On January 28th, a press conference for the event “Happy Chinese New Year: Series of Activities in New York - Chinese Art Collection in 2015”, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and organized by CCAFA, was held at CCAFA, Beijing, during which one of the key projects—the theme projects and exhibition of the worldwide event held by the Ministry have been officially pub lished. Meanwhile, the results of the Design Competition for the Souvenir of “Happy Chinese New Year: Chinese Art Collection” was announced and the winners were awarded.
The leaders participating in the conference included the director general of the Bureau for External Cultural Relations,Xie Jinying; the head of CCAFA, Mr. Fan Di’an; the chief of the Division of America and Oceania of the Bureau for External Cultural Relations, Chen Chunmei; Shang Jiyuan, the officer in charge of the “Happy Chinese New Year” office; Prof. Yu Ding, the Director of the Institute for Art Management and Education at CCAFA and the Chief Planner for the Project; Prof. Hu Jiancheng, vice-director of the Institute of Urban Design at CCAFA, Chief Designer of the Project; the representative of participating artists, Prof. Zhan Wang of CCAFA, and many more.
According to the introduction of Xie Jinying, the director general of the Bureau for External Cultural Relations, the “Happy Chinese New Year” event, which has been held for five consecutive years, is a branding international cultural exchange project co-organized with the relevant local Ministries and Departments. This is the first time that the New York event invites professional fine arts universities, and China’s top art university, CCAFA, to organize professional organizational teams, and to mobilize representatives from the fields of art, design, marketing, communications, corporations and social forces for collaboration, showing a good example of better resource integration and innovation development for any event held at home or abroad in the near future.
It is reported that this is the very first show of “Happy Chinese New Year: Series of Activities in New York - Collection of Chinese Art in 2015” as a sub-brand project of “Happy Chinese New Year”. February 17th, 2015, in New York is about the time of the Chinese New Year, by which there will be New Year light show equipment, public art exhibitions, firework theme parties and other programs from China, which will be organized at New York landmarks such as the Empire State Building and the Lincoln Art Centre. The most renowned artists, like Xu Jiang, Xu Bing, Guan Xia, Lv Shengzhong, Zhan Wang, Huang Jiancheng, Chen Wenling, and others, will work together to help visitors experience a unique Chinese New Year by providing a taste of the New Year with public art and contemporary pieces to thousands of New York residents and travelers.
When the chief planner of the project, Prof. Yu Ding, was giving a speech, he stated that the program “Chinese Art Collection” has its own features and forms which are different from previous global “Happy Chinese New Year” programs. To begin with, it emphasizes the promotion of New Year celebration activities into mainstream society of the United States, at the most famous landmarks of New York, which include the State Empire Building and the Lincoln Art Centre. Thus, it will attract more and more U.S. citizens and worldwide travelers to pay close attention and participate in these activities. Secondly, the contents of the activities are expanded from the traditional and public folk arts to contemporary arts and creations from China, bringing the most prosperous and modern arts and designs to an international show arena, displaying the forces and achievements of both “Creation by China” and “Design by China”. Therefore, it will have created an opportunity for the people of the world to know contemporary China. Thirdly, from the practice of five years of “Happy Chinese New Year”, it is indeed the very first time when sophisticated and professional artistic teams are entrusted with planning and design. It is no wonder that this will be a high-quality project both in terms of the overall visual identification system and the selection of artists and art. A capable and elite team has been sent by CCAFA, led by Prof. Fan Di’an, the director-general; Prof. Yu Ding, acting as Chief Planner; Prof. Huang Jiancheng, as acting as Chief Designer, together with many other famous artists, such as Xu Jiang, Xu Bing, Lv Shengzhong, Zhan Wang, Chen Wenling, and others. Meanwhile, cross-border support has been received from the concert-master of the China National Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Guan Xia, and there has been close collaboration with a famous fireworks production and presentation team in the U.S. Fourthly, a Souvenir design competition for “Happy Chinese New Year” was organized, during which a series of art derivatives with a high level of creativity and market prospects were evaluated. Through the marketing and promotion of these derivatives, many cultural trade products and creativity reserves can be added to the event. Finally, a change from reliance on government funding to social forces, market operation and brand marketing occurred in support of the event, making the event “Happy Chinese New Year･Chinese Art Collection” one of sustainable development under the marketization mechanism.
Prof. Fan Di’an, President of CCAFA, also highlighted a common characteristic among the artists participating in the event: they have been focused on the transition from traditional culture into contemporary art. He said, “Transition of traditional culture into contemporary art is the theme of this age, with which artists have been working for many years and have gained appreciation from the world. This time, their representative works have been collected, so I would like to strongly proclaim the message that China’s contemporary art is becoming a world language through the absorption, integration and creation of its traditional resources.
Besides introducing the origin, development, and detailed concept of planning the art programs, art and the main works, the press conference also displayed the design of the visual identification system of “Happy Chinese New Year: Chinese Art Collection”, and also revealed the results of the souvenir design competition for the Chinese New Year. Based on the concept of creating a “Happy Chinese New Year” from various angles and channels, a trend of “Chinese Style” integrating both the traditional and the contemporary will be launched at the time of Lunar New Year.
According to reports, the event is scheduled to start on February 17th, 2015, and to close on February 24th, the sixth day after Chinese New Year’s Eve, lasting for a week. Art of China will be the designated official site to record and conduct live broadcasts from the spectacular event “Happy Chinese New Year: Chinese Art Collection”.
