Founded in 1956, Shanghai Art Museum is a public welfare social and cultural institution, which has the functions of collecting fine arts, carrying out academic research, holding exhibitions, popularizing aesthetic education, promoting cultural and artistic exchanges between China and foreign countries, and has a certain impact on modern art museums at home and abroad. In 1956, with the approval of the Municipal People's government, the former "recreation restaurant" on Nanjing West Road was transformed into "Shanghai Art Exhibition Hall". Mayor Chen Yi personally presided over the completion ceremony and cut ribbon for it. In 1986, a new Shanghai Art Museum was built at the original site, covering an area of 2200 square meters and a building area of 5740 square meters. The exhibition hall covers an area of 2480 square meters and the exhibition line is 875 meters. At that time, Jiang Zemin, mayor of Shanghai, attended the opening ceremony of the museum and wrote an inscription for the opening of the museum. Over the years, Shanghai Art Museum has carried out a lot of investigation, research and collection work. With more than 4000 collections, it has published its collection of picture albums, catalogues, magazines and special academic seminars. In recent years, it has also established cooperation and exchange with art museums at home and abroad. Shanghai Art Museum has increasingly become an important window for cultural exchange between China and foreign countries. In order to change the situation that the conditions and functions of the museum do not match, the Shanghai municipal government, from the strategic height of adjusting the overall pattern of urban construction, invested in the construction of a new museum of Shanghai Art Museum, located at 325 Nanjing West Road, with a building area of 18000 square meters. In addition to the bell tower, the main building has four floors above the ground and one floor below the ground, with a building height of 21 meters. This building is a British style building in the 1930s, and was originally the old Shanghai racecourse. The reconstruction and expansion project retains the original architectural style and features, transforms the interior according to the functional requirements of the art museum, and is equipped with advanced central air conditioning, constant temperature and humidity, fire safety and automatic management facilities.

Exhibition hall scale
The new museum is located at 325 Nanjing West Road, with a building area of 18000 square meters. In addition to the bell tower, the main building has four floors above the ground and one floor below the ground, with a building height of 21 meters. This building is a British style building in the 1930s, and was originally the old Shanghai racecourse. The reconstruction and expansion project retains the original architectural style and features, transforms the interior according to the functional requirements of the art museum, and is equipped with advanced central air conditioning, constant temperature and humidity, fire safety and automatic management facilities.