Thursday, August 25, 2011

Art in Beijing

Prior to making the trip to China this time,I decided I would apply to see if I could attend a art residency in Beijing, to coincide with Brianna doing her 12 month university degree at Fudan and Shandong.
I was thrilled to receive acceptance for a Residency at Red Gate for September 2011 or January, February, March 2012

.
. . Red Gate Residency has been working to develop an initiative to bring innovative individuals working on socially and environmentally responsible projects to Beijing. . . .

Red Gate offers a program that offers the time and space to work in a studio environment with local and international artists. There is a competitive application process with two main deadlines a year for six two – three month residencies. . . . . . Red Gate assists all participants to connect with the art scene, meet local Chinese artists and to source art materials.
So of course we had to visit the Red Gate Gallery. http://www.redgategallery.com/location This incredible space has an exhibiting factor of ‘wow’. We met the director, who was charming, informative and in my good books, as he gifted me with a beautiful red bound collection of the current exhibiting artists works . . .what is there not to love?

We then moved onto Feijiacun, to the Beigao studio compound to meet the director Ms Zehui, who is helping Crystal with the Red Gate residency program. We were shown the studios and met some of the very talented residing artists.

However, after serious consideration I dec
ided that the first option of one month for September 2011 was too short a time to emerse myself in any serious body of work and the second choice was smack bang in winter.( I know I would not be able to endure the extreme cold of a typical Beijing winter) My final decision was to re apply at a later date.
So we decided to continue with the ART theme, with a visit to the innovative and exciting

798 Art District, at Dashanzi..

There are sooooooo many studios to look through. . .
White space Beijing,
Beijing Tokyo Art project, Art Scene Beijing,
798 photo Beijing and The Long March space are all worth a visit.
There are book shops, cafés and nik nak shops a plenty.
You could spend days at this sprawling feisty art hub.
Oh! Yahhhh! we did get some seriously great food in some very funky cafe environs, while observing some facinating behaviour by the attending crowds. . . . .

Yep! Great stuff!!


We soaked up lots of inspirational ideas and left with a renewed desire to get on with some serious CREATING !!!!
What more could one ask for???