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| By Chen Ting |
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 HENGDU: It’s never happened before, in Europe or the United States. China is giving eight leading contemporary artists, their own museums to operate.
Most museums are named for major artists after they die. But a local government in Sichuan province in western China, said it had just donated 18 acres of land (or about 110 Mu) and set aside $13 million to create eight museums for eight living artists: Zhang Xiaogang, Wang Guangyi, Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun, Zhou Chunya, He Duoling, Zhang Peili and Wu Shanzhuan.
The group was selected by Lu Peng, a professor of art at the China Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou.
At a ceremony held in Chengdu in early August, the city government Dujiangyan, a city near Chengdu, awarded certificates to the artists officially giving them the land and honoring their work.
 The government also said that a group of real estate companies that are developing the area will contribute and invest in the project. Construction is expected to begin on the museums this December and
they are slated to open in October 2008.
At the ceremony in Sichuan, the government also unveiled designs of what the museums would look like. But the eight artists who attended the ceremony and smiled for the photographs said they had not yet decided how to operate their museums or what would be placed in them.
The site will also include a public museum and there will be a committee of artists and academics to oversee the operation.
The government of Dujiangyan and the real estate companies are hoping that the museums will draw tourists to the area and also promote the city’s development. Three of the artists grew up in Sichuan: Zhang Xiaogang (who was born in Yunnan province and then moved to Sichuan as a young boy) Zhou Chunya and He Duoling.
The other artists are from all over China and range in age from 42 to 60.
There is currently no major museum of contemporary art in China and most of the artists honored once had difficulty showing their works in China during the 1980s and 1990s.
 Lu Peng: Born in Chongqing in 1956. He is the author of "History of Chinese Contamporary Art: 1990-1999" and "A History of Art In Twentieth Century China," etc. He is an assistant professor at the China Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou. 
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