Jiangsu Art Museum, a cultural complex located on Changjiang Road, Nanjing, traces its roots to the National Art Museum completed in August 1936. It is the first state-level art museum in modern China, witnessing the start of the development of China's art museums. As one of the earliest provincial art museums in the People's Republic of China, Jiangsu Art Museum was opened to the public in 1956 and officially granted this name in 1960.
After the arduous efforts of several generations of art museum workers, nearly 14,000 pieces of various artworks are currently collected in the museum. Besides, the systematized collection and protection and effective research and utilization of these collections, as well as the well-developed means and capabilities in public service have made it a famous art museum at home and abroad. Jiangsu Art Museum is now one of the first national key art museums, and the former site of the National Art Museum is a major historical and cultural site protected at the national level.
Jiangsu Art Museum covers the former site of the National Art Museum at No. 266 and the main hall at No. 333, Changjiang Road, with a gross floor area of 40,000 square meters. The two exhibition halls, less than 500 meters apart from each other, create a strong historical atmosphere. The museum located at No. 266, Changjiang Road covers an area of 4,700 square meters, with a four-storey main building featuring a "山"-shaped facade. It integrates both the Chinese folk architecture style and the Western modern architecture style, showing a simple, solemn, elegant, and generous appearance, and serving as one of the new ethnic architecture representatives of the Republic of China era. Covering an area of approximately 10,600 square meters, the main hall located at No. 333, Changjiang Road was opened to the public in 2010. Designed by KSP Engel und Zimmermann Architekten of Germany, this hall emphasizes the combination of architecture, color, and shape with the surrounding architectural environment in the Republic of China era. It is both fashionable and classic, full of a modern sense and cultural atmosphere.