Arts, Culture & Creativity

We have an openness in our society that embraces self expression and free thought. From this we have produced world famous talent through a whole variety of genres – literature, music, theatre, broadcasting, film, comedy, visual arts and culture.

The British Arts and Culture scene is interwoven to the very fabric of our society and reflects our values and our way of life. We believe that our creative talent drives much of our culture and that is crucial to our individual and national economic success in the future.

It is this foundation that has enabled us to pioneer and lead the world in such advancements as biodiversity, sustainability and climate change.

During the Shanghai Expo 2010 we will demonstrate the best of British arts, culture and creativity, through our iconic Pavilion design and our exciting events programme. You will be able to experience British pop culture, theatre and dance right here in Shanghai.

The World Collections Programme (WCP) supports the development of relationships with institutions and audiences in China, India, the Middle East and Africa through partnership working.

The UK partners are:

-British Library

-British Museum

-Natural History Museum

-Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew)

-Tate

-Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) 

The programme enables greater coordination of international activities between the six members, with an emphasis on providing digital and non-English language access to collections.

The WCP also supports overseas exhibitions, loans and public programming connected to exhibitions along with capacity building, professional development, training and joint research.

The programme has supported the opening of the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species at the Kunming Institute of Botany in partnership with Kew. The Natural History Museum and Kew are currently developing online access for non-specialist users to Chinese Digital Plant Resources as part of the Global Plants Initiative with WCP support. As part of this project a botanist from the Natural History Museum visited China to work with a colleague from the Institute of Botany in Beijing, and writing a blog on their research.

Connections with China

The WCP partners all have ongoing connections with China through a variety of projects.  

The centrepiece of the UK Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010, a Seed Cathedral, was created in conjunction with Kew’s Millennium Seedbank partnership. Chinese schools now also have access to Kew’s Great Plant Hunt , funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Current exhibitions include The printed image in China from the 8th to the 21st centuries, which is on display at the British Museum in London from 6 May to 5 September 2010, and India: The Arts of the Temple . This major touring exhibition, on show at Shanghai Museum from 4 August to 15 November 2010, explores the visual culture of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temple sculpture. The exhibition is presented by the Shanghai Museum and the British Museum with the collaboration of the V&A Museum, London. The British Museum and the V&A are both lending major works to this exhibition and have collaborated on the writing of the catalogue and on a digital installation.

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei will undertake the eleventh commission in The Unilever Series for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern - 12 October 2010 – 25 April 2011.  Previously, J. M. W. Turner: Oils and Watercolours from Tate Britain, shown in 2009 at The National Art Museum of China in Beijing was the first comprehensive exhibition of Turner’s works to be shown in China. 

The V&A ‘s  important painting of the opening of the Great Exhibition of 1851 ( Henry Courtney Selous)  features prominently in the World Exposition Museum, highlighting the historic links between London, home of the first world exposition, and Shanghai 2010. In 2012, the V&A exhibition Design in Britain 1948 to 2012 will travel to the Shanghai Art Museum immediately after its V&A showing.

The British Library hosts the International Dunhuang Project ,  a groundbreaking international collaboration providing accessibility to information on more than 100,000 manuscripts, paintings, artefacts, textiles and historical photographs from the Eastern Silk Road, with centres in London, Beijing, Dunhuang, St Petersburg, Berlin, Kyoto Paris and from late 2010, Seoul.