There have been five non-public museums provincewide since the first private museum was founded in April 2013, contributing to Hue City a number of attractive cultural destinations.
Madam Cecile Le Pham presenting one of the museum’s collections
Passion and devotion
Cecile Le Pham Museum of Fine Arts is the most recent non-public museum that opened to the public in April. This is the result of Mme. Cecile Le Pham’s 30 years of collecting items from 40 countries with her devotion and passion for Vietnam’s cultural heritage and her desire to explore the world’s culture and art. Mme. Cecile Le Pham’s wish is to inspire young people and students the passion for cultural heritage.
The Huong River Ancient Pottery Museum is the result of more than 30 years that Prof. Dr. Thai Kim Lan and her brother, the painter Thai Nguyen Ba, spent painstakingly collecting nearly 2,500 ceramic artifacts, most of which were picked up from the Huong River. The museum’s artifacts are rich and diverse, including many rare and typical specimens of Sa Huynh, Champa and Dai Viet cultures.
Opening last year, The Huong River Ancient Pottery Museum has become a destination for culture lovers to admire and discover the values of different cultures that were present in the land of Thuan Hoa - Phu Xuan. These cultures are hidden in each artifact.
There have been five non-public museums provincewide since the first private museum was founded in April 2013, including Museum of Nguyen Dynasty-styled Porcelain, XQ Embroidery Art Museum, Museum of General Nguyen Chi Thanh, The Huong River Ancient Pottery Museum and Cecille Le Pham Museum of Fine Arts. In addition, Lebadang Memory Space is also recognized as a tourist attraction of Hue.
In addition to the role of complementary museums, the network of non-public museums with its rich display contents has brought to Hue City historical and cultural values, as well as contributing to the city attractive cultural sites.
Dr. Phan Thanh Hai, Director of the Department of Culture and Sports, said that the establishment of non-public museums in Hue has changed the perception and operation of the museum system. It concurrently forms a new mindset in how to display, collect, interpret, promote, organize services and compete to attract visitors. The presence of non-public museums also opens a new trend in activities to present and promote Hue cultural heritage values to the public.
Diverse cultural heritages
Apart from the efforts and enthusiasm of individuals and organizations, each museum was established marked the interest and support of the provincial authorities. Dr. Phan Thanh Hai said that the Provincial People’s Council passed Resolution No. 17/2020/NQ-HDND in 2020, stipulating a number of policies to support the development of non-public museums in the province. These policies include supports for housing rental, exhibition activities, training human resources and promoting their operation. It is practical to implement policies to support and facilitate for the establishment of a network of non-public museums. It helps to diversify cultural institutions and maximize social sources.
According to Dr. Nguyen Anh Thu, lecturer at the Faculty of Cultural Heritage, Hanoi University of Culture, it is a respectable policy to encourage the establishment of non-public museums and their participation in cultural institutions. This is consonant with the development trend of museum system in the world.
One of the challenges for the non-public museum network is knowledge and skills in the operation. With a large number of artifacts, the assessment of the origin and age, as well as a development project with the experts’ advice is a problem that non-public museums face.
Moreover, most of the non-public museums were founded based on the passion for antiques, art forms and traditional professions and their display was based on existing collections of artifacts. They lack funds to organize annual exhibitions and galleries. Some museums also lack operation experience and support in specialized equipment.
Dr. Nguyen Anh Thu suggested that the non-public museum system should have a tight connection with the public museum system for professional assistance and expert consultation. Furthermore, it is advisable to have co-exhibitions between public and private museums. In this way, public museums will go hand in hand with the network of non-public museums to have quality exhibitions and enrich cultural heritage to present to the public.
In addition to taking advantage of the inherent strengths of unique collections, non-public museums need to regularly inventory and make records for artifacts, because assessment and scientific evidence for the artifacts will guarantee a good display.
Story and photo: Minh Hien