M+ Museum and MoMA ink deal to foster cultural exchange

Hong Kong’s M+ Museum and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) from New York have signed a first-ever Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to foster collaboration in areas such as research and exhibition exchanges.

It’s the first comprehensive collaboration between MoMA and a museum in Asia, focusing on curatorial research and exchange, conservation, programme sharing, and professional development.

The MoU was signed by Suhanya Raffel (pictured left), museum director, M+, along with Glenn D. Lowry (pictured right), The David Rockefeller director, MoMA, at a ceremony at MoMA in New York on Tuesday (18 February). The partnership between the two institutions is built on a shared commitment to international collaboration, cultural exchange, and museum development.

The MoU covers six areas, including joint curatorial research and exchange; conservation and collection management, from acquisition to preservation, care, display, and access; artwork loans; sharing sustainability practices; training, professional development, as well as knowledge sharing; and exhibition and programme exchange.

Suhanya Raffel, museum director, M+, said: “We are excited to embark on this partnership, which will not only deepen mutual understanding and strengthen our exchange, but also set the stage for collaboration on curatorial affairs, collection development, exhibition research, and museum operations.” 

“We value our open and ongoing dialogue and look forward to many joint efforts with MoMA to come. The signing of this MOU affirms M+’s commitment to collaboration with pre-eminent cultural institutions around the world and strengthens M+’s position as Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture,” Raffel added. 

Glenn D. Lowry, The David Rockefeller director, MoMA, said: “We are thrilled to partner with M+ on an ambitious new collaboration, to exchange expertise and ideas that will help us take our museums forward in new and exciting directions and create more opportunities for our global audiences to experience and engage with contemporary art and artists.”

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to M+ for more information. 

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M+ is Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture. Located in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK), it is dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. M+ will present a themed exhibition dedicated to the Spanish artist Picasso from 15 March to 13 July, featuring over 60 masterpieces on loan from the Musée national Picasso-Paris, the largest and most significant collection of Picasso’s works in the world.

Back in March last year, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) said it would sign MoUs with 22 arts and cultural institutions across the globe, strengthening Hong Kong's strategic role as an East-meets-West cultural hub. The MoUs cover diverse areas of cooperation spanning co-production and touring of exhibitions, collection sharing, partnerships on conservation, digitalisation and scientific research; as well as educational and exchange programmes for art administrators and artists across Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM), M+ and the performing arts division of WKCDA.

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