China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Lin Jie.
Every weekend, young artists meet with the librarians of the Guangzhou Library, and bring a variety of art experience activities that show the meaning of traditional Chinese culture into the community with the simple idea of "aesthetic education is accessible to all", which is not only enjoyed by the elderly and children, but also actively participated by foreigners in the community.
Recently, the Guangzhou Library Aesthetic Education Professional Volunteer Service Team won the 2023 Guangzhou Best Cultural Tourism Volunteer Service Award. This group of young volunteers used the "Art Weekend" activity to empower the community, and put into practice the attempt to equalize public cultural services free of charge, so that community residents can enjoy high-quality public cultural services at their doorsteps.
Since the launch of the second batch of theme education, Guangzhou has accelerated the construction of a culturally strong city, vigorously implemented the action of inheriting and promoting red culture, built a high-level inheritance of excellent traditional Chinese culture and a Lingnan cultural center, promoted the prosperity and development of cultural undertakings and cultural industries, accelerated the construction of an important window to display the modern civilization of the Chinese nation, and strived to create a new situation of high-quality development in Guangzhou while stimulating the new vitality of the old city.
From a library of books to a library of people".
10 years ago, Guangzhou Library moved to the central axis of Guangzhou CBD and experienced a transformation process from a library of books to a library of people. In addition to traditional services such as borrowing and collecting consultations, Guangzhou Library has added a large number of services focusing on exchange activities, such as training, lectures, exhibitions, reading sharing sessions, etc., and has gradually formed a brand and serialization of public exchange activities.
Fang Jiazhong, director of the Guangzhou Library, clearly remembers that on August 5, 2018, more than 50,000 readers entered the library, which still holds the record for the highest number of visitors in a single day for urban public libraries in China. As a result, the Guangzhou Library is also known as the "busiest library". When more and more people came to the library, Fang Jiazhong pondered: "Is it possible to bring the library's services outside the library, so that more people can enjoy the 'library at their doorstep'?""In 2022, a total of 313 public libraries will be built in Guangzhou, achieving 100% full coverage of public libraries in 176 towns and districts in the city, and all of them will be borrowed and returned.
The completion of the "City of Libraries" made the librarians very excited and felt the arrival of the "era of public libraries". Chen Xin, deputy director of the special service department of Guangzhou Library, is also thinking about how to promote the relatively mature services in the library to the outside of the library, so that the work experience accumulated by librarians over the years can be transformed into greater service efficiency, so that more people can benefit, especially the elderly, children and other people who are inconvenient to travel independently. "If they can access library services close to home, the 'City of Libraries' can really work," she said. ”
Following the idea of promoting "in-museum services" to "communities outside the museum", Chen Xin and his colleagues began to discuss the feasibility of the plan. The first problem they encountered was the problem of staffing, because whether it is a service or an event, there is usually a high level of public participation on weekends, but the Guangzhou Library is fully open on weekends, and if the librarians go to the community, they will not be able to take care of the services in the library.
At this time, Wang Shuhui, a full-time Chinese teacher at the International College of Jinan University, who often comes to the library, proposed to the librarian Long Liuting that she was interested in public service and hoped to become a volunteer in the library. Chen Xin immediately realized that volunteers were a huge group that could be mobilized.
In fact, Guangzhou Library has a "Guangtu Volunteers" webpage, which is very popular. According to data on December 19, 2023, Guangzhou Library has nearly 30,000 registered volunteers. Most of the librarians in the Special Service Department of Guangzhou Library are post-85s, who are active in thinking and have rich work experience. This department is responsible for the management of the Creative Design Gallery, because it has the latest and most complete art and design books in the country, and the young librarians also have close ties with many young artists. The artists all said: "If I have the opportunity, I hope to become a volunteer in Guangzhou and participate in the library's public service." ”
Aesthetic education professional volunteers customize the "Art Weekend".
Therefore, the young librarians immediately took action, linked up with Guangdong Provincial Institute of Aesthetic Education, Guangdong Children's Aesthetic Education Art Research Institute, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Xinghai ** College, Guangdong Film Association and other partners, recruited professional volunteers with artistic expertise through WeChat, and established the Guangzhou Library Aesthetic Education Professional Volunteer Service Team, 26 artists or art educators from different fields such as fine arts and film joined.
