The Guotai Art Center is composed of Guotai Grand Theatre and Chongqing Art Museum. In September 2006, it was officially named Guotai Art Center. The basic function is positioned as’relying on commercial centers, facing cultural markets, and serving the needs of the public’. The Guotai Art Center is combined with commercial and cultural squares, which will reorganize the new order of the overall urban image of Yuzhong Peninsula and is an important place to promote international cultural exchanges.
The Guotai Art Center adopts traditional Chinese national styles and reflects strong Bayu culture. Some elements of the old theater will be retained. The main body of the art center building is red, like a burning ‘bonfire’ and also like a departing ship. The Guotai Grand Theatre is mainly composed of a medium-sized theater with 800 seats. It is a comprehensive theater mainly performing musicals and operettas while taking into account traditional operas and other genres. It also includes two small theaters with 350 seats. One of them is also used as a concert hall and considers chorus performances, mainly relying on natural sound. The other small theater is also used as a multi-function hall and has the conditions for media art exhibitions and art reports, mainly relying on electro-acoustic sound. Chongqing Art Museum is positioned to mainly exhibit traditional Chinese paintings, oil paintings, prints and small sculptures, while taking into account the display of photographic art, decorative art, performance art and handicrafts. It can also undertake exhibitions of domestic and foreign arts and crafts and hold various cultural and artistic exchange activities. It has a total area of 8,200 square meters. In the middle of the exhibition hall, a turning red steel frame staircase is connected to the exhibition hall on the sixth floor. Climbing up the turning staircase and looking down at the turning point, the three-dimensional and broad spatial effect makes people feel like they have entered the ‘Castle in the Sky’. If paintings are placed, it will be more feeling. The sense of space of the art museum is a major highlight. In addition to large-scale exhibitions, the 25 glass houses of the art museum can also hold individual exhibitions for artists. As seen on the spot, each glass house has an area of nearly 100 square meters and has a floor-to-ceiling window of nearly 20 square meters. It is planned to install projection equipment inside and do publicity for the city image on the glass windows.The opening hours are all year round and open all day.
