This is the first collaboration between the course Public Art and the Centre for Innovative Service-Learning (CISL), in which AVA partnered with Yan Garden, an artistic and cultural hub in Dongguan.
With a mission to promote innovative ideas across traditional and historical boundaries, students of the class integrated a special message into each of the five creative maquettes that they built. These included outdoor sculptures and murals to show the traditional Chinese handcraft, the life of migrant workers, and the transformation of Dongguan into an industrial city. Students’ creative ideas came from a three-day visit to Yan Garden during which they visited a world-class toy factory founded by a Hong Kong entrepreneur, an intangible cultural heritage, and saw the making of traditional handcraft. They also visited and showed their care to the elderly residents living in an ancient village. These visits provided the students with an overview of the geographical, political and social contexts of Dongguan.
With the support of CISL, students were able to go beyond the traditional classroom setting and obtain an eye-opening experience by utilizing creativity to its fullest. The collaboration is an eyewitness of the relevance between art and the world at large, showcasing the enormous potential of service-learning: learning is no longer only about theoretical training, but the awareness of social and cultural issues, humanitarian concerns, and whole-person development.
Here are the moments captured from this inspiring course: https://youtu.be/P5D6jrUctrE