On this day in China 8

The art of curator.................................

Once you have transported the art between venues you need to go through the process of:

• unpacking

• condition checking

• preparing the art for hanging.........

On this day in China 7 - Shopping

Along with acting as Courier to the art, experiencing the culinary delights  we thought we would share with the delights of shopping and inparticular the cute brading/ logos you see when out and about.

Loved the panda brand - not the heads on the figures so much, but the logo is cool. 

Really like this logo

On this Day in China 6 Food Update

Stinky tofu is a delicacy - not as bad as it could have been, but will pass next time! 

Some of the other food this evening was really good though and they embrace our vegetarianism. The food in Hunan is known for being hot and spicy.

The equivalent of Walkers crisps are also available in China - how does cucumber  or lime flavoured take your fancy!

On This Day in China 5

Here is today's update from our Art Gallery Officer:

The schedule is pretty hectic and moving the exhibition from Zhengzhou and Changsha is about 500 miles overland! There are two quite big lorries which are climate controlled with all the artworks in the crates.
It took a 13 hour journey to get to Changsha. Tomorrow the customs people come and then we can unload and start condition checking all over again. 

Here are some pictures of the journey to Changsha:

Help its 41degress!!!!!!!

Arrived at Changsha

On This Day in China 4: Food

Here is a picture of the take out lunch box which they have ordered each day for us at the museum.

Had noodles for breakfast as well today though. There are lots of veggie Chinese dishes, the difficulty is in getting across that you don't eat meat or fish, it's a difficult concept to grasp for them and if you went to a restaurant without someone who spoke Chinese, you really need to go somewhere with a picture menu. We did go to Pizza Hut two nights ago just for a change from Chinese food potentially three times a day. There is also Starbucks, Hagen Daaz, KFC, McDonalds (of course), but they all have some different variations on what they would serve in UK. 

On This Day in China 3

The giant statue is in the main entrance/foyer of Henan Museum. People like to pose with it for photos.

Chinese people are mad for taking pictures and love their mobile phones and cameras. Two men both wanted to have their photo taken with me at the Shaolin Temple?!.........      and a small child ran after me in the street here near the shopping mall to take my photo!

Watched performance of ancient Chinese music in Henan Museum

On This Day in China 2

All going well. Massive thunderstorm last night! Then final day of condition checking. We have 7 paintings and 3 sculpture to do out of 80 artworks altogether. Well, until we have to do it all again in Changsha! 


It's quite tiring as condition checking is when you have to concentrate all the time, but otherwise it is just like work at home, we just happen to be working in a museum in China! We finished all the condition checking at 12noon today and then got taken here which was amazing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaolin_Temple

Tomorrow we go to the museum and wait for the customs people to check the crates (there are customs between different provinces here not just when you enter or leave the country). 

On This Day in China

Our Art Gallery Officer is currently in China acting as Courier for Greater Manchester Museum Groups exhibition: Towards Modernity: Three Centuries of British Art. We thought it would be interesting to blog about her oriental experiences.

Made it to Zhengzhou.

Went across to Henan Museum this evening to oversee the crates being moved into the gallery and met the art handling team who seem great. 

Then we got taken for dinner by three staff from the museum - one of the directors, the head of exhibitions and someone from the digital department - all women and we entertained them with our vegetarianism!

So tomorrow morning we start the take down and condition checking which we have three days to do before the customs checks on Tues and then the transit to Changsha on Weds. 

Because I went to see the crate move, I got to see the exhibition which looked very 'proper' and well done. So funny seeing our paintings in a museum in China!