The Museum of Women and Children | 中国妇女儿童博物馆 (12/9)

Visiting The Museum of Women and Children in Beijing. December 9, 2015. Photograph by Carrie Hertz.

Visiting The Museum of Women and Children in Beijing. Jon Kay photographing the last bits of the women’s arts exhibition before de-installation was complete. December 9, 2015. Photograph by Jason Baird Jackson.

Visiting The Museum of Women and Children in Beijing. December 9, 2015. Photograph by Jon Kay.

Visiting The Museum of Women and Children in Beijing. A baby carrier was among the last objects not yet removed from the exhibition halls. December 9, 2015. Photograph by Jason Baird Jackson.

Visiting The Museum of Women and Children in Beijing. December 9, 2015. Photograph by Jason Baird Jackson.

Visiting The Museum of Women and Children in Beijing. December 9, 2015. Photograph by Carrie Hertz.

Visiting The Museum of Women and Children in Beijing. (L-R) Marsha MacDowell, Jason Jackson, Carrie Hertz, and Jon Kay. December 9, 2015. Photograph by Kurt Dewhurst.

This is the third 2017 China trip post. As in the two (1, 2) previous posts, it reports on adventures in Beijing with Jon Kay (my MMWC colleague) and Carrie Hertz (of the Museum of International Folk Art). On the second day in Beijing, we were thrilled to be joined by our friends and colleagues from the Michigan State University Museum—Marsha MacDowell and C. Kurt Dewhurst.

Our goals for December 9th were pretty ambitious. In the morning we went to The Museum of Women and Children, China’s “first state-level museum focusing on women and children.” Because the museum previously hosted the U.S. exhibition The Sum of Many Parts: 25 Quiltmakers from 21st-Century America (here and here), it was well known to Marsha (who was central to the earlier traveling exhibition—a project that Jon was also involved in). Marsha and Kurt told us of the extensive and detailed textile exhibitions they saw previously at the museum (and that are still announced on the English website…). Sadly the museum was rather deserted on our arrival. It soon became clear why. Most of the exhibitions were recently taken down, leaving the galleries rather empty. We saw where the great textile exhibitions had been and we quickly saw the remaining history exhibitions and then we kept moving. Later in the trip—when we got to Nanning—we would see an exhibition that gave us hope for the Museum of Women and Children, but at this stage, we just departed the museum a bit disappointed and looking ahead to our next stop—Beijing’s 798 Art Zone.