New Contemporary Art Museum to Open Next to the Bird's Nest

Back at the end of August, the Beijinger's Art Editor Venus Lau reported rumors had been circulating that the National Art Museum of China was planning on opening a huge new gallery especially devoted to contemporary art. More details about the new museum were revealed yesterday, with The Art Newspaper quoting the director of the NAMOC, Fan Di'an as saying that the huge new gallery (80,000 sqm) will be built in the vicinity of the Bird's Nest and that it will indeed be home to the gallery's collection of Chinese modern and contemporary art. There has still been no official announcement about the plan to build a new gallery.

In other art news, the new China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) gallery is set to open this weekend. The opening will also mark the 90th anniversary of the art school's founding. For more details, take a look at the following description of the project that was taken from the August issue of Urbane:

CAFA Art Museum
Arata Isozaki and Associates (Japan), 2008
The undulating shape of Beijing's sharpest looking museum, sitting on the northeast edge of the country's leading design school, is based on the curvature of the surrounding topography. Inside, the spacious feature exhibitions hall on the top floor features edgeless, curved inner walls and natural lighting, and a more traditional permanent exhibitions hall below.
8 Huajiadi Nanjie, Chaoyang District
中央美术学院美术馆，朝阳区花家地南街8号

Links and Sources
The Art Newspaper:New contemporary museum for Beijing
The Beijinger: Art Roundup - News, Views and Reviews
The Beijing News: 新美术馆为90岁美院庆生 (image)
Urbane: Upfront: New Kids on the Block (Aug 2008, p14)
Artzine: China: The Road to “Art Museums”