About Us

The Forum for Curators of Chinese Art (the ‘Forum’) brings together Chinese art curators, museum professionals, and art historians in the global network of Bei Shan Tang Foundation with the goal of facilitating knowledge exchange and catalysing museum collaborations. Previous Forums were organised in collaboration with museums including the Art Museum, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 2009), Seattle Art Museum (Seattle, 2011), Shanghai Museum (Shanghai, 2013), The British Museum (London, 2014), The Palace Museum (Beijing, 2016), and the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto, 2018). The last Forum (2021), held online, was attended by more than 120 museum curators, directors, and professionals around the world.

Bei Shan Tang Foundation was founded in 1985 by Dr. J. S. Lee to institutionalise his efforts to promote Chinese art and culture, with a tax-exempt charitable (Section 88) status. Along with its original mission to promote Chinese art and culture, the Foundation now also dedicates a significant part of its resources to support educational initiatives.

Vision and Mission in Chinese Art and Culture

• Vision – To enhance everyone’s understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture
• Mission – To advance scholarship in the field of Chinese art and culture

Strategic Priorities in Chinese Art and Culture

• To encourage the scholarly research and preservation of traditional Chinese art in both academic and museum sectors
• To support capacity building of Chinese art historians and museum professionals for Hong Kong and beyond
• To further scholarly research of Chinese art by leveraging Bei Shan Tang’s collection

Recent Major Initiatives in Chinese Art and Culture

• J. S. Lee Memorial Fellowship Programme, which supports outstanding and promising museum professionals and scholars in the field of Chinese art and culture to conduct research or gain curatorial and museum experience through fellowship attachments at foreign museums and academic institutions for a period of 4 to 12 months
• Bei Shan Tang Doctoral Thesis Grant, which supports final-year PhD candidates to engage in full-time thesis writing
• Museum Professionals Training Workshop organized by Art Museum, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and sponsored by the Foundation
• Grants and financial support for research projects, exhibitions, conferences, publications, education initiatives in relation to Chinese art and culture organized by museums, universities, schools and NGOs
• Financial assistance to students for pursuing graduate studies and postgraduate research in Chinese art and history