The Macao Museum of Art is situated besides the Macao Cultural Centre and belongs to the Civil and Municipal Affairs Bureau. The total area is 10,192 square metres, of which about 4,000 square metres are exhibition areas. It is the largest Museum of cultural relics and arts in Macao.
Macao is a renowned historical city having both Asian and Western characteristics. As an art Museum, what we want to display here is such taste with the speciality of traditional oriental culture combined with the artistic flavour of the Western civilization. We hope our visitors will feel the unique atmosphere of art and culture here through our exhibitions.
Our collections are mainly from the previous Camões Grotto Museum and feature its collections and purchases of the past years. The most important ones are those rare cultural relics and artworks, such as the ceramics and stoneware excavated from Heisha in Macao, the Guangdong paintings and calligraphy from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the seal cuttings of the famous experts in Guangdong, Shiwan ceramics, Western paintings (historical paintings) arising in Macao and its neighbouring area during the 19th Century, the contemporary art of Macao, poster designs, photographic works, and so on. The splendid ceramic human statues from Shiwan in Guangdong are one of the most prestigious collections in the world. Moreover, the series of early Western paintings, the contemporary art of Macao, poster designs and photographic works are the best portraiture that reflect the history and culture, as well as art development, of Macao.
The Macao Museum of Art is a five-storied building, which has five exhibition rooms and two exhibition areas. The Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Room and China Ceramics Room are located on the 4th floor; the early Western paintings and Macao art works on the 3rd floor; one large special exhibition room is on the 2nd floor and several exhibition areas are on the 1st and ground floors. Besides those exhibitions of long-term collections, it also holds exhibitions of many different types exchanged with other nations and regions from time to time. It has held such important exhibitions as “the Golden Exile – Imperial Paintings of the Qing Dynasty”, “Memories of the Past – Mexican Pre-Hispanic Art”, “Reflections of the Master’s Mind – an exhibition of Picasso’s Prints”, amongst others. In this way, it allows the public to enjoy the art works and cultures from different places and times.
The museum has a well-equipped auditorium which can hold more than one hundred people. Frequently there are seminars for exhibitions, a week of movies, lectures on art and archaeological studies, etc. The museum shop located on the 1st floor sells publications from the museum, books and gifts of Macao speciality. There is a multimedia library on the ground floor which has books and talking books related to the cultural relics and art here. Furthermore, it provides free Internet service for readers. The library has an audiovisual room which allows the public to enjoy nearly five hundred classical movies of China and abroad, free of charge. In addition to that, many different artistic activities and art classes for children are held frequently in the studio on the ground floor in order to meet the needs of those who are interested in these subjects.
In order to promote the development of art locally, and enrich people’s leisure time, the museum founded“the Friend of Macao Art Museum”on 1st November 2001. This allows the public to have more opportunity to join those exhibitions and activities held in the museum. Free guided tours for groups can be arranged if requested in advance. We welcome persons interested to refer to the relevant publicity material or to telephone to enquire.
