The number of visitors this year to the southern branch of the National Palace Museum surpassed one million on Saturday (Dec. 7), marking the success of the museum as it strives for higher attendance.
The museum attributed the increase in visitors to adjustments made to its operations, including improved shuttle bus services, the launch of digital exhibitions, and diversified curation. For example, the museum has in the past year been loaned more than 100 exhibits from the Taipei site as part of an initiative to give people residing in southern Taiwan easier access to national treasures.
In addition, the museum has this year launched large exhibitions in collaboration with museums in other countries and art institutes. With more diverse offerings and planning distinct from the Taipei site, the southern branch has successfully stemmed the decline of annual visitors seen in the past two years, said the museum, which had a soft opening at the end of 2015.
The NPM southern branch has also set up child-friendly facilities and organized various activities for children and parents. These have yielded some fruit, with 30,884 students from over 260 schools across Taiwan having visited the museum so far this year, according to the museum.
To celebrate its reversal in fortunes, the museum awarded its one millionth visitor, Miss Chang from Kaohsiung, on Saturday morning two passes permitting a year of free access to both NPM’s northern and southern branches. The passes will also entitle their holders to discounts at other pubilc museums.
Source：Taiwan News
