On the afternoon of November 3, 2015, the press conference of the “First Green Apple Sketches, Creation and Chinese Calligraphy Award” series of events, hosted by The High School Affiliated to CAFA, was held at Yanjiao campus of CAFA, the press conference was presided over by the Academic Chair of the activity Qi Jiahai, Ma Gang, a professor from CAFA and the Headmaster of The High School Affiliated to CAFA, Diao Tingting, Party Secretary of the school, Pan Hao, an associate professor from CAFA, Deputy Director of Discipline Committee of the school, Kong Fantao, Deputy Director of the Department of the Professional Teaching of the school, Qu Chunpei, Deputy Director of Discipline Committee of the school attended the conference.

Director of the organizing committee Prof. Ma Gang initially introduced the purport of the events, and he said that the art talents from the higher education students were like mature big red apples, while the middle school students were like unripe big green apples. “Green apple” is as a vivid metaphor, the concept of the talent cultivation adhered to by the school in the past more than 6 decades.

Prof. Ma Gang said “The First Green Apple Sketches, Creation and Chinese Calligraphy Award” clearly demanded the participating sketches and creations to pay close attention to the presentation of real life. Among the sketches are paper works to express the subjects of life; Creation is to present the creative works from real life, which also encourages the presentation in a personal form of language, with feelings from real life; It uses proposition in the Chinese calligraphy works, in order to convey the idea of the school promoting artistic talent that has a cultural consciousness, cultural mind and pays close attention to reality. He said that the exhibition also had conducted in-depth academic research, aimed at exploring and researching the problems and tasks that appear in the present teaching in addition to the awards, to further obey the law of art in education, and to develop students’ motivation and talent for creation.

The Chief Superintendent of the activity, Associate Professor Pan Hao introduced the organization and planning of the event. It started to formulate a large scale selection with detailed preparations two months ago, and formally issued information for the contributions that were wanted which was oriented to all the students studying in the school on September 25, thousands of works were created by the students and were collected from October 23 to October 26, the jury was composed of three groups of senior professionals from the disciplines of sketching, creation, Chinese calligraphy, that led to three rounds of selections for the finalists, and the winners will be selected from more than 300 finalists on November 6, in order to ensure that the campaign is rigorous and academic.'

In order to ensure the openness, impartiality and fairness of the whole activity, all the links including solicitation and proposition of Chinese calligraphy, awards and so on, thus conducting a strict and independent disciplinary inspection and supervision and Head of Disciplinary Inspection Party Secretary Diao Tingting introduced the related arrangements at the conference. The solicited sketches and creations were all sealed for selection, and three teachers set a proposition for Chinese calligraphy for the students who could randomly choose an examination question. About 7 professional teachers of each group signed a letter of commitment for a Disciplinary Inspection and jointly discussed the standards and rules of the selection.

In the following Q & A section, attendees supplied detailed answers the media’s questions, such as the award setting, the evaluation standard, the frequency, the relationship between awards and teaching, the setting of the traditional cultural curriculum, the examination situation in the secondary education of fine arts and so on. “The High School Affiliated to CAFA Green Apple Award” was set up in 2013, with the respective establishment of the prizes for sketches and Chinese calligraphy, and it added a new prize of creation, which was combined with the other two prizes this year, to intensify the content and power of the award, aiming at the cultivation of the ability of observation, expressive ability and traditional cultural quality of the students. The award setting is formulated in allusion to the current situation of teaching development and two years of event practice which is held annually in the schedule.

The awards of “The High School Affiliated to CAFA the First Green Apple Sketches, Creation and Chinese Calligraphy Award” and the exhibition of the finalists are opening at the art museum of the Yanjiao campus of CAFA on the morning of November 6, along with a series of academic seminars that will be unveiled.

Text by Ye Yuanfeng, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Photo by the High School Affiliated to CAFA