The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science asked the Netherlands China Arts Foundation to coordinate a cultural programme in Shanghai for the Expo. This cultural programme will be realised in a recently renovated building called 800 Show in Jing’An District in downtown Shanghai. This means the Netherlands will be presented at the Expo 2010 by a fascinating Dutch pavilion (designed by John Körmeling) at the Expo site and a Dutch Culture Centre (DCC)  in downtown Shanghai. The DCC will be an official part of Expo 2010 Shanghai.

At the DCC the Netherlands China Arts Foundation will organise an outstanding and diverse non-commercial programme of events that aims to link the Dutch and Chinese arts 'worlds' and to stimulate artistic dialogue between the two countries. The programme of the DCC will primarily  be targeted at the Chinese art-loving audiences living in Shanghai and its surroundings. All communications about the DCC will be in Chinese and English.

The DCC will be programming for six months, from March 2010 until the end of August. The official opening toke place on Saturday 6 March, just after Chinese new year celebrations and almost two months before the opening of the Expo itself. This Grand Opening Ceremony followed by the ORANGE PARTY in the night were a great succes. Read more in this press release (PDF).

The DCC is being coordinated and managed by the Netherlands China Arts Foundation. Two teams, one based in Amsterdam and one in Shanghai will run the centre for six months in 2010. The team in Shanghai team will be supervised by Auditoire, an event management company that is well established in Shanghai.