In 2019, a group of parents and children interested in art came to visit the Rhode Island School of Design, the "Harvard of Art and Design", and guess what impressed them the most? Oil painting? Sculpture? An unfathomable avant-garde work of art? All wrong.
What impressed them most was that the students of Rhode Island and the government worked together to reduce the heart disease rescue time in the Greater Boston area by 40% through the design of the project, thereby reducing the mortality rate of patients by 25%; There's also the "Sound Lab" in Rhode Island, where the intricate sounds of the real world are simulated in the 3D virtual world...
△ The official website of RISD can be seen everywhere in the magical design works of students and teachers
The above story is actually the personal experience of Jasper, executive trustee of Hexian/Hurd School and founder of Jingmin Art School.
He felt at that time: It turns out that before you know it, the world has changed!
"Learning art is not good to learn" has long been the old yellow calendar, and now art students may have interdisciplinary skills and unique creativity, standing in the C position of scientific and technological innovation and changing the world! It is no wonder that Apple, Google and even the big Internet companies in China have all been particularly fond of recruiting art students in recent years.
Left: Rhode Island School of Design alumni include former Apple designer Jonathanv Ive, Airbnb founder Brian Chesky, etc. Right: Where some graduates of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Design go
When he was in Rhode Island, in addition to the shock, Jasper also asked the principal of the Rhode Island School of Design a question: "What do you think is missing for Chinese children studying art?" ”
The other person replied: "Exposure and Trans-disciplinary abilities." ”
So, with the vision of filling this gap for Chinese children, Jasper returned to China and founded the Jing Min Art Academy.
△ Jingmin Campus is located next to Hexian, and you can see the façade of the teaching building "Hermes Orange" and "Tiffany Blue" in the distance
After the opening of the school in September last year, Jing Min was warmly welcomed by the Shanghai Beach family, and many children from class A international schools entered Jing Min in order to pursue the path of equal emphasis on art and academia. Did you realize what you expected when you first entered the school?
#01
In recent years, although art study abroad in China has been "hot to the point of hair", as the principal of Rhode Island said earlier, the international education of art in China has not kept up with the needs of current students.
Art schools are either relatively small, with fewer classes, mainly art, or art students are just "marginal people" in the school, the art resources in the school are not rich, and students often need to find institutions to complete art education and portfolios, not only tuition fees are not cheap, but also separated from the school's learning. It is no wonder that Chinese students lack "vision" and "interdisciplinary ability".
So how will Jing Min Art Academy change this situation? One of the answers is to rely on the Hexian/HD Comprehensive University to exchange resources and cultivate "great artistic talents" who attach equal importance to academics and art.
△ Jing Min often invites art masters to give lectures to students, and the teacher of the Marangoni Academy is talking about the future of fashion shows
Shanghai Hexian High School has created a "super academic platform", and this year's first batch of graduates 4 Cambridge, more than 90% of them entered the world's Top 50 universities! As the art school of Hexian School, all of Hexian's academic courses can be elective if they pass the test and the schedule schedule allows.
Lola, who is in the 10th grade, is to pursue her artistic dreams, transferred from the famous "four schools and eight universities" in Shanghai Beach to Jing Min. At first, her parents wondered: Would the homework in an international school "herd sheep"? After entering the school, I was really surprised: it turned out that the school was so tight!
In addition to immersing herself in the art world, Lola also took Hexian's physics class, and recently participated in the 2022 BPhO Physics Competition, one of the international competitions with the highest gold content in physics, and won the global bronze medal.
△ Part of the ECA shared by Jing Min and Hye Hyun
In addition to academic strength, the hardware enjoyed by Jing Min students is also rare on the beach.
Hexian has a vast campus of 100 acres, including the "Big White" anti-smog membrane gymnasium, multi-functional theater, indoor swimming pool, professional discipline laboratories, 3-4 people dormitory... And so on;
In addition, Jing Min's students also enjoy nearly 10,000 square meters of indoor and outdoor venues, including a Skylight Exhibition Hall dedicated to displaying students' works, and 6 professional art workshops to meet the daily needs of students.
△The classrooms are: 2D workshop, 3D workshop, textile workshop, photography workshop, computer workshop, art classroom
Behind the super hardware is the "world-class" management team:
Jing Min invited Bill Wen, an academic president with a bachelor's degree from Deakin University in Australia, an MBA from Maastricht School of Management and a doctorate in management, who is also a "Sino-European cultural exchange ambassador" who loves art and has 20 years of management experience in the international education field; Project manager Michelle Gong is a graduate of MIT's Sloan School of Business and a former consultant at the Top 3 management consulting firm in North America.
