Zuoquan is a well-known old revolutionary area in the country, with rich and unique anti-war red resources, and beautiful mountains and rivers, good ecological environment, ancient village buildings are scattered, coupled with the long-term infiltration of Zuoquan folk songs and small flower plays, two national intangible cultural heritages, and a strong rural art atmosphere.
In April 2019, the provincial government approved the county's withdrawal from the ranks of poor counties. In September 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs approved the county to become one of the four pilot counties in the country to undertake the experimental task of "effectively linking poverty alleviation and rural revitalization".
Relying on the unique cultural tourism resources, making good use of the rare opportunity of the pilot county of "effective connection between poverty alleviation and rural revitalization", in the opening year of the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan", the Zuoquan County Party Committee and the county government established a new goal of cultural tourism development of "cool summer capital and red left power", and at the same time promoted the "effective connection between poverty alleviation and rural revitalization" as the general grasp of the "three rural" work, focusing on the "want" industry to a good natural ecology, and constantly consolidating the industrial foundation of cultural and tourism integration and rural revitalization. A new path for the revitalization of rural areas without industrial and mining resources in mountainous areas. The cooperation with the International Watercolor Association to build the "International Sketching Base in Northern China" is the specific practice and latest achievements in this regard.
Reception Center of International Sketching Base in Northern China
The construction of the "North China International Sketching Base" is to use the United States as the medium, apply more art elements and artistic elements to the planning and construction of the demonstration village of "effective connection between poverty alleviation and rural revitalization", revitalize idle courtyards in rural areas, build characteristic homestays, create a new business card of art culture and tourism, realize the integration of culture and tourism, and promote great changes in rural areas and industrial revitalization.
Street scene of the reconstructed Zecheng sketch village
In May this year, the "North China International Sketching Base" was established in Zecheng Village, Matian Town, Zuoquan County. According to the plan, the International Watercolor Association and Zuoquan County will cooperate in the transformation of 9 sketching villages within three years, designing a 21-day student sketching route and a 7-day artist sketching route, attracting sketching teams and art lovers from all over the country and even the world. This year, the two sketching villages of Zecheng Village and Laojing Village have been transformed.
Bluestone Garden, the international sketching base in northern China
In order to achieve the standardization of the sketching base, in the transformation of the sketching village, Zuoquan County adopts the "county-school cooperation" method, which is undertaken by Shanxi Yijian, and the Cultural and Creative College of Shanxi University of Communication, the Academy of Fine Arts of Shanxi University, the School of Art of Taiyuan University of Technology, and the North University of China respectively design and claim a street to promote the overall style improvement of Zecheng Village, and strive to create a humanistic, free, and transcendent value of the art and cultural area.
At present, the sketching base service center and the "hui" glyph main street of Zecheng sketching village, the alley of the witness range, the red research base, the bluestone garden, and the "old tree coffee" house have been transformed. Among them, the service center sets up art exhibition halls, folk culture exhibition halls, artist studios, multi-functional conference rooms and other places to meet the needs of sketching, tourism group life, creation, exchange and so on. In the next step, the former site of taihang industrial school of North Central University, the third and third courtyards of Shanxi University, and the Youth Square will be renovated and built. At the same time, 8 other sketching villages, such as Laojing Village, will also be appropriately implanted into boutique homestays, service stations, coffee houses, etc., and zecheng Village will form a display place integrating sketching, tourism, culture and activities.
Introduced the province's first fully automatic coffee making robot "Old Tree Coffee" house
In order to create a unique regional brand that combines sketching and homestays, the sketching base has established two themes in the transformation of standardized homestays. The first is the traditional style homestay based on local characteristics, which restores the ancient residential style to the greatest extent and reflects the atmosphere of combining antique and art. The other is a rainbow series of homestays based on modern elements, with seven color tones such as red, yellow, blue and green, focusing on creating a leisure and comfortable new residential experience. At present, Zecheng Sketching Village has completed the transformation of 38 homestay demonstration households, and has the conditions to receive 140 people at the same time. By 2024, nine sketching village homestays will provide 1,000 beds and will be built into a convenient fast food service center that meets 1,000 people.
In terms of the standardization of base operation and management, the China Project Operation Company of the International Watercolor Association, Zuoquan County State-owned Assets Company and Zecheng Village jointly established an operating company to carry out the overall operation of the sketching base and improve the operation level. At present, the Sketching Base Service Center has set up a reception service terminal, and has laid out five major types of sketching economic formats, such as painting material shops, cultural and creative stores, coffee houses, water bars, VR experience halls, and China Mobile 5G live broadcast cabins. It is estimated that in 2024, the reception volume will reach 140,000 people, and the operating income will be more than 18 million yuan.
North China International Sketching Base "Red Research Base"
Building innovative development projects and shaping a new differentiated experience model and value-added industries are the ultimate pursuit of "China North International Sketching Base". In the future, the base will actively implement the "University Youth Incubator" project; regularly hold large-scale painting exhibitions, photography exhibitions and online auctions of sketching works at home and abroad; use the resources of international artist mentors to hold artist lectures, open art education courses, and strive to build the "North China International Sketching Base" into one of the top ten sketching bases in the country and the beautiful international business card of art culture and tourism in the Taihang plate, and truly realize the development of the whole chain of landscape-sketching-consumption-industry.
(Text/Chen Xiaowen Photo/Zhang Wenjun)