
In recent years, Suzhou Cultural Center
has been striving to provide digital cultural services as new superiority,
ranking among the first pilot construction units of digital cultural center in China.
Among
the staff of Suzhou Cultural Center, fourteen people enjoy high and
intermediate titles, and many are the members of national-level associations of
various arts whose high-quality works in music, dance, Quyi (Chinese folk art
forms), opusculum, literature, fine arts and photography such as Dan Xian Ou
(shouldering fresh lotus root), A Fish Named “Xiao Kang” (moderately prosperous
society), successively won important awards at national- and provincial-level
contests and awarding events like Galaxy Award and Five-star Engineering Award.
Location:No.2075, Renmin
Road, Suzhou
Opening
Hours: 9:00-19:00
Tel:
0512-6581609
3. Suzhou Celebrity
Museum
Ranking
among the first batch of famous historic and cultural cities approved by the
State Council, has nurtured numerous celebrities. Suzhou
Celebrity Museum
exhibits 448 historical celebrities of Suzhou in
both traditional and modernized multimedia ways which are intellectual,
interesting, entertaining and participatory, providing audiences with new
feelings in the abundant resources of historical human culture in Suzhou.
In
recent years, Suzhou
Celebrity Museum
has carried out a “Four-in-one” mode with four major functions: academic
studies driven by historical materials exhibition, antique collection, display
and public education. It promoted a serious documents exhibitions, such as “A
Prestigious Elder from Wuzhong District--Zhang Yilin Documents Exhibition”,
“Guilty for Nothing--Ye Shengtao Documents Exhibition”, “Poetic Director--Fei
Muwen Documents Exhibition”, which pieced the brilliant culture history of Suzhou together through
these famous people as precious as pearls. It has initiatively held twice
“Online Contest of Reading Chinese Celebrities’ Masterpieces” and is also
actively exploring effective ways to combine excellent traditional culture with
the Internet. It aims to thoroughly become a national first-rate celebrity
museum in management operation, academic studies and social services, etc.
Location:
No.2075, Renmin Road,
Suzhou
Opening
hours: 9:00-17:00 (no entry after 16:00)
Open
from Tuesday to Sunday and on official holidays
Tel:
0512-65816339
4. Wu Zuoren Art Museum (Suzhou Academy
of Seal Cutting)
Born
in Suzhou, Wu
Zuoren spent his teenage years there. Wu and his wife Xiao Shufang, who had
paid high attention to the development of their hometown in their lifetime,
donated more than one hundred pieces of calligraphy and painting to Suzhou. Wu trusted a
master of architect, Dai Nianci, with the design of Wu Zuoren Art Museum. In
the 1990s, Suzhou Municipal Party Committee and its People’s Government
selected a piece of land near the national key cultural relic protection unit
Shuangta (Twin-Pagoda) and invested lots of money to build the Wu Zuoren Art
Museum open to the public for free. It totally covers an area of 1430 square
meters, including 780 square kilometers of building area. In 2015, Suzhou
Municipal Party Committee and its People’s Government appropriated nearly five
hundred yuan for the renovation and upgrading of Wu Zuoren Art Museum.
After
the renovation, Wu Zuoren Art Museum presented several exhibitions including
“Add Some Color to Nature--Exhibition of studies on Wu Zuoren and Xiao
Shufang’s painting Foziling Reservoir”, “ Never Away from Suzhou--(the first
time) Exhibition of studies on relations between Wu Zuoren and Suzhou”, which
systematically showed the value of times and realistic meaning of his artistic
thought “ life for art”, as well as the deep affection for his hometown.
Location:
No.88, Dinghui Temple Lane,
Suzhou
Opening
hours: 9:00-17:00 (no admission after 16:00)
Open
from Tuesday to Saturday and on official holidays
Tel:
0512-65245629, 65245619
5.Yan
Wenliang Memorial (Suzhou
Academy of Oil Painting)
Yan
Wenliang Memorial is the original site of Soochow Meizhuan (Suzhou Art Museum),
in which the construction of the Greek style school building, known as the Luoma
Dalou (literally, Roman Building), was directed by Mr. Yan in the past.