Left: Academic Chancellor Bill Wen; Right: Project Manager Michelle Gong
The art teachers are even more star-studded: artists who graduated from famous universities such as Lunyi, Daduo, and San Francisco University of the Arts are invited as teachers, and masters of art from all over the world are invited to give lectures to expand students' horizons; Hexian has become the only partner of the official summer school of Rhode Island School of Design in China, and will open the summer school for the first time in July this year, and the registration has long been full...
Swipe to see outstanding art faculty (partial)
Qian Ou
Leader of the art group
Senior tutor of the portfolio
Multi-course system teaching experience
- Bachelor's degree from the University of the Arts London, UK
- Master's degree from the HDK School of Design, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
- He worked at an international art school in South China
- He is the Deputy Director of the Teaching Office
- BTEC, A-Level and other international art courses
- Teaching, research and management work experience
Mathieu Pineault
Find a sense of belonging in art
Animation enthusiasts
Canadian Chinese local
- Animation Design, University of Toronto
- Skills such as painting, printmaking, and animation are at ease
- Good at combining their own practical experience, standing
- Students impart artistic knowledge from the perspective of the student
Liz Li
The work was featured twice at New York Fashion Week
Jewelry brand founder & independent designer
Educators active in the fashion industry
- Master of Arts in Fashion Design, San Francisco University of the Arts
- Seven years of apparel work experience and three years of educational experience
- Participated in the "East Asian Painters Exchange Exhibition" as a middle school
- One of the representatives of the national painters with 40 from other countries
- A number of famous painters exchanged views
Andrew Weaver
The most skilled art teacher who can cook
He has a special love for Chinese landscape painting
Unexpected art classes
- Department of Interior Art, Transylvania University, USA
- Bachelor of Commerce degree
- Travel to more than 20 countries
- Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, USA
- Professional Art Educator 执照
- He has been engaged in the art education industry in China for 10 years
Yiyi Tang
Art listeners for students
Meticulous in class
After class, you can talk and laugh
He has a deep knowledge in pure art
- Master's degree from Columbus College of Art and Design
- 5 years working experience in art education
- Maintain close ties with CIE
Mr.Jiang
Photography in charge of art teachers
Artistic crossover all-rounder
- Master of Arts degree from the University of Arizona
- Worked for a well-known international school
- Completed works involving interaction, performance,
- Photography, multimedia and other majors
Another pillar that underpins the great artistic talent: the curriculum of "Redefining Art Education", is provided by such teachers.
#02
"Many art students' art study abroad plans are 'fragmented', and all parties only do what is on their plate, do not talk to each other, and even do things that conflict with each other," Jing Min's project manager Michelle (classmates affectionately call her Xiaomi teacher) told me.
Not only is art and academia separated, but in the traditional understanding, art study abroad is composed of independent services, international examinations are completed in schools, portfolios are completed in institutions, extracurricular promotion is completed on weekends after class, and further education documents are packaged to intermediaries... They do not communicate with each other, and sometimes the requirements of all sides are even contradictory. Jing Min, on the other hand, hopes that these can be done uniformly in the school.
In terms of art courses, Jing Min is one of the few schools in Shanghai Beach that has opened up A Level 5 art directions: visual arts, digital media, fashion design, industrial architecture, art and business; Whether students want to become animators or esports game producers in the future, or want to enter technology companies to design new digital products, or want to become fashion designers, fashion buyers... You can find your favorite field and be led by professional mentors.
Students in Grades 9 and 10 first study through the 2-year IGCSE course, gradually establish artistic creation and logical thinking skills, and explore their own interests; Grade 11 began to study more than 3 A Level courses (including one art), and academic meetings and art are combined, such as in Chinese classes, teachers will let everyone draw scenes of ancient Texts, business classes will design products, and psychology classes will combine the current hot "art therapy" to promote self-knowledge and interpersonal relationships with art as a medium.
At the same time, Jing Min also offers a dedicated BTEC portfolio course. Unlike the general portfolio, which may only take 3-5 months, Jing Min's students will spend 2 years carefully polishing the portfolio, and finally use the portfolio of BTEC and A Level art courses as the materials for study abroad application; If the academics are relatively weak, you can also choose only BTEC, "corner overtaking" to apply to the British and American art schools.
In terms of further education guidance, Jing Min even stunned me even more: behind each student there is a "whole team" fighting.
For example, the head of Jing Min Art and the district teacher who obtained the Bachelor of Arts + Master of Design from the University of Gothenburg told me that the first thing she did after coming to Jing Min was to have a one-on-one conversation with each student in the school with Jing Min's management team and the class teacher to understand their artistic interests and what they wanted to do in the future.
