Qian Hongfeng did not expect that an 18-square-meter "Doorman Art Museum" would quickly solve the grassroots governance problem that had plagued her for a long time - organizing a team of young volunteers.
Qian Hongfeng is the secretary of the general party branch of Fudan residential area in Liangcheng Xincun Street, Hongkou District. About 40% of the residents of Fudan University are retired faculty and staff. Over the past decade, the most active group in the community has been the "Old Teachers' Council", with an average age of more than 70 years. At the beginning of this year, the "Gatekeeper Art Museum", which was born out of the abandoned security room in the community, was born, virtually gathering more young residents to participate in community affairs. In just 100 days, a volunteer interpretation team of "Menwei Art Museum" for high school students, a "Yizhiyuan" literary and artistic volunteer service team based on the post-80s "Bao Ma", and a "Liangyuan Digital" self-media volunteer service team have been set up here.
At the 100th anniversary celebration of the "Menwei Art Museum" held yesterday, curator Wang Nanming brought new news: the "Alley Art Museum" across the wall from the art museum is about to be completed, and the ATM glass room 100 meters away will be renovated. At that time, with the "Menwei Art Museum" as the center, a larger "art community" will be formed, and grassroots governance will continue to be leveraged by "art governance".
See more possibilities for community governance
Wang Nanming's original concept of "art governance" refers to the implantation of artistic elements in the "Beautiful Homeland" project, giving new highlights to the old community and condensing the young grassroots governance force. Unlike the "step-by-step" cultivation of residents' artistic accomplishments, Wang Nanming prefers to directly arrange "incomprehensible" contemporary art exhibitions into the community—contemporary art is called "participatory art", which is superimposed by the artist's creation and the audience's understanding. In his view, this coincides with the idea of grassroots governance that advocates co-construction, co-governance and sharing.
The first exhibition of "Menwei Art Museum" is themed at Sanxingdui, and the three contemporary art exhibits deconstruct the characteristic elements of the unearthed cultural relics of sacred trees, sacred birds, and bronze masks, and then reconstruct them with neon tubes, acrylic sheets and other materials. As a result, the old guard's room was lit up in brilliant colors, and the entire street became fashionable. In Qian Hongfeng's view, the use of the "Menwei Art Museum" is like a signal, allowing young and middle-aged residents to see more possibilities for community governance and find a value proposition: innovation.
Soon after the opening of the museum, Ju Honglian, who lives nearby, took his son He Yuzhe, who is in the first year of junior high school, to visit, just in time for high school student volunteers to give a public lecture. Later, He Yuzhe went to the art museum several times and participated in the social practice of "My Rainbow Story", which describes the changes in the neighborhood. Ju Honglian, who is enthusiastic about public welfare, was also photographed by Hou Yingxia, the person in charge of the street community school, and became the leader of the "Art Edge" literary and artistic volunteer service team. The short video of the 100th anniversary celebration of the "Menwei Art Museum" this time is the copywriting written by Ju Honglian, using the photos taken by He Yuzhe. This is also the first short video work launched by a community school.
Hou Yingxia said frankly that the rejuvenation of the volunteer team gave her the confidence to open her mind and develop work from the new demand side. Opposite the art museum is the neighborhood committee office and the community school, taking advantage of this geographical advantage to connect the three carrier resources, but also produce a stronger chemical reaction. During the winter vacation, the community school innovatively launched a 12-day "Warm Winter Camp": the neighborhood committee organized the participation of primary school students, and cooperated with Hongkou Senior High School to set up a student social practice point in the art museum, and invited professionals to give training on contemporary art appreciation. The results of the "art governance" were soon revealed: volunteers met retired history professors in the community and pulled them to talk about the ancient Shu civilization to grasp the background of the exhibition more accurately and deeply; some old residents who "passively accepted" at first began to proudly call the museum "the art world at their doorstep", and spontaneously formed a patrol team to be responsible for daily maintenance.
Students, parents, "old land", and members of the society have become acquainted with each other because of the small art museum, which has gradually become a gathering force for the spirit of volunteerism. Hou Yingxia said that with a team and a story, the community school video account that was "unimaginable" before will soon be launched.
Expand the connotation and extension of "art community".
In 100 days, the spillover effect of the "Menwei Art Museum" has been manifested.
In the past few days, Sun Zhe, director of the Social Work Master Center of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, often brings students here for research. In his view, "art governance" gives the community characteristics through different artistic carriers, and also guides residents to pay attention to corrective public issues through art projects. Compared with the "clichés" of community governance such as parking difficulties and property management, the short-term and quick issues brought about by "art governance" such as decision-making exhibition themes and selecting exhibition plans are easier to attract young people to participate and are also conducive to creating a relaxed and harmonious community atmosphere.
"It's a place to provide a sample of research for multiple disciplines. Wang Nanming said that in terms of physical space, the renovation of ARTZHOU, a professional art exhibition agency, is a new model of community micro-renewal and a classic reference for exhibition layout. Before Sun Zhe, graduate students from the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology at Fudan University and undergraduate students from the Department of Landscape Architecture at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University moved their professional classes here.
A hundred steps away from the art museum, the "Alley Book House" in the three villages of Liangcheng is building an "Alley Art Museum": comparable to the "Tongtian Bookshelf" installed in Shanghai Book City, the film ceiling lamp that is not inferior to the professional art museum, and the popular mobile splicing tables and chairs...... Even artist Li Xiuqin tailor-made sculptures for this high-quality new space. She will collect handprints from the community and carve them into granite stones, metaphorizing the depth of human affection and geography, and giving birth to the idea of community community. Wang Nanming plans to compile some of the stories of the owners of the handprints into an oral history to preserve the memory of the community.
Xu Junxing, a member of the "Old Teachers' Council", said that the Council has been established for 10 years, and everyone hopes to absorb young people who are interested in community public welfare undertakings. This wish is almost coming true.
Text: Shan Yingwen
Photo: Photo by Shan Yingwen, provided by Liangcheng Xincun Street
Editor: Zhou Chen