The International Herald Tribune profiles artist Zhou Tiehai who is the deputry director of the Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai, a place to showcase of Contemporary Chinese art:

“The museum does not have a collection yet,” confirmed Mr. Zhou, “and it is not certain how many pieces it hopes to collect. Chinese contemporary art is too expensive, and all of the best art has already been bought, taken out of the country.”

The museum faces other pressing issues in its battle to establish itself. China is a country of many museums, but very few are professionally run; staff are often government-mandated scholars with no professional experience. The municipal government of Shanghai announced several years ago its plan to build 100 museums by the 2010 World Expo, but contemporary art museums like Minsheng were not included in the plan. Mr. Zhou said that “it is easy to build museums but difficult to run them.”

Still, Mr. Zhou says he sees a promising future for the Minsheng, not least because of the positive changes he has witnessed in Shanghai’s cultural scene in recent years. He cites the Shanghai Art Museum, which is government-run and where he had a solo show in 2006, as an example. “Because of limited government support, they are forced to rent their space, so the programming is spotty at best,” he said. “Their collection is also affected. But it has improved greatly, and continues to improve.”

A Contemporary Artist Takes Helm at Chinese Bank’s New Contemporary Museum (New York Times)