he Roundtable Meeting of Arts Education along the Silk Road, one of serial forums of the 21st China Shanghai International Arts Festival (CSIAF), was held at SISU on October 23, 2019. Under the theme of “Mutual Learning among Civilizations, the Cultivation of Arts Education”, representatives from nearly 40 educational and arts institutions in 11 countries and regions gathered to discuss the multi-dimensional development of arts education and explore the possibility of international cooperation. Attendees of also included officials and teachers from the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, the Shanghai Arts Education Commission, the CSIAF Center, the Shanghai Arts Education Association, and SISU.

In addition to attending the keynote speeches and panel discussions, the participants were invited to give lectures and master classes to the faculty members and students of SISU and to the arts teachers of primary and secondary schools in Shanghai. These activities not only provided the local schools with a platform for international communication and cooperation in arts education, but also offered a chance for the local teachers and students to immerse themselves in the world of art.

Yang Jing, deputy secretary-general of the Party Committee of the CSIAF Center, hosted the opening ceremony. Wang Jing, deputy council chair of SISU, extended a warm welcome to the participants, introduced SISU’s history of the international cooperation and arts education since its founding in 1949, and expressed the hope for further communication and collaboration in arts education.

The meeting then proceeded to the keynote speeches, where representatives from home and abroad shared their own experience in arts education. Their views on and approaches to it opened the audience’s eyes to the numerous possibilities it offered to promote education and society as a whole.

For example, Joe Sidek, founder of the Rainforest Fringe Festival in Penang, Malaysia, talked about the festival’s featured public arts events. He said that the festival was able to engage the locals and the tourists alike, promote the local people’s appreciation of art, enrich the public artistic culture and popularize arts education.

Tatyana Dmitrievna Smelkova, director of the Department of Music in Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, introduced her school’s approach to the training of musical talents. The department, in partnership with many overseas music schools, provides its students with a good number of learning opportunities and broader platforms to enhance their musical skills.

Sun Yourui from the Finalmente Drama Troupe of SISU talked about his trip to the Gdansk Shakespeare Festival in Poland in August this year. Under the support of the CSIAF, the Troupe put on three of its original works at the festival, all of which received great attention as well as glowing reviews. Sun shared his experience and thoughts from the perspective of a performer.

Major themes of the panel discussions were “Innovation and Cooperation in Public Arts Education” and “Arts Education in a Broader and International Context”. Presenters included Ruby-Lim Yang, art director of ACT3 International in Singapore, Zhang Yi, senior marketing and art education manager of Shanghai International Dance Center, He Jing, director of Studies Tour of Shanghai C-trip International Travel Agency, Xu Huijing, head of Arts and Sports Department of Shanghai Putuo Youth Center, Cai Weiyi, exclusive presenter and partner of Philadelphia International Summer Music Festival in Asia. They agreed that today’s society already contained internal impetus to support arts education, and suggested that arts festivals, institutions and extracurricular arts education programs push their boundaries and cooperate closely so as to offer high-quality arts education to the public.

Presenters at the panel discussions also included representatives from comprehensive and art colleges and universities, i.e. Ioan Bondrea, rector of Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romanian, Xi Tao, professor of the School of Design of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhang Zhe, secretary of Youth League Committee of Shanghai Art and Design Academy, Munkhsaikhan Munkhuu, head of International Collaboration Department of the Mongolian State University of Arts and Culture (MUAC), Zhang Yifen, leader of SHOU group of 2019 “Silk Expression” Sino-Polish Dance Summer Camp. They pointed to the indispensable role played by arts education in the process of comprehensive talent training in schools, drawing from their own  work experience. They also concluded that the goal of talent training would be better achieved through continuously seeking for international cooperation in arts education.

After the panel discussion, Yang Jing, deputy secretary-general of the Party Committee of the CSIAF Center, introduced the recent achievements of the communication and cooperation in arts education along the Silk Road, particularly the Summer Dance Camp and Sibiu International Theatre Festival. She said that the CSIAF would present multiple possibilities of arts education for teenagers, art fans and specialists, and function as a platform for international, innovative and cross-boundary cooperation and for the integration of the resources of all sectors concerned, from enterprises to public institutions.

During the master classes and lectures, the faculty and students of  SISU and arts teachers of primary and secondary schools in Shanghai were given a chance to learn about “The Concept and Practice of Theatre Education in Europe” and “Arts Education for Young Audience in Denmark and Europe”. These new insights from overseas inspired the audience to think more creatively in their future work.

As an improvement on the previous two meetings, the 3rd Roundtable Meeting of Arts Education along the Silk Road did not limit itself to the topic of arts education at higher learning institutions. Instead, it brought in representatives from different fields and sectors, serving as a platform for cross-boundary cooperation. Meanwhile, the meeting has set a good example of effective communication on the basis of case studies and individual experience, which would inform future collaboration. The annual event aims to promote communications between civilizations, produce activities of arts education that can benefit as many people as possible, and ultimately provide new momentum for the communication along the Silk Road.

The article is translated by Zhang Zhaoyu, Zhu Jiangfeng, Yang Ziwei, Hong Yinglu and proofread by Wang Bo, members of the Translation Association of the School of English Studies (SESTA) at Shanghai International Studies University. For use of the content, please contact: ses_translators@163.com.