Macao Museum plans renovations to attract more visitors

Loi Chi Pang

To celebrate its 20th anniversary, the Macao Museum is organizing a series of activities to highlight its history and contributions to the region, starting next week.

As part of an effort to attract more visitors, the museum will also carry out various renovation works to improve the space and provide visitors with a more interesting overall experience.

These include the refurbishment of the sections for permanent exhibitions and archeology, as stated by museum director Loi Chi Pang at this week’s press conference to mark the museum’s 20th anniversary.

The renovation is expected to cost MOP500,000, with the date of completion yet to be confirmed.

Over the last 20 years, approximately 4.8 million visitors have visited the museum, due largely to its proximity to landmarks such as St. Paul’s Ruins. Loi said he did not consider this to be a low figure but noted that the museum has been working to attract more visitors.

“I don’t think the number [of visitors in 20 years] is low. We don’t want too many people and we have been enforcing […] crowd control measures several times. We want to give some quality to the visitors [when exploring the museum],” Loi said.

Loi added that the museum is “trying to do better” and received approximately 400,000 visitors in 2017, a 12 percent increase from 2016 and almost 60 percent more than that of the 250,000 visitors in 2013.

Some of the museum’s upcoming programs include themed exhibitions, as well as a series of cultural lectures and games related to the Macao Museum. The first of these will kick off on April 18 when the exhibition “Treasure from the Deep Sea – Archaeological Relics of the Nanhai No. 1” will open in the museum lobby.

The special exhibition, which will run until July 31, includes a collection of 99 underwater archaeological relics from a Song Dynasty merchant ship that is said to be “the first to be found on the South China Sea and [includes] porcelains and gold ornaments that can reflect the prosperity of China at those times.”

The museum will also host a lecture on the “Preservation of the hull of the Nanhai No. 1 and the relics unearthed on site” by Zhang Xuanwei, the deputy director of the Storage Department of the Maritime Silk Road Museum of Guangdong. The lecture, which will take place at 3 p.m. on April 21 in the Macao Museum Auditorium, will discuss the preservation works of the ship’s hull as well as the artifacts within.
Loi said the exhibition cost MOP3.5 million, which accounts for half of the museum’s MOP7 million budget for its 20th anniversary activities.

A special collection commemorating the museum’s 20-year history will also be featured on the third floor of the building, showcasing pieces from past exhibitions, as well as artifacts donated by individuals and other institutions.

The head of Department of Exhibitions and Museums of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Lei Lai Kio, added that the gallery of the Kun Iam Ecumenical Centre – now affiliated with the Macao Museum, which was renewed after extensive damage caused by typhoon Hato last year – will display a Lunar New Year-themed exhibition.

Museum goes virtual

THE MACAO Museum announced at yesterday’s press conference that it will launch a mobile application using AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) to digitally explore the entire museum and its collections. The application, which is operated by scanning QR codes in several sections of the museum, is designed to offer museum visitors a more interactive experience.