The Shanghai Museum on People's Square will temporarily close from May 6 until late June for the Americas exhibition installation.

Among the most anticipated events of the year will be the largest-ever retrospective of iconic Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) painter Zhu Da (1626-1705), also known as Bada Shanren, commemorating the 400th anniversary of his birth.

Held from December to March of 2027, the exhibition will take place in the Shanghai Museum East's Chinese painting and calligraphy galleries, featuring nearly 180 works gathered from more than 20 institutions worldwide, including the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Tokyo National Museum.

Also at the Shanghai Museum East will be the first literature-themed exhibition held at the institution. Happening from March to July, Shakespeare to J.K. Rowling is the first time the UK's National Portrait Gallery is showcased on the Chinese mainland. Among the 135 artifacts, there will be the only Shakespeare portrait considered to have been painted from life, as well as the original manuscript of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will present an exhibition of jewelry masterpieces at the Shanghai Museum from November to May 2027. Its sole stop on the Chinese mainland, the exhibition will present a global history of jewelry through 192 treasures from The Met's collection, alongside selected Chinese pieces from the Shanghai Museum.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai Museum will travel overseas to present an exhibition highlighting encounters and convergences between Chinese and Islamic civilizations at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization, in the United Arab Emirates, from October to March 2027.