刘海粟美术馆于1995年3月16日开馆，建筑面积5,000多平方米，其中展厅面积1,100平方米，现已成为上海重要的美术活动中心之一。馆内拥有五个设施完备的展厅、拥有声像和同声翻译功能的国际会议厅、恒温恒湿的藏品库、图书资料室、公共阅览室、会议室、装裱工作室、设计工作室，以及海粟画廊和海粟书店。馆内设有办公室、研究部、展览部、发展部、物业部五个部门，在编员工30人，编外员工18人，其中策展和研究人员7人。

    20世纪90年代著名画家刘海粟先生将其收藏的宋、元、明、清的字画精品及毕生创作的油画及中国画中最重要的作品捐献给了国家，其古代藏画中不乏稀世珍宝，如关仝、巨然、仇英、八大山人、石涛、董其昌和沈周等著名画家的精品等。刘海粟先生的代表作品约300幅也成为刘海粟美术馆的基本藏品；此外还有一些其他著名画家的作品共1181件。它们对于研究西方油画东渐史是不可多得的珍贵史料。刘海粟美术馆还把收藏近现代优秀作品作为一项长期性的重点工作。

    刘海粟美术馆常年举办展览30个左右，观众人数近6万人次。展览关注中国当代经典与美术动态，把握时代脉搏。几年来举办了齐白石、林风眠、李可染、黄胄、张大千、王遽常、林散之等画家的个展、美术教育系列展、“上海青年美术大展”。这些高水准、前瞻性的展览使得刘海粟美术馆成为国内重要的美术展览馆，其中许多作者在全国美展等重大展事中荣获各种奖项。

    美术馆还引进了许多国外展览，如《中国美术馆藏路德维希捐赠作品展》，其中包括有毕加索、霍克尼、巴赛利茨等世界大师的作品；《意大利贝利尼博物馆文艺复兴时期藏品展》，其中有达·芬奇、米开朗其罗、切利尼等大师的作品，还举办过巴西、埃及、伊朗、智利、日本、美国、印尼、新加坡、加拿大等许多国家的艺术展览。这些展览增进了与世界各民族文化的交流，加深了各国人民的友谊。

    除了展览之外，还开办刘海粟美术馆网站、中国画高研班以及儿童综合材料绘画班，聘请大学的教师授课。近年来举办了许多艺术系列讲座，内容涉及美术、音乐、舞蹈、书法等等，面向大中学生及广大市民，受到广泛热烈的欢迎。

Liu Haisu Art Museum

Liu Haisu Art Museum, named after Mr. Liu Haisu, a famous artist in China, was founded on 16th March, 1995. It covers a floor space of more than 5000 square meters, and exhibition halls hold an area of 1100 square meters. Now it has become one of the most important centers for art activities in Shanghai. In this museum, there are five well equipped exhibition halls, an international meeting room with audio-visuals and simultaneous interpretation facilities, a collections storeroom with constant humidity and temperature control system, a library, a public reading room, a mounting room, and a designing room, as well as Haisu Gallery and Haisu Book Shop. The museum facilitates five departments in the museum. They are the office, the research department, the exhibition department, the development department, and the logistics department. There are 30 full-time staff and 18 part-time staff work here, seven of which are in charge of designing exhibitions and researches.

Mr. Liu Haisu had collections of calligraphies and paintings of Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing dynasties. Most of the collections are very precious art works by Guan Tong, Ju Ran, Qiu Ying, Ba Da Shan Ren, Shi Tao, Dong Qichang, and Shen Zhou. Mr. Liu attributed all his collections and his own important works to our country. Many of Mr. Liu s representative works have become the basic collections of the museum. In addition, it stores Mr. Liu s 300 oil paintings and works of other famous artists. Most of these works have been never showed to the public, but they are rare valuable materials for studying the history of how the oil paintings spread from the west to the east. The museum also focuses on collecting contemporary art works as its long-term goal. Now it has had a collection of 1181 art works by artists famous at home and abroad.

This museum holds about 30 art exhibitions annually, which attract 60,000 audiences. These exhibitions pay close attention to contemporary classic works and art trend, throbing with the pulse of the time. In these years, solo exhibitions of artists such as Qi Baishi, Lin Fengmian, Li Keran, Huang Zhou, Zhang Daqian, Wang Juchang, and Lin Sanzhi were held in this museum, as well as art education exhibitions, and Shanghai Arts of Youth Exhibition . Thanks to these high-level exhibitions, Liu Haisu Art Museum has become a very important museum in China.

The museum has introduced foreign exhibitions, e.g. Exhibition of Works Devoted by Peter Ludwig from National Art Museum of China, including works by Camille Pissarro, David Hockney, Georg Baselitz, and the Renaissance Art Works from Bellini Museum, from which the audiences could appreciate works by Da. Vinci, Divine Michelangelo. Besides, it has also showed art works from Brazil, Egypt, Iran, Chile, Japan, America, Indonesia, Singapore, and Canada. These exhibitions make people from different cultures know each other better.

In addition to exhibitions, the museum has had its own web site. And art research classes on traditional Chinese paintings are held along with classes for children. University teachers are appointed to give lectures in these classes. In recent years, it has held series of lectures on art, music, dance, and calligraphy, which are well accepted by middle school and college students, and other citizens.