Conference charts course of museum operations in Greater Bay Area

More than 300 delegates from Chinese and overseas museums gathered at the Dongguan Museum on Oct. 29 for the 2026 Academic Exchange Conference on Museum Operations, themed "Museum Operations: Looking to the Future in the Greater Bay Area."

Discussions covered operations and management, exhibition planning, international cooperation, digital technology, and regional coordination.

Ning Kang, director general of the Dongguan Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports, said the city has been refining operations at its new museum, now in trial operation ― from display means to experiences for visitors. 

He noted that Dongguan's manufacturing base and designer-toy industry chain can support digital displays, cultural-relic IP, and museum merchandise, and called for closer cooperation in joint curation, collection research, and staff training.

At the event, the Guangdong Museum Development Foundation launched a 2027 funding program for small and medium-sized museums. The Dongguan Museum also signed cooperation agreements with the Hong Kong Palace Museum, the Changsha Museum, and the School of Design at the Southern University of Science and Technology.

The conference was jointly hosted by the Guangdong Museum Association, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Museum Alliance, the Dongguan Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports, and the Asian Museum Research Institute.