Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Yishu Journal: The Yan'an Forum on Art Education

The September 2006 issue of Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art focused on the Yan'an Forum on Art Education. The conference was part of the Long March Project, a grassroots project begun in 1999. The Long March Project was not only an art project but also a social project using different types of mediums. It traces the path taken by the Red Armies during the Chinese Civil War between the Communists and the Nationalist Party. The Long March Project began as a way to fight back against the institutionalization of contemporary art in China, basically against having a defined space (an exhibition hall, a museum, etc) as the location of an art exhibition. The project includes many international and national artists as well as the local artists from each of the sites. The pieces are open to the public and not only uses the local arts and crafts of the exhibition sites (paper cutting, woodblock print, etc) but also the location itself (inside the Kailuan coalmine, etc).
In 2006, the Long March arrived in Yan'an where Lu Jie along with Cai Guo-Qiang decided to host a forum on the modern Chinese art education system. But why Yan'an? After all, it was the site of the 1942 Yan'an Conference where Mao made is speech about the purpose of art. After the 1942 conference, art was no longer something individualistic or entertaining. In fact, after Mao's speech, art and literature became something to propagate the voice of the party and the people. Despite its history, the organizers of the conference felt that Yan'an was the perfect setting for the forum as it used to be the creative center of China. They felt Yan'an's energy was what they needed in order to tackle the issue of the modern Chinese art education system. Many of the invited speakers felt that not only the Chinese art education system but also the old Western art education system were both based on the master-apprentice tradition. That is, a master artist would train and pass on all his knowledge to his apprentice. All the apprentice had to do was learn the technicalities of creating art. However, even though the Chinese art education system had changed due to international influences, it lacked one thing that the new Western art education system had: a humanitarian/liberal arts/creative aspect. The participants felt that the Chinese focused on the technicalities of art (notice the proliferation of art studios) and not enough on the create side. After much talk, the participants came up with some solutions as to how to solve this crisis. Beginning in 2006 and continuing until 2009, a training camp for art teachers would be created. The training camp teaches these art teachers how to teach creative art, not just technical art. One of the key events of the forum was when the leaders invited art students from Yan'an University to join the talk. This had not been done before (including students in the educational planning talks) but the participants felt it greatly helped them understand the students' opinions. After the participants talked about their teaching styles, the students offered their opinions about what they felt worked or did not work. This talk, even though it was two years ago, gave hope to the possibility of reforming the art education system so that China's future art could have more substance than what it has now.

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