In the second semester of grade 10, it is time to start preparing for further education, each student will have a weekly "many-on-one" conversation, academic principals, project managers, further education instructors and art teachers, etc. will sit together to discuss with students the current academic achievements, projects of interest in art, which subjects of teacher intervention and support, which universities they want to apply for in the future, what preparations need to be made...
The main points of each conversation and the next things to be done by the teachers and students will also be recorded in the graphite document by the teachers in turn, as the basis for writing each student's personalized growth file.
△ In the art class, the teacher and the student discuss together
Daniel, in grade 11, has recently made the teachers worry a lot. His talent in the arts is obvious to all, but in the past few years, he has changed the education system several times in Australia and the United States, so his academic performance is relatively weak.
For such a child, on the one hand, the teachers encouraged him to continue to work hard to learn academic courses and English, on the other hand, they also hoped that he would make full use of BTEC, a portfolio course that was relatively weak academic theory and more practice-oriented, and apply to the London School of Art, the dream school.
Daniel loves magical creatures in fantasy, and the above is his whimsical work
I listened to the district teacher introduce the process of a "many-to-one" conversation, which was really eye-opening, and it is not an exaggeration to say that each student of Jing Min has learned from the TOEFL IELTS test, the academic class is not difficult to learn, which aspects of art need more support, which fields hope to have more exploration... All enjoyed the most personalized "super VIP treatment" I've ever seen. It turns out that being an art student in Jing Min is such a happy thing!
△ Left: The teacher guides Daniel's campus sketching; Right: Daniel's installation
#03
After a year of studying in Jing Min, Lola's parents were most satisfied with "the child is no longer confused and has become confident."
When she first entered Jing Min, Lola was a typical student in the system, too introverted to express her own views, and even had to communicate with the teacher to her parents.
In Jing Min, she still has excellent grades and is the first in the class, but she finds that grades are only a part of life, and only the top 5% of students in the class will no longer get the attention of the teacher, but there is a team behind everyone; In the process of doing various inquiry activities, group discussions and speeches, she found that "she was better than expected" and gradually found her self-confidence;
△ Lola in the creation and her works
Jing Min's 9th and 10th grades gave students plenty of opportunities to explore their artistic interests, and Lola also experienced unexpected surprises - she knew she was interested in fashion design when she first entered school, but at that time she only liked fashion design in the traditional sense, and did not know what kind of school she could enter; After a year of exploration, she finally found "true love", surrealist clothing design, and set a goal: Central Saint Martin, who is the best in the field of fashion design and is very compatible with her ideas!
Left: Lola at a cross-dressing event; Right: Lola and her classmates paint on the covered bridge
In the past, the "small transparency in the system" that could only brush the questions turned out to be a "cool girl" who was flying in the surreal world, which was really impressive.
The Sara family in 9th grade will take a fancy to Jing Min, which is a "choice from an expert".
Sara's mother is an art teacher, from childhood found that her daughter especially loves to draw, so with the guidance of the heart, Sara's childhood paintings have come to the fore, once selected by Anta to make dolls, included in kindergarten textbooks, selected by the art troupe as a mascot... On the first day of visiting Jing Min, they were attracted by the artistic temperament of the campus.
Left: Sara and classmates attending the Costume Party; Right: Sara's work
The past year of studying at Jing Min has not disappointed Sara at all. The teachers are very professional, kind to the students, will do their best to encourage everyone's artistic enthusiasm, in the class after art project, she not only learned the painting skills, but also learned the artistic thinking and expression.
However, the happiest thing is the rich artistic activities that open students' horizons.
Originally, Jing Min had an "Art Week" every month, and this week would arrange various art activities in addition to academic courses, such as Costume Party disguise, collective creation of fluid paintings combined with the philosophical concept of "Taoist nature" in traditional Chinese culture, watching the exhibition of Yantian Chiharu masters, listening to master lectures from Marangoni, Italy...
Whether it is attending art activities or attending classes, every day in Jing Min makes Sara feel full and happy, and also makes her feel that she is getting closer and closer to her artistic dreams.
The origin of the name "Jing Min" is very interesting, it comes from the "Yueyang LouJi" that everyone memorized in middle school: "To Ruochun and Jingming, the waves are not alarming, the sky is up and down, and it is a million acres." ”
Just as Jing Min's original intention: I hope to build a school as warm as spring, cultivate a group of sunshine and confident art students, and help them turn their artistic interests into lifelong passions and become internationally competitive artistic talents.