Glorious 2020, Promote Coordinated Aesthetic Education, Build a Education System with Cultural Characteristics: SA&D
Culture improves people’s morals and promotes civilized society. The School of Architecture and Design (SA&D) contrived to build a renowned, popular and effective cultural education system in line with the plan formulated by SWJTU for implementing “General political and ideological education” for a new era and driving the construction of ideological and political education system. Guided by Party Committee, based on the discipline characteristics and the needs of students, SA&D earnestly promotes cultural construction, builds cultural environment and enhances cultural communication in a coordinated way. We have been working to enrich the school with excellent culture and decorate the campus with fine arts.
Culture as Sound Foundation: Building on Advantages
We built on cultural advantages and continued to hold a series of distinctive cultural activities. “International Architecture Festival” “Yanghua Blueprint Reviewing Festival” “Graduation Exhibition” “International University Work Exhibition” “Red Culture Exhibition” and other activities have become influential brands for school cultural activities with a broad participation. At the same time, we pursued the integration of cultural cultivation and teaching and held a number of exhibitions of excellent student work, including “Exhibition of course assignment of colour design”, “Public Facility Design Assignment Exhibition”, “Summer Internship Work Exhibition” and so on. Activities at all levels have not only broadened the space for cultural cultivation and improving appreciation, but also built a sound environment for cultural exchanges and aesthetic education, and set a good example for others cultural activities.
We pursued flexible and innovative cultural education. With pandemic prevention and control carried out on a regular basis, we held many cultural activities in various forms and turned some of them from off-line to online, using VR, new media and on-line meeting and coordinating all resources to build up on-line cultural education channel. For example, the on-line SA&D Graduation Exhibition was held in the digital gallery with the help of VR, which received wide attention and active respond with over 20,000 views. These activities has promoted the digitization and popularization of aesthetic education that is accessible to more people so that the audience can appreciate beauty without leaving home.
Culture as Synergy: Promoting Multi-dimensional Practice
We facilitated aesthetic education by providing more channels for all SWJTU students. Through interdisciplinary aesthetic education, we provided general courses that introduce professional and theoretical knowledge. We opened serial cultural lectures and general courses of “artistic experience and aesthetic cultivation” to all students, the latter of which included “Chinese Garden Culture, “Overview of Chinese Architecture”, “Ba-shu Architecture and Culture”, “Design and Aesthetics”, and “Western Oil Painting Appreciation”, etc. These lectures and general courses by the SA&D aimed to serve the university, providing channels for all students to discover, feel and appreciate beauty, enhance their aesthetic and cultural quality, and contributing to the cultivation of constructors and successors with all-round development for the cause of socialism in the new era.
We took active part in social practice. Valuing both the importance of cultural environment and practice, we carried out serial cultural social services, many community-based, so as to promote the fine culture of SWJTU and boost the confidence to discipline development. This summer vocation, the social practice program “The design and promotion of psychological counseling for junior high school students under normalized epidemic prevention and control”was listed as one of the “SWJTU Excellent Social Practice Programs”. Through serving the pubic and carrying forward culture, our students deepened their understanding of art and culture.
Culture as Refinement：Exploring the Spiritual Essence of Fine Culture
The essence of culture lies in its spiritual power. The SA&D has been attaching importance to students’ personality shaping, carrying out thematic activities that expose students to fine culture.
We have been pursuing the innovative transformation and development of refined Chinese traditional culture. Tapped into the rich resource of traditional culture, such as pottery, fabrics, gardening, calligraphy and painting, and drawing on our own experience, the SA&D has been exploring new ways to carry forward the tradition culture. Through a number of activities, students were able to learn about Tie-dye, a national intangible cultural heritage, and other traditions at first hand. At the same time, with innovative transformation and development, the refined Chinese traditional culture has become more colorful in the new era.
We answered the call of times with our works that praise patriotism and zeitgeist. On February 5, through new media, the SA&D called on all faculty and students to support and encourage people working on the front lines of covid-19 control. Later, with hundreds of paintings, posts, photos and designs from participants, we hosted many on-line exhibitions under the theme “United in fighting against the pandemic and pursuing greater good for all”. These works recorded the fight with Covid-19 and commended heroic action. Though different in forms and styles, they shard the common of commitment to the party and country. Our on-line exhibitions were later covered by Xinhuanet on March. 7, 2020.
Under the strong leadership and guidance of the Party Committee, with the whole participation of officials, faculty and students, based on disciplinary synergy, SA&D formulated a unique system for cultural education. We will continue to draw on the experience and synergize all advantages so as to make contribution to building a Double First-Class” university.
