The building of the China National Art Museum will be launched in the first quarter of this year and completed by the end of 2017.The museum will become a landmark located in the central area of the Olympic Park, next to the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube. Covering a construction area of 129,000 square meters, it will be the largest national art museum in the world.

According to the plan , the museum will include a fixed display of Chinese artwork from the 20th century with the sequence of historical development. Special rooms dedicated to important artistic trends and artists will also be set up, displaying collected works on a large scale. Full display for various forms of visual art will be provided, and three display areas for art collections will be set up, including sections on calligraphy, seal engraving, folk art and international art.

It is worth mentioning that the designers participating in the bid for the project’s final design scheme are all from abroad, and many of them have been previous winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, known to many as “Architecture’s Nobel Prize”.

Apart from the China National Art Museum, there are two other projects being carried out in the cultural compound of the Olympic Park. These include the China National Arts and Crafts Museum-the Exhibition Hall of Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage and the National Center of traditional Chinese Culture.

The Chinese link: http://art.cssn.cn/ysx/ysx_ysqs/201402/t20140209_959777.shtml

Translated by Yu Hui

Revised by Gabriele Corsetti