MoMA and Hong Kong’s M+ Join Forces in New Partnership

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New York‘s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and M+ in Hong Kong have teamed up this week, signing an agreement to share resources.

The non-binding pledge would cover research, conservation, collection management, artwork loans, exhibition-making, knowledge sharing, and staff development. It marks MoMA’s first collaboration of the kind with an institution in Asia.

Glenn D. Lowry, the David Rockefeller Director at MoMA, said the arrangement will enable both art museums to ‘exchange expertise and ideas’ and create opportunities for ‘global audiences to experience and engage with contemporary art and artists’.

Meanwhile, M+ Director Suhanya Raffel said they valued the ‘open and ongoing dialogue’ and looked forward to future joint efforts with MoMA.

Betty Fung, CEO of M+‘s fundraising body, West Kowloon Arts District Authority, last year warned of government-endowed funding drying up amidst rising operating costs and insufficient ticket sales.

Soon after, the group was signing agreements to collaborate with 21 institutions from 11 countries, including France’s Centre Pompidou, Tate in the U.K., Tokyo‘s National Art Center, and the Qatar Museums.

An exhibition spotlighting Pablo Picasso opens at M+ next month, with over 60 of the artist’s works loaned from new partner Musée Picasso Paris—alongside 80 works from its collection by Asian and Asian-diaspora artists.

In December, the museum will host a major survey of Chinese-French painter Zao Wou-Ki, featuring over 200 works. —[O]

Main image: Exhibition view: M+ Commission: Tong Yang-Tze, M+, Hong Kong (12 November 2021–28 August 2022). Photo: © M+.