北京民生现代美术馆

The Beijing Minsheng Art Museum occupies Building C7 of the Hengtong International Innovation Park at 9 Jiuxianqiao North Road in Chaoyang District, across the street from the 798 Art District. The building was designed by architect Zhu Pei in 2011-12 and completed in 2015, converted from a 1980s Beijing Matsushita colour picture-tube plant - the first foreign-invested enterprise in mainland China after reform and opening - so the industrial fabric is part of the exhibit. Funded by China Minsheng Bank, the museum was registered as a non-profit art institution in February 2012 and opened on 25 June 2015 with the exhibition 'The Power of the People'. It has 32,910 square metres of floor area, but instead of one white box it is organised as a family of rooms: a classic gallery with 5-metre clear height, large, medium and small 'boxes', courtyard galleries and a black box for performance, meetings and exhibitions, all grouped around a charged central space. Outdoors there is an installation park and a roof exhibition terrace, so painting, sculpture, installation, video and performance can run at the same time. As the Beijing flagship of the Minsheng art platform (MSMS), which also runs the Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum, it is known for documentary-scale surveys of Chinese contemporary art, institutional collecting and public education. Metro Line 14, Jiangtai station, is within walking distance.