The Fitzwilliam Museum and China

The Fitzwilliam Museum and China
building bridges between China and the West

2 | Fitzwilliam Museum

The Fitzwilliam Museum and China
building bridges between China and the West

From the Director
The Fitzwilliam Museum is one of Britain’s foremost museums
and houses some of the country’s finest collections of art and
antiquities. It was founded in 1816 by the bequest of Richard,
Viscount Fitzwilliam, an 18th century collector and art lover
who, at his death, gifted his personal collection of paintings,
prints, books and manuscripts “for the increase of learning.” Lord
Fitzwilliam’s bequest also provided sufficient funds to erect the
magnificent museum building with its distinctive, neo-classical
facade, which opened to the public in 1848. Its collections
have grown by gift, bequest and purchase over nearly 200
years so that the Museum is now regarded as “one of the
greatest collections of the nation and a monument of the first
importance” and as “the finest small museum in Europe”.
Today the Museum is privileged to hold more than 500,000
objects representing most of the great civilisations of the past –
from ancient Egypt, the Near East, Greece, Rome and China and
including paintings from the fourteenth century to the present
day, drawings, prints, coins and medals, rare books, manuscripts
and music, sculpture, armour, pottery, glass and oriental art. All
the collections have been designated by government as being
of national importance and many of the objects attract the
interest and attention of international scholars.
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The Museum’s contemporary mission reflects its founder’s
principles and his commitment to academic excellence and
public education, which are pursued by offering permanent
displays, exhibitions and public programmes designed to
engage as wide an audience as possible. More than 300,000
visits are made each year by scholars, school children and
families from the local region, as well as by tourists and visitors
from the UK and overseas. The Museum is receives funding
from a variety of sources including Central Government,
research funding bodies, trusts and foundations, donations
from individual and corporate sponsors and the University of
Cambridge. Admission is free and will remain so – if we can
maintain and increase the level of giving.
This brochure provides a snapshot of some of the Museum’s
many wide-ranging activities.
Dr Timothy Potts, Director

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Research and Study
Research and teaching form a major part of the Fitzwilliam
Museum’s activity. Its outstanding and, in some cases, unique
collections attract scholars from many disciplines from all
over the world and present many excellent opportunities for
museum staff to pursue research interests leading to related
exhibitions and publications. They also engage in teaching
for the University of Cambridge. Over 2,000 students in higher
education use the museum’s collections each year.
Among the Museum’s holdings are outstanding examples
of European painting and sculpture, including renowned
masterpieces from the Renaissance to the 20th century.
The medieval collections are particularly rich and the
subject of large collaborative research projects. These
include a multi-volume catalogue of the Illuminated
Manuscripts held by the Museum, the Colleges of the
University of Cambridge and the University Library,
coordinated at the Museum. A multi-volume survey and
publication of medieval European coinage, accompanied
by an extensive website is also in preparation.
Undergraduate and graduate students in many disciplines,
including oriental studies, classics, history and the history of
art, are taught in the museum and encouraged to research
the collections. The research activity of the curatorial and
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conservation staff results in publications and exhibitions –
both in the museum and online - that throws fresh light on
their subjects and excites the interest of both academic and
general visitors.
The study of the Chinese collections is led by Dr James C. S.
Lin, a leading academic expert who specialises in jades and
the Han Dynasties. He curated the recent exhibition The
Immortal Stone: Chinese jades from the Neolithic period to the
twentieth century and authored the accompanying catalogue.
Dr Lin, who is affiliated to the Department of East Asian Studies
within the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies of the
University of Cambridge, supervises students from Tsinghua
University, and hosts visitors and scholars from the PRC and
Hong Kong, on a regular basis.

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Exhibitions
The Museum has a strong history of organising major
exhibitions, many of them centred on the Fitzwilliam’s own
collections, including The Cambridge Illuminations (2005)
illuminated manuscript treasures from the Museum, 18
Cambridge Colleges and the University Library; ‘I Turned it
into a Palace’, Sir Sydney Cockerell and the Fitzwilliam Museum
(2008), celebrating the centenary of the appointment of the
Museum’s most important director to date; The Immortal Stone:
Chinese jades from the Neolithic period to the twentieth century
(2008/09) and many more.
Increasingly, the Museum is mounting important international
exhibitions in collaboration with major international partners.
In 2008 it presented the UK’s only opportunity to see stunning
ancient goldwork in From the Land of the Golden Fleece, tomb
treasures from Ancient Georgia, organised in collaboration with
the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York
University.
In 2009, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of
Charles Darwin, the Museum organised Endless Forms: Charles
Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts in collaboration with
the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, USA. It opened at
the Fitzwilliam Museum to ecstatic reviews and enthusiastic,
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record breaking audiences. The exhibition broke new ground
for the Museum and demonstrates its determination and
ability to stimulate dialogue and new connections across
academic disciplines in both the arts and sciences.
In 2012 the Museum plans the first and largest exhibition of
Western Han treasures outside China (see below).
“Curatorial genius…best show of the year” The Daily Telegraph
“A major achievement” New York Times

