After a Year of Uncertainty, UCCA to Remain Open Thanks to New Ownership Deal

Good news for art aficionados: Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) has been sold to new benefactors, ensuring it will remain open after a tense period of financial uncertainty.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) first reported on the deal on Oct 9, saying the long-renowned gallery in Beijing's 798 Art District has been bought by a "prominent Chinese investment group" and that, in the process, UCCA will become a nonprofit foundation, making it exempt from taxes. This new arrangement is meant to help the center seek out donors to contend with its RMB 40 million (USD 6 million) annual operating budget.

UCCA director Philip Tinari, who will maintain his position, told SCMP the restructuring is more suitable because “the old model had worked under Mr. Ullens’ generosity but he had set it up in 2007 as a private company. Now that the public-facing activities are run by a charity, we will be able to raise funds more easily and hopefully improve the production quality of our exhibitions and the size of the audience.”

And this deal couldn't have come sooner, as Beijing's fine art lovers spent the last year worrying about UCCA's up-in-the-air status. In June of 2016, founders Guy and Myriam Ullen, billionaires and art collectors from Belgium, backed out, with Guy saying at the time: "I’m now in my 80s and need to look at how to hand over the stewardship of the UCCA and my art collection to younger patrons of the arts.”

UCCA officially announced the new deal in a press release today (Oct 10), citing investors like Jason Jiang and other “long-standing backers” like Future Edutainment “as taking control and ownership,” before adding: “with the support of its new backers, the UCCA Group has also partnered with Seven Star Group, owner of 798 Art District, to secure a long-term commitment to its presence in this vital area.”

That arrangement will include a renovation and expansion of the venue, helping to ensure “its position at the core of China’s most important arts and creative cluster.” CEO Wang Yanling, went on to express how Seven Star “resolutely supports the continued stable development of UCCA" before calling the center a "beacon in the ... development of contemporary art.”

Several arts and culture insiders were quick to express their relief about the center finding surer footing. Among them, Peter Salladé, project director for the EU Film Festival (EUFF) in China, who has coordinated several screenings at UCCA in the past and has been working with the venue ahead of the next EUFF as the new ownership deal came to pass. He told TBJ that UCCA is “a godsend” for film enthusiasts as impassioned as himself because “we can pretty much show any film we want to show there, because of a different censorship setup. There is a 798 committee with the authority to approve movies as art exhibitions instead of screenings, which means pretty much anything goes as long as it has artistic merit.”

READ: European Film Fest Comes to Theaters Near You, Oct 14-31

Aside from the ability to show boundary-pushing pictures at UCCA, without the hurdles to be found at most other mainland China venues, Salladé also praised the center as being very supportive of the arts and their smooth coordination of the EUFF, even as they underwent major restructuring. “The turnover in ownership hasn’t affected how they dealt with coordinators like me, it seems to just be very nice business as usual there.”

Those sentiments were shared by Philipp Grefer, who coordinated much of the recent NEU Future Festival at UCCA and commended the center for graciously playing host at the last minute after arrangements with another venue fell through. He adds: “Without the support, the experience, and the professionalism of the UCCA team we wouldn't have been able to pull our NEU Future Fest off. I hope the new owners will keep the spirit and professionality of UCCA alive and we can continue enjoying interesting events in 798.”

And yet, as well-received as the new ownership deal has been, it hasn't offered complete closure for art insiders. For instance, a writer at Art Net News points out: "The new development raises larger questions about the future landscape of China’s private museums and art centers, as nearly all of China’s private contemporary museums operate under the purview of individual founders."

Regardless, UCCA's many fans can rest easy knowing it is now on a far more stable course. Aside from this deal coming just over a year since Guy and Myriam Ullen bowed out, the center is coincidentally coming up on another big milestone: its 10th anniversary.

Founded on Nov 5, 2007, UCCA quickly grew into a fixture of Beijing's art scene, attended by an average of one million tourists and locals alike annually, all eager to see its exhibitions of both Chinese and international works. UCCA has rotated an annual average of 15 such exhibitions between its library and three large galleries, which together cover 8,000sqm floor space and boast 31-foot-high ceilings (according to Xinhua). UCCA's website states that it has held more than 100 exhibitions since its founding, some of the most famous being “Art Post-Internet” (2014), “Xu Zhen: a MadeIn Company Production” (2014), and “ON | OFF: China’s Young Artists in Concept and Practice” (2013).

On Nov 5, the center will celebrate its lease of new life at its 10th-anniversary gala. The event will feature a benefit auction of works from several artists who have been exhibited in its galleries before, including Xu Bing, Liu Xiaodong, Liu Wei, just to name a few. Some of those artists will also speak at the gala.

In UCCA's press release, Guy Ullens was quoted as saying: “Mimi and I are very pleased to see that a new group of strong Chinese backers, who share our passion and mission of promoting contemporary Chinese art and international exchanges, will carry forward.”

Photos: the Beijinger, Art Net News, Culture 360