Established on the New Year’s Day of 1960, Suzhou Museum is a comprehensive museum dedicated to the collection, exhibition, research and promotion of the history, culture and art of Suzhou. Mansion of Prince Zhong of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the residence of the museum, is one of the first group key cultural relics under national level protection and is the most well-preserved historic compound of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in China. Suzhou Museum has 24,729 pieces /sets of objects, 9,647 being valuable relics. Among them 222 pieces/sets are rated as first-level collections, 829 second-level and 8,596 third-level. The collections of the museum mainly include archaeological relics unearthed over the years, calligraphic works and paintings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and art crafts.
The New Suzhou Museum, which was designed by Ieoh Ming Pei, a world famous architect, officially opened to public on October 6, 2006. With land area of about 10,700 square meters and floor area of more than 19,000 square meters, Suzhou Museum, following the design concept of “integrating modern elements into classical Chinese and Suzhou architecture”, is a garden-style traditional architecture full of innovative elements. Suzhou Museum plus the newly renovated Mansion of Prince Zhong (with combined floor area of 26,500 square kilometers), as well as the adjacent gardens, including the Humble Administrator’s Garden and Lion Grove Garden, collectively form a long corridor of diversified cultures.
In May 2008, Suzhou Museum became one of the first group of national first-level museums and was open to public for free. Taking it as its own responsibilities to carry forward splendid cultures and serve the society and the public, Suzhou Museum has kept updating its services and making remarkable achievements. It has successively won such honorable titles as “Most Innovative Museum in China”, “National Advanced Collectives in Culture System” and “National Civilized Unit”. Three major exhibitions of the museum, namely, “Wu School Painting Series: the Art of Wen Zhengming”, “Italian Renaissance Drawings from British Museum” and “The Painted Screen: Past and Future” successively won “China Top 10 Museum Exhibitions Award”. In 2018, Suzhou Museum was the only Municipal-level museum to be rated “excellent museum” in 2014-2016 National First-level Museums Evaluation.
Located in Shishan Plaza in Suzhou New District, Suzhou Museum West was designed by GMP Architekt (Von Gerkan, Marg und Partner Architekt), the No.1 architecture designer in Germany, and was put into trial operation on Sept. 25, 2021. With floor area of 48,365 square meters and exhibition area of 13,391square meters, Suzhou Museum West has a display of more than 2,100 pieces /sets of cultural relics collected by the museum, including Jade Cong dating to Liangzhu Period, Illuminated Manuscripts of Lotus Sutra on Blue Paper of the Tang Dynasty-Five Dynasties Period, Jun Kiln Tripod Washer with Drum-nail Design of the Song Dynasty, Loquat-shaped Grey Pottery Ritual Vessel of the Yuan Dynasty, Bowl with Design of Fairy Scattering Flowers Dedicated to Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty, and other valuable relics. Inspired by the typical layout of lanes in Jiangnan waterfront towns, Suzhou Museum West is a classic architecture with distinctive local features. The permanent galleries include Suzhou History Gallery, Suzhou Handicrafts Gallery, Exploration and Experience Gallery, International Cooperation Gallery, and Secret of Colors & Solar Terms Gallery.
Upholding the philosophy of “focusing on Jiangnan culture, displaying world civilization”, Suzhou Museum West presents the elegance of Suzhou style, narrates the stories of Jiangnan culture and displays the glamour of world civilization.
