The potential of museums to create meaningful experiences forpeoples of all origins and backgrounds is central to their social value. Asagents of change and trusted institutions, there is no time like the presentfor museums to demonstrate their relevance by engaging constructively in thepolitical, social, and cultural realities of modern society.
Today, SIITD has released the “Shanghai museum social influence index (MII) 2020”, which evaluates 142 museums in Shanghai based on six indicators: popularity, communication, participation, integration, service and transformation.
Shanghai Glass museum ranks Top 6 inthe overall list. As the theme museum, it is featured with "glass" to build a diversified media platform to be close with young targets. In the top10, the number of its overseas publications ranks the third; and the number of posts on Weibo ranked first. Its popularity keeps rising, ranking 1st, 3rd and7th respectively in terms of service, integration and participation degrees.
The Shanghai Museum of Glass is the first glass museum in China, located on a former glass manufacturing site in Baoshan District, Shanghai, adaptivereusing two pre-existing buildings, a former glass bottle factory and a warehouse. Classified as a “Type II” museum, its multi-functional design for glass art, research and technology distinguishes it from traditional museums.
Focuses on young families, Shanghai Museum of Glass shoulders the responsibility of culture and art communication, public education, etc. In addition to its glass-themed exhibition, the museum provides hot glass shows, DIY workshops, lectures, libraries and other various exhibitions and public activities. Those events keep attracting visitors, making the space vigorous all the time.
Uniquely treated U-shaped glass panels form the museum’s facade where multi-language glass-related words glow via its LED back-light resulting in a truly one-of-a-kind visual effect.
Over the past 9 years (2011-2020), the area of buildings and supporting facilities in the Museum Park has expanded to 20,220㎡ from 3,500㎡. Originating with the main museum hall and the Hot Glass Performance Hall, it has evolved into a G+Park that focuses on glass art and boasts 20 exhibition halls with distinctive themes. The total number of visitors has exceeded 1 million. Shanghai Museum of Glass has realized its transformation from industrialization to modernizationin through constant self-iteration.
Both social and economic benefits are achieved, and its revenue has reached a ten fold increase over the 9 years. It is the continuous investment for the museum’s growing demand, which leads to some spillover effectupon its growing to critical point, such as upgrading land added value. Shanghai Museum of Glass has become the model of urban renewal due to the following factors: first, it involves art that conforms to the city’s character, and provides citizens with a unimaginable museum lifestyle. Like an organic creature, it thrives and becomes a cultural carrier to attract repeated visits of the public; second, it has established a benchmark for the long-term global planning of local government to effectively drive the virtuous development of Baoshan district.
