IN MY OPINION: China embraces international contemporary art at an almost unfathomable scale.

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Growing up, I was comforted and convinced by the commonly held boast that the confluence of creativity, economic ingenuity and socially progressive policies poised Canada to inherit the 21st century. This was to be the time for our young nation to flourish and emerge as a world leader. Certainly, we have much to be proud of, including the enviable status of Western Canadian cities, adjudged admirably ‘livable’ through comparisons with the qualities, merits and services available in other cosmopolitan centres. This has created a healthy competitive spirit of jostling for bragging rights.

            Fortunately for patriots of the arts, Richard Florida’s ‘creative cities’ concept positions visual art as an inordinate part of this equation. Florida argues that investment in the arts is an economic driver and motivator of the creative class. American cities such as Milwaukee and Austin, and, in Canada, Toronto, Montreal and even, through the exemplary vision of the Shorefast Foundation, Newfoundland’s Fogo Island, have all used arts infrastructure projects to add vibrancy to flagging communities. Despite the debatable efficacy of these arts funding premises, Florida’s ‘creative cities’ advocated upping the ante for cultural spending. Perhaps, the inverse example is the ongoing economic malaise of Detroit, which is waging a funding siege with the Detroit Institute of Arts. Meanwhile, even in Western Canada, we have witnessed a flurry of commendable, if modest, new public arts buildings and initiatives.

            However, my confidence in the certainty of Canada’s collective triumphant ascendancy and steadfast drive toward cultural coronation recently received quite a jolt from an unexpected source: China. In November, it was my privilege to be an invited artist to China. It was a much-anticipated first trip; I had read many interesting facts about China’s surging arts scene. However, this in no way prepared me for the lived reality. The sheer magnitude and quality of their stupendous commitment to contemporary art is perhaps unprecedented.

            I had expected Hong Kong to be superb, given its history and special economic-zone relationship with China. It did not disappoint. After all, it is home to such mega-players as the Art Basel Hong Kong art fair and a branch of Gagosian Gallery. What caught me off guard were the urbane, upscale delights of Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and Zhangjiajie. Each city has developed vibrant large-scale arts and cultural districts resplendent with exquisite commercial galleries and museums of contemporary art.

Shanghai’s massive Power Station of Art, established in 2012, would be the envy of any Canadian city, with first-rate gallery spaces on each of its five floors encompassing a total of more than 400,000 square feet. With an internal height of some 80 feet and floor-to-ceiling windows, its public spaces rival, if not eclipse, the grandeur of the Tate Modern. Even the balcony of its restaurant is a colossus. Two football fields in size, it overlooks the Huangpu River (again, the Tate Modern springs to mind). It organizes the Shanghai Biennial and hosts many top-tier international exhibitions

Beijing’s many art districts include 798 Art District, a huge compendium of some 400 first-rate commercial galleries and contemporary art museums, including the immense CAFA Art Museum, as well as restaurants, design studios and fashionable shops. It is home to a branch of New York’s distinguished Pace Gallery (their recent exhibition funded by Dior) as well as the Denmark-based Faurschou Foundation, which is hosting an impressive installation by American video artist Bill Viola until March 22.

Staggeringly, China is no longer poised. It has pounced. It has embraced international contemporary art, both public and private, at a scale that is almost unfathomable. China is building public art museums of immense scale at the rate of 100 a year. Beijing’s new National Art Museum, at almost 1.4 million square feet, will be the largest museum in the world, more than double the size of both the Louvre and the Museum of Modern Art.

            China’s solution to democratization and cultural accessibility is not as we have chosen. It invites and embraces the world’s most challenging and advanced contemporary art, architecture and urban design. China admires it, studies it and prepares to do cultural battle with it. China wants to be the next Paris, the next New York. The excellence of its artists and its cities reflects this vision. China has a plan, as did Germany after the Second World War.

            There seems to be zeal in China for adding value to exquisite built environments. It appears as if the principal questions are: Can it be even more splendid? More interesting? Not: Can we get this done for less? (Calgary’s Calatrava Bridge debate, anyone?)    

            Canada is investing significantly in the visual arts. I fear, comparatively, we are spending more to apply culture as a veneer, masking the appearance of prosaic objects such as underpasses, utility boxes, transit platforms and the like, whether with bas-relief trout or graphic murals. Sure, recreational, youth and life-long learning art projects offer terrific social value. Through them, many individuals find personal fulfillment, and arguably, these missionary efforts help build the support base for art. They deserve to be funded.

            I’m just sayin’, if a Communist country can shed its proletarian past and commit to funding the highest calibre of advanced arts and infrastructure; if it can create sleek, hip and elegant cities with gorgeous public spaces and offer top-ranked international art experiences; then we had better come up with a bold new plan, and quick. Otherwise, Canada’s 21st century just moved east, far east.