The Metropolitan Museum of Art expects to attract more Chinese visitors with its encyclopedic collections of cultures from all nations as China is becoming one of the world's major sources of tourists in the years to come, said Emily Rafferty, president of the museum in an interview with Xinhua.

"The first thing I would want to say to our Chinese visitors is our collections represents our commitment to a global community of nations, and that we house under this roof probably collectively the finest exhibition of Asian art anywhere in the Western world," she said.

While inviting Chinese visitors to come and see what the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or Met for short, has been collecting from their particular culture, the president urged them to spend " an equal amount of time," looking at the cultures that they might be not familiar with, especially if this is their first or second overseas trips.

Rafferty expressed satisfaction with Met's cooperation with its Chinese counterparts, citing the success of "China, Dawn of a Golden Age 200-750 AD," a major special exhibition held jointly in 2005 by Met's Asian Art Department in collaboration with more than 100 Chinese museums.

She noted that almost 60 museums throughout China loaned their collections to the Met for this exhibition.

During the 2004-2005 fiscal year, the museum's capital campaign made great progress with gifts and pledges now totaling 776 million US dollars toward the goal of 900 million dollars set in January 2004.

The museum has impressed the world cultural community with its purchase in 2005 of a rare early Renaissance masterpiece by the 14th century Italian painter Duccio de Buonisegna.

Rafferty said staying firm to the Met's mission as an institution and ensuring that the museum always has and cares for the finest staff it possibly can attract constitutes the key to keep its health and vitality.

"It is clear for all of us that we cannot stand still and we need to be vigilant in what we do and we need to be extremely open- minded," she said.

She listed several priorities for the Met's in the years to come, such as completing the installation of Greek and Roman collections, reinstallation of the new Africa, America and Oceania galleries, and the galleries of Islamic Art.

Rafferty spoke highly of the museum's membership system, which started at the very founding days of the Met in 1870s. The museum has offered 13 categories of memberships so that people can choose different levels of support. In return, members get different benefits, including free admission, discount in gift stores and previews.

Currently the museum has over 120,000 members, nearly 50,000 of them live beyond a 200-mile radius of New York City.

"For us our members are equivalent to university and its alumni association. We care about them deeply, they are loyal in return, and really support us on an annual basis. Our membership is our most important source of regular annual visitor income," the president said.

Another important contributor to the Met's financial health is its merchandising conducted via the gift shops in the main building, the 19 satellite stores across the country and Internet sales.

According to the museum's annual report for the fiscal year 2004-2005, Met's overall net income from merchandising activities amounted to 768,000 dollars, with Internet sales registering an 11 percent growth.

As the first woman president of the Met, Rafferty said being a woman in her current job has not really represented any major difference.

"No day is ever the same," she said, adding that she has to build flexibility into each day, because no one knows if something unexpected would happen.

She noted there has been a decline or flattening in museum visitorship since Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001, but some new demographic forms have appeared with more families coming and visiting the museums.

She said museums might still have been the number one attractions for adults when they travel on their own, but they would diversify the places they go if they travel with their families.

The museums are addressing the situation and have really come with more family opportunities within their institutions, she added.

Source: Xinhua