The Future of The Museum

This week we bring you a special episode from Hong Kong, where we staged our first ever live In Other Words event on 29 March on "The Future of The Museum”. Our panelists included Michael Govan, the director, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Doryun Chong, the deputy director and chief curator, M+ in Hong Kong; Allan Schwartzman. The panel was introduced by Kevin Ching, CEO of Sotheby’s Asia and moderated by Charlotte Burns. 

Joining us remotely was Budi Tek, the founder of the Yuz Museum and Foundation, Shanghai, who broke the news of an unprecedented collaboration between Yuz and Lacma. This opened a discussion about the increasing willingness of museum directors and private patrons to collaborate and share. Our panelists spoke about where innovation is taking place geographically; about cultural norms and how they manifest differently region to region; and about new technologies, such as augmented reality, and how they might impact museums and exhibition making. These are, of course, just a few of the topics covered. Tune in for the rest.

“In Other Words” is a presentation of AAP and Sotheby’s, produced by Audiation.fm.

“If I share more than 1,000 pieces of artworks worth a lot of money, share to dozens of people, actually it means nothing.” —Budi Tek, Founder, Yuz Museum and Foundation, Shanghai   

“What's exciting about working in this region compared to say, New York, is that you're not changing or reinventing the rules—because there aren't really rules established. We’re actually just inventing them.” —Doryun Chong, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, M+, Hong Kong   

“I think particularly with destination museums in new locations which are thinking about new paradigms of experience and how to reach out to a public, we've not yet begun to explore what the possibilities are.” —Allan Schwartzman, Co-founder of Art Agency, Partners, Chairman of Sotheby’s Global Fine Arts and Creative Director and Chief Curator of Instituto Inhotim 

Michael Govan joined the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director in 2006. Since his arrival, Govan has transformed not only the museum’s collection but also the way it is experienced by its audience. Currently the museum is in the midst of replacing four aging museum buildings with a single new state of the art gallery building designed by architect Peter Zumthor. 

Doryun Chong became the rst chief curator of M+, a new museum of visual culture, in September 2013. The museum is expected to open its Herzog and de Meuron-designed building in 2019 in the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong. In January 2016, Chong was promoted to deputy director and chief curator. He oversees all curatorial activities and programs including acquisitions, exhibitions, learning and public programs, and digital initiatives encompassing the three main disciplinary areas of design and architecture, moving image and visual art.

Allan Schwartzman is a Founder and Principal of AAP. He brings to the company more than 20 years’ experience in advising some of the world’s most influential and sophisticated collectors in forming their holdings of contemporary art, both individually and in conjunction with their stewardship of major museums. Schwartzman is also widely respected as an independent curator, most notably for Instituto Inhotim, the visionary contemporary art park set within a 5,000-acre botanical garden in Brazil. As creative director and chief curator of Inhotim, he has been central to developing the collection of the renowned institution and commissioning its signature site-specific works by artists including Chris Burden, Giuseppe Penone, Matthew Barney, Doris Salcedo, Doug Aitken, Rivane Neuenschwander, Olafur Eliasson and Rirkrit Tiravanija, including projects that could not have been realized anywhere else.