| 现在我国有越来越多的城市意识到文化繁荣和发展对一座城市的形象和竞争力的重要价值。于是，在许多城市中，各种美轮美奂的美术馆争先恐后地建立起来， 但是前来欣赏艺术的观众寥寥无几。老百姓对艺术殿堂的冷漠与美术馆公益性、群众性的本质属性形成了极大的反差。近日，来自全国十几个城市的美术馆馆长齐聚深圳关山月美术馆，对美术馆的现状和未来进行了研讨。 |
More and more Chinese local governments are waking up to the fact that a dash of culture can improve a city’s image. Lavish art museums are springing up like mushrooms all round the country. But they are attracting very few visitors. The very purpose of an art museum is to promote public enjoyment and welfare, so how do we explain public indifference? Dozens of curators met in the Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum to discuss this issue and the future of Chinese museums. |
| 美术馆“门可罗雀” |
Museums are getting the cold shoulder. |
| 美术馆肩负着丰富群众文化生活和培养群众文化艺术素养的天然使命。设计师的设计、美术馆的选址和藏品的收集等等，其所耗费的巨额金钱和煞费苦心，无一不是为了吸引更多观众踏进艺术的殿堂。但是经过美术馆门前的人们却总是行色匆匆，驻足观赏的人屈指可数，对此种让人费解的现象，参加座谈会的各位馆长都纷纷表示无奈。 |
The missions of an art museum are to enrich cultural life and cultivating people’s artistic taste. Art museums attract visitors by their design, location and, of course, their collections. But despite the vast sums spent on organizing exhibitions passers by seldom bother to walk in. It is a stubborn fact that is causing curators to sigh with despair. |
| 深圳关山月美术馆坐落在风景优美的莲花山公园脚下，该馆特聘研究员陈履生用“门可罗雀”来形容这座高雅美术馆平时的窘状。 |
Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum at the foot of beautiful Lianhua Mountain is a case in point. Museum Research fellow Chen Lusheng said it had so few visitors that, as an old Chinese idiom goes; you could “catch sparrows on the doorstep”. |
| “经常是美术馆大张旗鼓地隆重开幕，过两天就没人光顾了。”河南美术馆馆长化建国提到一些美术馆的遭遇时说。虽然河南美术馆位于郑州市中心，不过进馆的观众以周末举家前去游玩的居多，其中真正去欣赏艺术作品的人很少。 |
“We have become used to seeing an empty exhibition hall just days after the opening ceremony,” said Hua Jianguo, curator of Henan Art Museum. His museum is in the center of Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province. Most of the visitors are parents with children looking for family entertainment. Very few visitors could be described as art enthusiasts。 |
| 一些美术馆为了避免长期荒废和闲置，便和一些企业、单位举办联谊活动或其他商业活动，借此聚拢人气、收取租金。 |
Faced with low visitor numbers and empty exhibition halls, some museums resort to renting space to private companies who want to stage commercial functions. |
| 美术馆缘何如此“寂寞” |
Why are art museums so unpopular in China?
|
| 有馆长认为，我国美术馆的发展还处于初级阶段，与国外美术馆相比，中国的美术馆甚少有自己的藏品。因此，除了每年举办数个展览之外，美术馆普遍缺乏吸引观众的“秘密武器”。 |
Some curators said people should realize that Chinese art museums are at an early stage of development. They have little in the way of existing collections and have to borrow art from other museums to stage exhibitions. |
| 优雅地矗立在城市里，却不能够为公众提供服务，这是当前美术馆普遍面临的窘境。陈履生说，各个美术馆都想出了许多办法去解决，比如“免费开放”。但是免费开放并不能从根本上解决问题。馆长们认为，公众并非支付不起低价的门票，美术馆长期“寂寞”的原因还在于老百姓普遍缺乏上美术馆去欣赏美术作品这种文化传统和习惯。还有就是美术馆本身有坐等别人上门的习惯，对自己的展览宣传不够。 |
Elegant but empty museums are turning into embarrassing white elephants in many cities. Chen Lusheng said managers are constantly thinking up schemes to attract visitors. One way is to let the public in free of charge but that seems to have limited success. Ticket prices don’t seem to be the main factor in keeping people away. But in many places there is no tradition of going to art museums and many museums are doing little to promote their exhibitions. |
![Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum [arton.net]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20091207/000cf1a48b7f0c86e7c801.jpg "Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum [arton.net]")
