The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a British independent think tank, will for the first time move its annual high-level art conference from its London base to Beijing, with the aim of forming a bridge between Western and Oriental culture.

The Global Collecting Forum 2009 will run from October 10 to 11 at the Reignwood Theater in downtown Beijing, according to information released at a press conference on Tuesday. The forum is normally based at London's Spencer House, where high-ranking art collectors and experts have been gathering every year since 2004.

"The Beijing forum will open a window for both the West and the East to get to know each other better," said Chinese writer-filmmaker Sun Shuyun, who is also a consultant of the ISD. "It echoes the ISD's primary goal of creating a bridge between different cultures."

Chinese writer-filmmaker Sun Shuyun, a consultant of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, speaks about the institute's upcoming art conference at a press conference in Beijing on July 21, 2009. [CRI]

Sun, who was a guest at last year's ISD forum, has met some of the world's best-known art collectors and museum directors there. But she was somehow left with the impression that many of these "leaders of art collecting actually knew very little about Chinese art."

The situation is expected to improve as this year's forum brings over 30 leading art experts from Europe, the United States and Russia to meet with their Asian counterparts in the Chinese capital. Those set to show up include Baroness Kennedy QC, a trustee of the British Museum; Alexandra Monroe, senior curator at the Guggenheim Museum; and Derek Gillman, director of the US-based Barnes Foundation, a top collector of Post-Impressionist paintings.

As art sales have been hit badly during the global financial crisis, the Beijing forum will focus on "Collecting in Today's Turbulent World". Participants will have a closed-door discussion on the topic on October 10, and then join the general public in four open forums on the second day.

Chinese artists are also seizing the golden opportunity to showcase themselves. As the forum concludes on October 11, a follow-up exhibition will continue for another week, displaying works by around 30 of China's most acclaimed contemporary artists, including Cai Guoqiang, Xu Bing, Liu Xiaodong and Wang Guangyi.

For ordinary art lovers, this will be a rare chance to appreciate the creations of many top Chinese artists under one roof.

The Global Collecting Forum 2009 is jointly sponsored by Reignwood Group, the Chinese Culture Promotion Society, and the Beijing Culture and Arts Foundation.