Ningbo Art Museum

Ningbo Art Museum

Ningbo Art Museum is a public art museum in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China, covering an area of 15,800 square meters. It was completed in October 2005. The museum is located along the Yong River in Ningbo’s Old Bund area, on the site of the former Ningbo ferry terminal, which had over 100 years of ferry operation history. After the ferry service ceased,...

Ningbo Art Museum

Ningbo Art Museum is a public art museum in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China, covering an area of 15,800 square meters. It was completed in October 2005. The museum is located along the Yong River in Ningbo’s Old Bund area, on the site of the former Ningbo ferry terminal, which had over 100 years of ferry operation history. After the ferry service ceased, the ferry terminal building was abandoned. In 2003, under the direction of Wang Shu, a renowned mainland Chinese architect, the original ferry terminal building was transformed into the art museum. The designer preserved the internal spatial structure of the original terminal and, in line with the operational needs of the art museum, arranged the ground floor as large-scale exhibition halls and the upper floors as spaces for fine art exhibitions. The completed Ningbo Art Museum includes exhibition halls, collection storage, lecture halls, artist studios, and art education centers. Since its opening, there was initially a period when works by internationally renowned artists received little attention. In 2011, Ningbo Art Museum became one of the first public art museums in China to offer free admission, leading to a significant increase in visitor numbers afterward.

The site of Ningbo Art Museum was originally the Ningbo ferry terminal. In 1862, the American flag carrier Russell & Company launched the earliest ferry route between Ningbo and Shanghai. Later, several ferry companies from Britain, France, the United States, Japan, and China operated on the route. At its busiest, the route once ran seven daily services, each carrying over a thousand passengers. However, with the opening of the Hangzhou–Ningbo Expressway, passenger traffic at the Ningbo ferry terminal sharply declined. In 2001, the last vessel operating the Shanghai–Ningbo route, the Ningbo Shipping “Tianfeng,” announced its retirement. At that time, the Ningbo municipal government was looking for a location for the art museum. After inspections by Xu Jiang, then president of the China Academy of Art, and Professor Wang Shu, they proposed converting the original passenger terminal building into the Ningbo Art Museum, a suggestion that gained government support. The Ningbo Port Authority (now Ningbo Port Group) donated the original passenger terminal building, plaza, and docks to the museum project free of charge.

Ningbo Art Museum is one of the representative works of Wang Shu, a well-known Chinese architect. When discussing the design of the museum, Wang Shu pointed out that, in relation to the original ferry terminal, “the orientation between the city and the river should be carefully preserved.” Therefore, the designer retained the spatial structure of the original ferry terminal to maintain the memory it brought to the city. At the same time, the original dock was preserved at the designer’s advocacy.

In terms of the main architectural design, the part of the building facing Renmin Road does not use a conventional plaza or staircase layout but instead features an elevated courtyard and a gangway design, symbolizing the structure of a traditional Chinese courtyard. On the side facing the Yong River, two flat rectangular forms are overlaid to evoke the image of a ship. The second floor of the main building includes 100 cedar wood doors, each eight meters high, lining a 100-meter-long, six-meter-wide riverside corridor, aiming to revive a way of life that has been lost.

In terms of space utilization, the first floor of the building is designed as an open exhibition hall that can host various non-art exhibitions to support the daily operations of the museum. To this end, the designer intentionally extended the outdoor floor tiles into the interior of the exhibition hall, symbolizing its openness. The floors above the second floor are dedicated to pure art exhibitions and creative spaces.

In terms of material usage, the base of the museum is constructed with blue bricks commonly used in traditional Ningbo architecture, while the lower part is built with specially made city bricks, aligning with the brick buildings of the nearby Old Bund and also highlighting the unique characteristics of the museum building. The base incorporates cave-like structures inspired by Dunhuang, alluding to the site’s history as the departure point for ferries carrying Ningbo residents to Mount Putuo for worship. The upper part is a steel-and-timber structure, symbolizing the materials of ships and ports.

The Ningbo International Graphic Design Biennial (IGDB) is a major exhibition event hosted by Ningbo Art Museum. The exhibition originated from the Ningbo International Poster Biennial and has been held six times to date. Wang Shu once stated in his article “How We Recognize the Design of Ningbo Art Museum”: “Some say beware it might turn into a dried-fish market, but if that really happened, it would make the museum even more a part of Ningbo.”

Address: No. 122, Renmin Road, Jiangbei District, Ningbo

Type: Art Museum

Recommended Visiting Time: 1–2 hours

Phone: 0574-87643222

Official Website: http://www.nma.org.cn/

Opening Hours:

9:00–17:00 (ticket sales stop at 16:30); closed on Mondays, open on holidays.