Perception and Vision: Chinese-American Art Faculty Exhibition and Symposium

Shanghai William Chinese Art Foundation Distinguished Visiting Artist Series

08/05/2016 – 08/10/2016

Organizers

Center for Chinese Art at William Paterson University
The China International Culture Association
Guizhou Minzu University, China
Chinese-American Art Faculty Association, USA

Collaborators

The Artists Association of Guizhou Province
Culture Communication Center of Guiyang Confucius Academy

Sponsors

Homnicen Group of Guizhou, China
Art College, Guizhou Nationalities University of China

Perception and Vision: Chinese-American Art Faculty Work Exhibition

08/05/2016 – 08/30/2016 at Homnicen International Culture & Art Center, China

Perception and Vision: Chinese-American Art Faculty Symposium

08/05/2016 – 08//10/2016 at Guizhou Nationalities University

Planning Committee for Symposium and Exhibition
Honorary Chairmen

Xueli Zhang, President of the Board of Directors, the Guizhou Nationalities University
Wenliang Tao, President of the Guizhou Nationalities University

Advisors

Lyusheng Chen, Deputy Director, the National Museum of China
Xiaohui Chen, Executive Vice President, Homnicen Group of Guizhou
Hongwei Chen, President, the Artists Association of Guizhou Province
Zhipeng Ding, Honorary Director, Center for Chinese Art at William Paterson University
Margaret Lam and David Yen, Honorary Directors, Center for Chinese Art, William Paterson University
Ping Li, President, Ink Yonghe Foundation, China
Professor Daryl Joseph Moore, Dean of College of the Arts and Communication, William Paterson University
Gongkai Pan, Vice President, the National Artists Association of China
Qi Xu, President, Culture Communication Center of Guiyang Confucius Academy
Xiaoyang Yang, President, China National Academy of Painting

Directors of the executive Comittee

Zhiyuan Cong, Jianshan Wang, Li Zeng

Memebrs of the Executive Committee

Chung-Fan Chang, Lian Duan, Jiawei Gong, Zhimin Guan

Vision and Mission: The Chinese-American Art Faculty Association of the USA


By Zhiyuan Cong

I am very happy for the successful opening of the ‘Perception and Vision: Chinese-American Art Faculty Exhibition and Symposium’ in the multicultural environment of the 9th China-ASEAN Education Cooperation Week, and in Guizhou, the province of diverse ethnicities. I want to express my sincere thanks to China International Cultural Association, Chinese-American Art Faculty Association, Guizhou Minzu University, and William Paterson University of New Jersey, for their co-hosting of this art exhibition and the symposium.

Perception and Vision: Chinese-American Art Faculty Exhibition and Symposium is the fourth major event we’ve held in the past few years with a focus on Chinese-American Art Faculty and their art works. The symposium, Imagination and Expression: The Comparison and Dialogue of Visual Art in Higher Education between China and the United States, held in the fall of 2013 at William Paterson University in New Jersey, focused on the comparison of East-West art education. The summer 2014 symposium, Collision and Confluence: Art Administration in China and the United States, co-sponsored by the Chinese-American Art Faculty Association of the USA and the Shanghai William Chinese Art Foundation, highlighted the theme of Sino-U.S. art administration, communication, and exchange. In winter of 2014, we held the Collision and Confluence: Chinese-American Art Faculty Exhibition and Symposium, with the Center for Chinese Art at William Paterson University, Asian Cultural Center of New York, and China International Cultural Association as co-organizers, and with the theme of assimilation and mutual inspiration. And the theme of this year is to examine the survival, inclusion, enrichment and development of art in the new multiethnic and multicultural era of diversity and from the unique perception and vision of the special artist group of the Chinese-American Art Faculty.

Because of these unique features, this group of cross-cultural Chinese artists and scholars who live in the dual context of East-West art are not limited to a single perspective of the West or China, nor to a self-contained point of view of the past or the present. Instead, they share a multidimensional perspective that embraces the West and China, the past, the present and the future. It’s a comprehensive vision that is crossing the boundaries, a vision that is more inclusive, more discerning and more critical in the complexity of modern society. It is a vision more conducive to our future art creation and education, to the reform of our future art education infrastructure, and to the sustainability of our current art education system. For all these, and their perception and vision, we are gathered here for this momentous art exhibition and symposium.

It is our sincere hope that this exhibition and symposium will serve not only as a forum of exchange with our Chinese colleagues in art and art education, especially with colleagues from Guizhou Province and with guests from ASEAN countries, where we share our international perception and vision, our thoughts, experiences, and achievements in art research and art creation, but also as an invaluable opportunity to promote understanding, development, and communication between East and West art and cultures.

As Director of the Center for Chinese Art at William Paterson University of New Jersey, USA, I would like to express my sincere thanks to President Kathleen Waldron, Provost and Senior Vice President Warren Sandmann, Vice President Pamela Ferguson, for their support and care, to Professor Daryl Joseph Moore, Dean of College of the Arts and Communication for his direct leadership and participation. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks in particular to the founders of the Center for Chinese Art, the Honorary Directors Ms. Margaret Lam and Mr. David Yen, for the establishment and sponsorship to the Award of Excellence for Chinese-American Art Professors, to the Honorary Directors Mr. Yong Liu, Ms. Ching Yiu, Mr. Zhipeng Ding, and Mr. Shengzhan Ding and their Shanghai William Chinese Art Foundation. Without their encouragement, their guidance, their support or their sponsorship, there would have been no Center for Chinese Art, nor today’s art exhibition and symposium.

I wish for great success of our art exhibition and symposium.

Zhiyuan Cong
Professor and Director, the Center for Chinese Art at William Paterson University, President, the Chinese-American Art Faculty Association of the USA

08/04/16