“Superb” The Daily Telegraph
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Education & Outreach
The Museum is a natural focus for teaching and outreach. It has
been committed to public engagement since it opened over
160 years ago. Its education programmes for adults and young
people reach wider audiences every year. In 2009–10 more
than 23,000 school children took part in inspiring activities
based on the collections and exhibitions, and spanning the
school curriculum, led by the museum’s educators:
“Hand on heart I can say that every single child has raised their game,
has benefited from this. There’s not one child in all of the classes that
I’ve brought to the Fitzwilliam who hasn’t benefited. That’s a fantastic
thing to say about an education project”.
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Teacher, St Mary’s C of E Primary School
“it is so stimulating for them. They go back to school with such ideas
and enthusiasm”.
Teacher, year 5, Orchard Primary School
A similar number of young people come with their classroom
teachers, in visiting overseas groups or independently.
Each major exhibition is accompanied by a programme of
public lectures and talks by leading experts, many drawn from
the University’s academic community.
Some thousands of adults, members of the general public,
take part in lectures, talks, workshops and courses about the
collections and exhibitions every year. In 2010 over 1500
people joined in an Outdoor Festival of Chinese Culture.
Festival of Chinese culture 2010

Online presence
The Museum has an unusually rich and extensive website
where records of more than 165,000 objects, together
with virtual exhibitions, publications, learning resources for
teachers, information about the activities of the curatorial and
conservation departments, podcasts and interactives, take the
Museum’s collections and activities to a world-wide audience.
http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk
Young musician entertains guests at the launch of
Eastern Exchanges, part of the Cultural Olympiad, 2010
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Engagement with China
The Fitzwilliam Museum houses one of the most extensive
collections of Chinese objects in the UK. Most of the 200
Chinese jade and hard stone objects arrived in the early
twentieth century when the building of the railways in
China yielded many archaeological discoveries and Western
connoisseurs began to collect Chinese artefacts. The
collections also include examples of snuff bottles, porcelain
vessels, gold, silver and bronze objects, lacquer-ware, ivories
and enamels.
The Museum has been cultivating the use of its Chinese
collections for some years. In partnership with ‘China Now’, an
organisation to promote greater understanding of China in
the UK, and to mark the Beijing Olympics (2008), we mounted
a small exhibition Made for Export: Chinese nineteenth century
flower drawings (2008), showing works which mark the growing
interest in Britain in Chinese horticulture. The exhibition also
included an album by Youqua, made in Canton (Guangzhou),
showing tea cultivation, and a scroll describing sericulture.
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Attributed to Qiu Ying, The making of silk, 18th century
The display of porcelain made in China for export alongside
English and European porcelain made in imitation or
influenced by Chinese designs is a feature of our permanent
displays, and has been of great interest to European and
Chinese scholars. We are hoping to send a range of such
objects on loan to Tsinghua University and Hong Kong.

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Exhibition 2012
Royal Treasures of Han China
The Fitzwilliam Museum, together with other museums
in the East of England, has developed a plan to foster
understanding of China’s cultural heritage and achievements.
The programme, called Eastern Exchanges, has been endorsed
as a major project in Stories of the World, UK museums’
contribution to the Cultural Olympiad for the London 2012
Olympic and Paralympic Games. In early 2010 the Fitzwilliam
Museum hosted a residency of the Chinese artist Chen Hong,
the well-known ‘Fish King’, and co-ordinated his visits to other
museums in the region. Over 2,500 adults and children took
part in activities or watched demonstrations by this Chinese
master. In 2011 a UK artist will spend two months in China
and further cultural exchanges will be encouraged in the
lead up to the Olympic Games.
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In Cambridge, the climax of all these activities will, we hope, be
the staging of the most important exhibition of Han cultural
material ever seen outside the People’s Republic of China.
The exhibition, Tomb Treasures of Han China, is planned to
run for six months from April-September 2012. It presents an
unprecedented opportunity to highlight Han Chinese culture, art,
religious beliefs and daily life through the spectacular discoveries
in the tombs of the Western Han Period (206BC–8AD).
The exhibition initiative has been a major priority for the
Museum. Director Dr. Timothy Potts describes the project as
‘an internationally significant milestone in British museums’
engagement with China, and of the first importance in
promoting wider understandinng of a critical period of Chinese
history whose legacy continues to shape modern China’s identity’.

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Building bridges
In addition to being groundbreaking and visually stunning,
Tomb Treasures of Han China will present an opportunity for
major cultural exchange to take place and will provide a
focus for cooperation on research and study at the highest
international level. The exhibition will be accompanied by
a fully illustrated scholarly catalogue, symposia, lectures and
talks for both academic and general audiences.
A wide-ranging national promotional campaign and internet
marketing activity will give the exhibition maximum exposure
and it is certain to draw upon London audiences for the
Olympic Games as well national and international tourist
visitors to Cambridge (4 million tourists annually), many from
Europe and the USA.
The Fitzwilliam Museum, located in the centre of the
historic city of Cambridge, home not only to the University
of Cambridge but also to the largest technology cluster
in Europe, is uniquely placed to ensure not only that the
exhibition becomes a major cultural attraction, but presents
an opportunity to raise China’s profile within the UK business
community with the potential to generate new partnerships.
We welcome initiatives supporting artistic activities, events
and performances which will enhance our plans for this
historic exhibition project.
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University of Cambridge | 17

Design & print management: H2 Associates, Cambridge

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© Text and images The Fitzwilliam Museum, 2010