The Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum, positioned as a world –class “Asian Art and Culture Museum,” has proactively interacted with renowned museums overseas regarding exhibitions, research, preservation and maintenance paradigms, and public outreach since its opening. The goal is to adopt the latest curatorial practice in the hope of bringing broader cultural perspectives to museum visitors and the residents of central-southern Taiwan and introducing them to a brand-new visiting experience.

Among the first ten exhibitions in celebration of the opening of the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum, “The Enduring Beauty of Celadon: A Special Exhibition of Goryeo Celadons” and “Sailing the High Seas: Imari Porcelain Wares” were two international loan exhibitions by virtue of the generosity of the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, which loaned 175 units and 161 cultural relics. The exhibitions are set to end in early 2018 and late 2018 respectively. 

From December 10, 2016 to March 5, 2017, the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum launched “Japanese Art at Its Finest: Masterpieces from the Tokyo and Kyushu National Museums,” the first international special exhibition after the ten first exhibitions. Among the 151 cultural relics on display, there were nearly 68 units listed as Japanese national treasures, important cultural assets and artwork. It was an unprecedented overseas exhibition of the highest quality Japan has ever organized, and was probably the finest exhibition of Japanese masterpieces with the largest scale that Taiwan has ever held

On July 3, 2017, the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum signed an official memorandum of understanding for cooperation with Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. With a large span of 6,000 years in its rich collection, the Asian Art Museum, the biggest Asian-themed art museum in the USA, is known for housing Asian cultural relics with premium quality in abundance. To reciprocate the favor of the NPM for holding “Emperors’ Treasures: Chinese Art from the National Palace Museum, Taipei” in San Francisco in 2016, the Asian Art Museum promised to select artifacts from their collection and put them on display at the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum during late 2018 for Taiwanese audience.

The NPM has maintained long-term academic exchanges with École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO), inviting its archeologists and historians to give lectures on art and archeology in South-east Asia, East Asia and South Asia. The NPM has also assigned resident researchers at EFEO for academic studies, which has produced fruitful results over years of research. Professor Pierre-Yves Manguin and Professor Paolo Calanca also shared with Taiwanese audience about their brilliant studies: “Innovations in North-South Sailing across the South China Sea” and “Studying the Fate of Coastal Xiamen through Cliff Inscriptions: about the Stone Engravings of Wang Delu’s Tomb.”

On September 22, 2016, the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum invited Jane Samuels, Access and Equality Manager at Natural History Museum, Barry Ginley, Disability and Access Officer at V&A Museum as well as experts from National Museum of Taiwan History and the Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology to visit the accessible facilities of the NPMSB and attend a talk on accessible services.

To promote “Japanese Art at Its Finest: Masterpieces from the Tokyo and Kyushu National Museums,” the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum invited Takashi Kusui of Kyushu National Museum to give a speech on “The Buddhist Sculptures in Japan” and Professor Itakura Masaaki of the University of Tokyo on “HigashiyamaKyobutsu and ” Both talks were highly acclaimed by the audience.

In the middle of 2017, Stéphane Martin, director of Musée du Quai Branly, was invited to deliver a speech on “The Effects of Special Exhibitions on Ethnological Museums” at the Northern Branch and the Southern Branch of NPM.

E. In September, 2017, Dr. Chang Qing, research curator at Crow Collection of Asian Art, gave a speech on “The Transition of Chinese Buddhist Art after the Song Dynasty.”

In September, 2017, in collaboration with the Tainan National University of the Arts and Culture and Tourism Bureau of Chiayi County, the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum invited Hannah Goodwin, museum educator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Rebecca McGinnis, senior museumeducator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to be the lecturers of Museum Creative Aging Action Training. The speech topics were “Planning and Execution of the Art Education Activities for Seniors” and “Education Activities for Special Visitors: A Case Study of Senior and Visually Impaired Visitors.”