Up to now, the Aesthetic Education Professional Volunteer Service Team has attracted more than 200 freshman aesthetic education volunteers. On the basis of integrating the collection resources, Guangzhou Library has planned a series of brand activities of "Art Weekend", determined the three main directions of art, film and **, and invited teachers and students of professional art colleges and universities and teachers of aesthetic education art institutions as art professional volunteers to jointly carry out first-class theme lectures and performances, film appreciation, art workshops and other activities in various communities, provide aesthetic education to the public free of charge, and provide special customized activities for special groups such as teenagers and children, the elderly, and outsiders.
In the interview, the reporter learned that the aesthetic education professional volunteer service team relies on the service system of Guangzhou Public Library, goes into communities, enterprises, and streets, carries out public welfare activities such as aesthetic education popularization and art workshops, transforms high-quality public cultural resources into volunteer service activities, and promotes beauty education "accessible to everyone and enjoyed everywhere";Promote Guangzhou's public cultural services to a new stage that is not only down-to-earth, but also can improve the public's cultural and artistic literacy.
Based on the practical requirements of "doing practical things for the masses", Guangzhou Library aims to empower the community through "art", and hopes to truly practice the theme education of "I do practical things for the masses" through the brand of "Art Weekend".
On October 23, 2023, the day of the Chung Yeung Festival, with the support of the Guangzhou Volunteer Association, the aesthetic education professional volunteer service team came to the Renmin Street Comprehensive Elderly Care Service Center (Yee Hong Center) in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, to bring theatrical performances to the elderly here, and 100 elderly people participated in the grand "Chongyang Baisuo Banquet".
At the scene, Cao Qiaochu, a librarian who graduated from Xinghai ** College, played the guzheng. For her, going to the community to organise Chung Yeung Festival activities for the elderly is an unforgettable memory. Previously, she and her colleagues had visited communities in Guangzhou many times to organize activities such as art appreciation and intangible cultural heritage skills exhibitions. Volunteer Wu Yiping said: "As a young person in Guangzhou, I am very happy to come to the community as a professional volunteer in aesthetic education to bring happiness to the elderly, and I hope to have more opportunities to participate in reading promotion volunteer services in the future, and do my best to give back to Guangzhou, a warm and inclusive city." ”
Let the youth of the Bay Area have a greater sense of gain.
There are many foreign friends living in the vicinity of the Cantonese community, and the librarian Long Liuting took into account the need to effectively popularize the excellent traditional Chinese culture to foreign friends when planning the "Art Weekend". Therefore, Wang Shuhui, a full-time Chinese teacher at the International College of Jinan University, walked into the community and introduced traditional Chinese festivals to foreign friends in English vividly and vividly from interesting customs. At the same time, Mo Jiajing, deputy director of Guangzhou Shennong Thatched Cottage Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine, patiently guided everyone to make Shennong's "sachets" through "bilingual teaching". Su Bing, an international student from the International College of Jinan University, said: "This is the first time I have made sachets, and I have learned a lot of names of Chinese herbal medicines, which is very interesting. ”
Shen Xueyan, vice president of the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Aesthetic Education, pointed out that art is an experience, and at present, planning and organizing "Art Weekend" activities, especially actively promoting aesthetic education activities to the community, will definitely make the public fully feel that "beauty is around".
It is worth noting that in 2023, the Aesthetic Education Professional Volunteer Service Team will promote cultural exchanges between Guangzhou and Shenzhen in the form of art linkage. They have collaborated with other volunteer service agencies and organizations for many times, such as the "Guangzuo New Life" Intangible Cultural Heritage Professional Volunteer Service Team to carry out social co-creation and aesthetic education activities, providing a new bridge for youth exchange and integration in the Greater Bay Area.
Since its opening, Guangzhou Library has always adhered to the concept of "serving the library and opening up the library" to provide the public with the best quality public cultural services. Today, the aesthetic education professional volunteer service team created by the young librarians of Guangzhou Library has been welcomed by the community residents, and has truly realized the original intention of "making aesthetic education light up life and making aesthetic education accessible to everyone".
*: China Youth Daily.