News – Chinese experience

Arts managers from China are working with leading arts organisations across the UK through the China-UK Arts Management Placement Programme being run by Visiting Arts, a reprise of a 1999 scheme which was run with the co-operation of the Ministry of Culture of the People?s Republic of China.
Established with the aim of encouraging intercultural exchange, Visiting Arts co-ordinates the inward flow of arts practitioners from around the world and this year?s Chinese delegates, from key cultural organisations such as the China Performing Arts Agency, the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre and the Guandong Arts Exchange Centre, are shadowing managers at organisations as diverse as the Ikon Gallery, the British Museum and Shakespeare?s Globe. Dou Weiping, Deputy Director of the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Bureau who is spending two weeks at Arts Council England South East, said: ??experiencing how things are actually done has helped me to make sense of the structure of arts funding, which is very different from China?. Following the 1999 Programme, a number of participants developed collaborations with their former UK hosts including Guangdong Modern Dance Company appearing at Brighton Festival and a tour of the Northern Ballet Theatre in China in 2000.