National Palace Museum

National Palace Museum Conducts Beam-Raising Ceremony
And Observes Milestone in the New NPM Project

On July 19, 2023, Vice Premier Cheng Wen-Tsan, Director Hsiao Tsung-Huang, and Deputy Director Huang Yung-Tai led the National Palace Museum staff and work crew in the beam-raising ceremony for NPM’s new administration building and library, marking an important step in this major construction project as well as the museum’s modernization efforts.

The “New Administration Building and National Palace Museum Library Construction Project” is a component of the “Renovation and Expansion Plans for NPM’s Northern Branch,” which is part of the New NPM Project launched in 2018; this construction project includes a new administration building measuring 4,960 square meters, as well as a new lending library measuring 1,650 square meters that will provide specialized resources for scholarly research.

According to Vice Premier Cheng, in 2017 the Executive Yuan approved a budget of NT$10.747 billion for the New NPM Project with the intention of making the NPM a star among world class travel destinations over the course of a decade (2018 - 2027). Cheng commended the National Palace Museum in ably conducting six main functions of museums: collection, research, education, exhibition, tourism, and culture, stating that, in recent years, the NPM also has made notable achievements in interdisciplinary curation, digital exhibitions, merchandising, and collaborating with local government organizations. The beam-raising ceremony for the “New Administration Building and National Palace Museum Library Construction Project” is an occasion to pledge the Executive Yuan’s commitment to supporting NPM’s sustainability and accessibility as a top-notch facility for collections management and display, Cheng added.

Thanking the Executive Yuan for its support, Director Hsiao Tsung-Huang anticipated completion of the “New Administration Building and National Palace Museum Library Construction Project” in June 2024, at which time all of the NPM’s administrative staff will be consolidated at the Lixing Street office complex. Next, the existing library building will be renovated to serve as a state of the art gallery, adding more than 2,000 square meters of display area; NPM’s main building will also be remodeled to increase its area by some 2,000 square meters. These expansions and space reallocations will: alleviate the current crowding by streamlining visitor flow, improve the facilities for storage and conservation work, and enable an overhaul of NPM’s collections management and organization system. At NPM’s Southern Branch in Chiayi, a second exhibition hall, the National Treasures Conservation and Exhibition Hall, will be added along with conservation workspace, with the goal of enhancing collaboration and mutual support in curatorial as well as conservation practices between NPM’s two branches.  

On December 6, 2017, the Executive Yuan ratified the “New NPM Publicization and Tourism Industry Development Project,” adjusting the overall budget to NT$10.747 billion and the implementation period to 2018 – 2027; the plan is divided into three components: “Renovation and Expansion Plans for NPM’s Northern Branch,” “Design of the NPM National Treasures Conservation and Exhibition Hall,” and “Museum Group International Tourism Network System Construction Plan.”