The Tianfu Art Park opened in 2021 in the Jinniu district, on the north-western side of Chengdu, and it is one of the largest new cultural developments in the city. The park is built around an artificial lake with landscaped slopes, promenades and planting, and it contains two major museums as its anchors: the Chengdu Tianfu Art Museum, which shows Chinese and international modern and contemporary art, and the Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art, which focuses on work by living artists. Both are free to enter, and both are housed in buildings whose curved white volumes and glazed facades are part of the experience.
The museums
The Tianfu Art Museum works mainly with temporary exhibitions drawn from Chinese collections and from international loans, covering painting, sculpture, photography, design and installation across the twentieth century and into the present. The Museum of Contemporary Art runs a faster programme of solo and group shows by Chinese artists, including a great deal of new work, and has a strong graphic and new-media component. Between them they give a good picture of where Chinese art institutions are now, and the standard of installation is high.
The park itself
Outside the museums the park is a proper public space rather than a forecourt: a lake with a boardwalk, terraced lawns, a hill with a viewing point, tree-lined paths and several bridges, used by residents for walking, running and picnics. There are cafes and a bookshop, and the whole site is designed to be used in the evening as well as the day. The architecture of the two museums, with their white curves reflected in the water, is the most photographed thing in the district.
Practical notes
Both museums are closed on Mondays and both require a free advance reservation made through their official channels, particularly at weekends. The park is open at all hours and is free. The site is reached by subway and then a short walk, and it is roughly half an hour from the city centre. Allow two to three hours for the two museums and another hour for the park; the light on the water is best in the late afternoon. Because the park is large and exposed, summer visits are more comfortable in the early morning or after five.
