Haikun Bo

Biography

Bo received his PhD in history from Beijing Normal University in 2007 and started his career at the Capital Museum, Beijing, initially in its public education department. He took part in the ITP summer programme of the British Museum in 2008 and then transferred to the exhibition department of the Capital Museum later that year. Within this role Bo planned and organized dozens of large-scale temporary exhibitions, such as Matteo Ricci – the Envoy Who Made Cultural, Scientific and Technological Exchange between West and China (2010), Art of Jewellery Carving by Wallace Chan (2010), John Portman’s Art and Architecture (2011), Van Gogh and the Amsterdam Impressionists (2011), Oil paintings by Hubert Vos – Top Officials and Peers in the Late Qing Dynasty (2011), Art of Seal Cutting, Calligraphy and Sketch by Chinese Vice-premier Li Lanqing (2012), Historical Cultural Relics of Jiangxi Province (2014), Art of the ancient Chu State (2014), etc.

In January 2016 Bo began working in the Exhibition Department of the Palace Museum. His current responsibilities include coordinating with external partners and internal departments on planning and organizing temporary exhibitions; writing exhibition proposals, labels, cataloguing essays, press releases, as well as overseeing the design of exhibition layout; installing/uninstalling exhibitions and conducting research. Within this role Bo planned, organized and designed some influential temporary and permanent exhibitions, such as:

• Chenghua Porcelains from Imperial Kiln (2016), Traditional crafts from Anhui Province (2017),
• Hongzhi and Zhengde Porcelains from Imperial Kiln (2017)
• Ge Wares Collected by the Palace Museum (2017)
• Zhengtong, Jingtai and Tianshun Porcelains from Imperal Kiln (2018),
• Selected Qing Court Inkstones Collected by the Palace Museum (2018),
• The Antikythera Shipwreck (2018),
• Design and plan of the Gallery of China at the Columbus Lighthouse in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic (2019)
• The Land of Glazed Cities: 500 Years of Azulejo in Portugal (2019)
• Exhibition: Longquan Celadon and Globalization (2019)
• Ceramics Gallery (Permanent Exhibition), Palace Museum (2021)
• The Making of Zhongguo (2022)

Auspicious Beginnings: Joint Exhibition of Artefacts from the Palace Museum and Tibet (2023)

Bo has published dozens of academic articles and essays on exhibition, history and culture on academic journals. In 2012, his book If You Were Born in the Roman Empire was published by Central China Normal University Publishing House. The book was republished by the Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House in 2023.

At the British Museum

During his time on the International Training Programme in 2008, Bo was based in the Department of Asia and his partner placement was spent at Glasgow Museums.

Legacy Projects

In March 2010 Bo attended the Cairo Conference Towards a global network where he presented a paper on what he had gained, both professionally and personally, from attending the ITP and his career development since the programme.

Bo took part in the May 2017 ITP+ Course on Temporary Exhibitions and Permanent Display. 10 Fellows attended a week of lectures, workshops and exhibition visits from a variety of countries and across many ITP years.

ITP Newsletter Publications
ITP Newsletter Issue 1, Collections in focus: White-glazed statue of sitting Avalokitesvara

Continued dialogue

Bo took part in the IWG (International Working Group) for the project RBM (Remaking the British Museum) in 2023 and 2024, discussing online with some colleagues of IWG about how to remake permanent exhibitions at the British Museum in the following years.