Welcome to our museums of Asia page! Below, we feature some prominent digital museums that cover each Asian subregion. Some of these museums aren't in Asia, but they do a fantastic job fairly representing the people, the art, and the cultures. However, we start off with a branch of a very famous American museum - The Smithsonian! Enjoy.
Smithsonian: National Museum of Asian Art. Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room. Image from Flickr.
Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. Image from Smithsonian Magazine
This first museum is American, but the Smithsonian is world-renowned and does a wonderful job with representation. Here, you will discover 2-D and 3-D art spanning many centuries, covering the breadth and depth of Asia.
From the museum's About Us page: "Committed to preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting exemplary works of art, the National Museum of Asian Art addresses broad questions about culture, identity, and the contemporary world. The museum cares for exceptional collections of Asian art, with more than 45,000 objects dating from the Neolithic period to today and originating from the ancient Near East to China, Japan, Korea, South and Southeast Asia, and the Islamic world."
Silk Road Virtual Museum. Image from museum's website.
This is an entirely online museum. Read the entry from the museum's About page for more information: "The ‘silk road’ is a short-hand way of referring to the land and sea trade routes linking Asia and Europe, and the locations in between. Their history stretches back over two millennia, across a timespan punctuated by bloody territorial struggles. At times of peace, however, trade flourished. Those were the hay-days of the silk road.
The last such period spanned the years 1200-1450. This is where the first museum sites will be concentrated. Their focus is on high quality artistic achievement, shared by the elites in the respective societies. The first museum is in Nanjing, the capital of the new Ming dynasty in China. Other sites will follow soon."
South Korea's National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. Image from Google Arts and Culture.
From the museum's About Us page: "Since its foundation in 1969, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, also known as MMCA, has shared its history with that of Korea’s modern and contemporary art and became one of the most iconic cultural spaces in the nation.
By opening additional museums in Gwacheon in 1986, Deoksugung in 1998, Seoul in 2013, and Cheongju in 2018, we have four major establishments that are unique and organically affiliated.
For instance, MMCA Deoksugung places priority on early modern Korean art, expanding its coverage to calligraphy and literature, and MMCA Seoul represents Korea’s modern art and features an integration of contemporary art.
While MMCA Gwacheon focuses on art research and family activities, covering the breadth of art history from architecture to crafts, prints, and design and offering children’s programs, MMCA Cheongju has established a system of storage, research, conservation, and exhibition that comprises the life cycle of collections.
Looking back on the past fifty years, the MMCA will gather insight from the art world and soar to new heights in the next fifty to come."
National Gallery Singapore - Online Exhibit. Image from Wikipedia.
From the museum's About Us page: "National Gallery Singapore is a leading visual arts institution which oversees the world’s largest public collection of Singapore and Southeast Asian modern art...the Gallery aims to be a progressive museum that creates dialogues between the art of Singapore, Southeast Asia and the world to foster and inspire a creative and inclusive society."
National Museum New Delhi. Image from Google Arts and Culture.
From the About the Museum>History page: "The National Museum, New Delhi, as we see it today, has an interesting beginning. The blueprint for establishing the National Museum in Delhi was prepared by the Maurice Gwyer Committee in May 1946. An Exhibition of Indian Art, consisting of selected artefacts from various museums of India was organized by the Royal Academy, London with the cooperation of Government of India and Britain. The Exhibition went on display in the galleries of Burlington House, London during the winter months of 1947-48. It was decided to display the same collection in Delhi, before the return of exhibits to their respective museums. An exhibition was organized in the the RashtrapatiBhawan (President's residence), New Delhi in 1949, which turned out to be a great success. This event proved responsible for the creation of the National Museum...While the Museum continued to grow its collection through gifts that were sought painstakingly, artefacts were collected through its Arts Purchase Committee. The Museum presently holds approximately 2,00,000 objects of diverse nature, both Indian as well as foreign, and its holdings cover a time span of more than five thousand years of Indian cultural heritage."
Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum. Image from museum's website.
From the museum's Our Story page: "The origins of Louvre Abu Dhabi date back to March 2007. The UAE and France formed an unprecedented partnership for cultural exchange, and the highlight of this would be the establishment of Louvre Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island. The partnership would combine the UAE’s bold vision of cultural progression and openness, with France’s expertise in the world of art and museums. It would explore the shared themes that reveal and connect humanity.
The result is Louvre Abu Dhabi. It represents the dynamic nature of the contemporary Arab world while celebrating the region’s vibrant multicultural heritage. Agence France-Muséums – 17 of France’s most renowned cultural institutions – coordinates the loan of artworks to this UAE museum and provides management expertise."
