“Going out” and “Going into”
idelight on Exhibition Planning Workshop in the U.S. by Middle-aged and Young Chinese Visual Art Curators
The Open Dialogue
Curators Listened to Lecture Attentively
Representatives of Curators at the Opening Ceremony
Attendees' Improvisation
“After careful preparation for over a year and thanks to the joint efforts of our Chinese and U.S. colleagues, this 2-month-long workshop is launched as expected. I am confident that it will facilitate close-range communication and mutual academic learning. As always, CFLAC aims at providing service and training for our artists by building up international platforms for exchange and cooperation.” Mr. JI Yanwei, vice president of the Academy of Literary and Art, CFLAC (ALAC) made such remarks at the modest launching ceremony, explaining its “why”, “what” and “how” as well as expressing ardent expectations for this key project of CFLAC in 2016. Thus, the “Exhibition Planning Workshop in the U.S. by Middle-aged and Young Chinese Visual Art Curators”, hosted by ALAC and subsidized by the China National Arts Fund, opened up its exchange and cooperation activities in New York.
In just two weeks, participants of the workshop visited 18 New York art institutions across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, covering NGOs, public and private museums, galleries, art academies, auction houses, artist residences and non-profit art agencies. Every day, the participants went through early rises, late returns and over ten thousand counts of footsteps in between. Ms FENG Shi, a curator from Sichuan Art Gallery, regarded such experience as “direct measurement of the artistic map in New York”, “a re-construction of one’s understanding over the significance of arts to one’s society and motherland” and “a reminder for a clearer vision of one’s mission”.
From Single Track to Double Lanes
“The base line of this workshop project is that we conduct equal and mutual exchange over a single platform.” Stella and Miracle, taskforce members at ALAC, went on across-time-zone audio communication via group talk of WeChat APP specially set for the workshop with Judy at New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).
Mr. Michael Royce, Executive Director of NYFA, representing the U.S. partner for the workshop project, said, “We feel honored to establish a platform for these outstanding Chinese curators to communicate with leading members of the New York art circles. We do hope that both sides may have opportunities to share curatorial experiences and bring the learning from the exchanges back to our respective organizations and to the cultural communities that we serve”.
While in New York, Mr. JI Yanwei led the participants on a ‘home visit’ to the Chinese Consulate General, with a view to enhancing their understanding of the project from a higher perspective. It was a happy gathering with the cultural officials headed by the culture counselor, Mr. LI Liyan. After introducing the basics of the Consulate General as well as the status of Chinese arts and culture programs in New York, Mr. LI Liyan emphasized that participants of the workshop should learn and master the universal language of art, apply their intelligence and capabilities to the interpretation and promotion of Chinese culture overseas, introduce to the world more and more art works that embody Chinese characteristics, spirits and intelligence.
In response, Mr. JI Yanwei re-iterated that heart-to-heart communication holds the key to the amity between peoples which in turn leads the way to sound relations between states. He urged the participants to bring more and better Chinese art works into the hearts of the people around the globe by means of artistic innovation, communication, cooperation, exhibition, experiencing, studying and questioning. This visit to the Chinese Consulate General in New York brought a sense of home to the participants, and enhanced their sense of duty and mission to the home country.
From 1 Meter to 0.1 Meter
The workshop emphasized on going into art organizations and getting close to local curators at work. After lectures and exchange visits, the participants went into corresponding organizations and worked there for one month. If the physical distance between the teachers and the students was set at 1 meter, that at the curators’ posts was reduced to 0.1 meter.
The workshop also emphasized on cultural preservation and cross-culture exchanges. Several NGOs showcased their outstanding achievements in this regard. Mr. Mark Rossier, director of the Development Department of NYFA, introduced four ways of fund-raising common to non-profit art organizations in New York, i.e., government support, enterprise sponsorship, private foundation sponsorship and individual donation. Such fund-raising is based upon the specific taxation system in New York. After securing the funding wells, such organizations conduct targeted events to promote the art development in local communities and provide art education service for the local people. The major feature is that the projects are selected according to local people’s demands and in combination of individual artists’ characteristics and potentials. The purposes of these activities are to promote mutual understandings among groups of diverse cultural backgrounds, to stabilize local social structures and to accommodate folk arts with discourse space into contemporary arts. Furthermore, museums and art galleries in New York, with a strong sense of public service, play important roles as culture expounders.
Participants of the workshop learned that special attention is given to public service function in the art development in New York. Brooklyn Museum offers art education service to students of local elementary and middle schools. Its lobby hall is for lease to accommodate local people’s weddings. Brooklyn Arts Council makes efforts to promote arts and culture programs within the Brooklyn District in service of its local people. Its programs include those supporting artists’ creative works and art education. In general, the U.S. has established a rather comprehensive system for the funding, planning, execution and evaluation of public arts, which provides sound funding and open environment for artistic creations, and boosts the art development in local communities in turn.
Art organizations in New York attach importance in their development strategy to resource sharing across academic, technological and commercial platforms, as seen not only in individual artists’ creation, but also in daily operation of the organizations. Participants of the workshop paid visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA). As one of the top four museums in the world, it adopts the exhibition strategy common to large-scale museums, i.e., as a rather stable practice, setting up permanent exhibition sections according to geographical divisions and historical development. However, the exhibits within these sections are in constant alteration. As another example, the cooperation between MMA and the Christie’s provides an effective channel for the museum to collect funds for its art crafts conservation, collection resources renewal and global market development.
Mr. LIU Libin, an associate researcher at China Central Academy of Fine Arts, and Ms SUN Feng, a curator from China Arts and Entertainment Group, both as participants of the workshop, made presentations on Chinese contemporary arts for their colleagues at the Sculpture Center where they stayed and worked at the latter half of the workshop. Mr. LIU Libin elaborated on the development of Chinese contemporary arts with a heavy accent of Shandong provincial dialect in his English. Ms SUN Feng introduced the international exchange history of Chinese artistic exhibitions, key exhibitions in Sino-U.S. art exchanges and directions for recent exhibition planning. The two-way discussion extended from exhibition planning, academic study and new media communication to cultures of China and the U.S., new trends and values in Chinese contemporary arts. U.S. curators quite enjoyed the presentations and discussion. Both Chinese and U.S. curators at work felt that such double-lane and close-range communication may bring an optimized effect.
Mr. FU Yixuan, executive vice president of ALAC received media interview on this workshop. He made such comment as follows, “Though we have organized curator trainings and workshops both at home and abroad for many times, it is a rare case that we have a program of such a long span, multiple training methods, close range and heavy emphasis on exchanges. We hope that the 20 participants may look back at this workshop in 20 years’ time, and then identify its true value and significance”. “China National Arts Fund and CFLAC have really taken on themselves a timely job to support our workshop. As an independent curator, I have walked through and worked in many countries. Quite out of my expectation, my counterparts in the U.S. and other countries applauded on China National Arts Fund’s support to such an excellent program. They felt that Chinese curators are lucky and full of potentials. Upon returning home, I will share my full load of learning and experience with many fellow curators and artists.” Ms GUO Jing, an independent curator as one participant of this workshop in U.S. felt the strength and warmth in these sentences.