In
recent years, Suzhou Committee and Government have invested over 4 million yuan
in the renovation of the Luoma Dalou, connecting with the Surging Wave
Pavilion, the oldest existent garden in Suzhou
and one of the World Cultural Heritages. Mr. Yan Wenliang’s life history materials
are exhibited in the building all year round, along with the replication of the
documents and objects from the Soochow Meizhuan, such as classrooms, flags,
school badges and school magazines. Among the four elite art schools in the era
of the Republic of China, Yan Wenliang Memorial is the only one of them that
exists as an original site.
Location: No.4, Canglangting (the Surging Wave Pavilion)
Hou Road, Suzhou
Opening
Hours: 9:00 am-17:00 pm (No admission after 16:00 pm)
Closed
on Monday, open on holidays.
Tel:
0512-65305218
6.Suzhou
Academy of Woodcut Printing (Suzhou Museum
of Taohuawu Woodblock New
Year Prints)
Suzhou
Academy of Woodcut Printing, the internal organization of public cultural
center of Suzhou,
was found in 1987. Suzhou Museum of Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Prints was
established in Jan 6th,2006 in Puyuan
Garden. At the same year
Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Prints was listed as the first batches of
intangible cultural heritages announced by the State Council.
Suzhou
Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Prints emerged in Ming Dynasty and peaked at Qing
Dynasty, known as Nan Tao Bei Liu (literally, Woodblock New Year Prints made
its name in the south while Tianjin Yangliuqing New Year Prints earnt its fame
in the north.) together with Tianjin Yangliuqing New Year Prints. The
production is based in chromatic blocks, featuring in one block for one hue,
with additionally the craft of coloring. Delicacy and elegancy are two distinct
characteristics that makes it stand out from other New Year prints, giving her
not only adoration in the south of the Yangtze river, but also influence beyond
the board. In between the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty, a considerable
number of Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Prints were funneled into Japan, exerting
profound influence on Ukiyoe, the Japanese prints of the 17th century. Other
countries such as France, Germany and Britain also saw the circulations
and are amazed by its unique beauty.
In
recent years, Suzhou Academy of Woodcut Printing has been dedicating to the
protection and research of the Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Prints with all
efforts, assiduously gathering the information, relevant publication, documents
and papers from beyond the board. It initiated the Prosperity of
Gusu——Exhibition of Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Prints, and toured in the CAA Art Museum,
Art Museum of TAFA
and Shandong Art Museum. The prints makers have made considerable
appearance in different countries and events, such as the YOG, World Table
Tennis Championship, France,
Hong Kong, Macao
and Manila. The
influence of the Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Prints is constantly extended, what’s
more, they held the printing classes to pass the torch, which won the Art
Talents Training Funded Project by Jiangsu Art Funding.
Location:
No.8, Jiaochang Qiao Street,
Suzhou
Opening
Hours: Not open now for maintenance
Tel:
0512- 67514356
7.Hang
Mingshi Pastel
Painting Art
Museum (Suzhou Academy of Pastel Painting Art)
Hang
Mingshi is universally acknowledged as the master of pastel painting art at home
and aboard, who was the deputy director of the Committee of Pastel Painting Art
of China Artists Association, honorary president of Suzhou Artists
Association. Hang is dedicated to popularizing the pastel painting art and
developing pastel painting in Suzhou.
In addition, he has voluntarily donated his own pieces of work that are
exquisitely crafted from different periods over 60 years to Suzhou city.
With
the help and concern of the municipal government of Suzhou,
Hang Mingshi Pastel
Painting Art
Museum was unveiled in Sept 16th, 2011, with a
floor area of 1600 square meters. Being the first pastel painting art museum in
China,
it has been actively playing its role in art exhibition, academic research and
public education since it officially opened in Sept 28th, 2012. It has launched
many exhibitions such as the Exhibition of Works by Hang Mingshi, An Artist’s Quality------Documents
Exhibition of Hang Mingshi’s Family Thriving Under the Great Era, The Top Identity
of Yuefenpai (painting of calendar)---Art Exhibition of Hang Zhiying (Hang Mingshi’s
father, a great painter), A New Era----Chinese Young and Middle-aged Pastel
Painters Invitational Exhibition, and Pastel Painting Salon-----Face to Face
with Masters. The museum has become a shiny cultural postcard for Suzhou.
Location:
No.1199, Taihuxi Lu Street,
Suzhou
Opening
Hours: 9:00 am-17:00 pm (No admission after 16:00 pm)
Closed
on Mondays, open on holidays.
Tel:
0512-69351268
