On the afternoon of September 11, 2021, the final jury review for the Third CAFA & LUCION National Competition for Calligraphy and Artworks by Children was successfully held in the lecture hall in Building 5 at CAFA.
The competition is jointly sponsored by the Central Academy of Fine Arts (abbr. CAFA) and Shandong Lucion Public Welfare Foundation that belongs to the LUCION Group. It is a public welfare event undertaken by the School of Continuing Education at CAFA and co-organized by Qingdao Blossom Education Management Company. It announced a request for entries on April 25, the official website of the competition was browsed over 1.3 million times, and there were more than 25,000 registered members with over 15,000 submissions by August 2, 2021. In early August, after the preliminary evaluation by the jury, a total of 540 works were selected for the final evaluation which was conducted by a jury composed of 12 experts.
The Third “CAFA & LUCION National Competition for Calligraphy and Artworks by Children” broke through the limit of themed propositions, as the three themes recommended by the organizing committee were extended as optional choices. Children were encouraged to actively think and explore from diversified perspectives while learning independently.
The Final Review of the Third “CAFA & LUCION National Competition for Calligraphy and Artworks by Children”
The Group Photo of Jury Members of the Third “CAFA & LUCION National Competition for Calligraphy and Artworks by Children”
It is worth noting that since the beginning of the Competition, it has adhered to the concept of “education for all”, and its innovative guidance model of “selection, guidance, interaction and accompanied growth” is also intuitively reflected in the award design in the final evaluation. The organizing committee set up awards according to the growth characteristics of children at various ages, each themed award was selected by age group: from 4 to 7 years old, from 8 to 10 years old, and from 11 to 13 years old, and finally 12 themed award winners were announced on the same day. 149 children won nomination awards, 419 children won excellent awards, and all children participating in the competition received a participation prize.
Scan the QR code below or copy the hyperlink in the browser to find the final results of the Third “CAFA & LUCION National Competition for Calligraphy and Artworks by Children.”
Wang Xiaolin, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Central Academy of Fine Arts who also works as Chief Judge of the Competition, believed that The Third “CAFA & LUCION National Competition for Calligraphy and Artworks by Children” focused on children and conveyed how the Central Academy of Fine Arts paid close attention to children’s aesthetic education during the period of the fundamental education.
Ms. Wang Xiaolin, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Central Academy of Fine Arts
In addition to standardized training, the cultivation of children’s internal aesthetic awareness should be promoted, and children’s brain development and creative thinking should be instructed. This is an important task of aesthetic education in the fundamental education stage.
Mr. Chen Qiang, Secretary General of Lucion Public Welfare Foundation
Mr. Chen Qiang, Secretary General of Lucion Public Welfare Foundation, expressed that Lucion Charity Foundation would continue to contribute to the development of children’s aesthetic education. They hope to be concerned with the field of children’s aesthetic education through charity donations, so as to drive more organizations and children to like painting and they will tell their life stories and their comprehension of beauty.
Ms. Fu Ping, Chairman of Qingdao Blossom Education Management Company
Ms. Fu Ping, Chairman of Qingdao Blossom Education Management Company, hoped that we can see the inner world of children through paintings. In her opinion, preschool children may not be able to master excellent painting skills and their pictures may not be perfect at all, thus we should pay more attention to interpreting children through paintings and reflect how they discover beauty, therefore they will have the ability to create beauty in the future.
The jury members were reviewing and selecting. 
Ms. Wang Xiaolin, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Central Academy of Fine Arts
Professor Qiao Xiaoguang, Professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and a Doctoral Supervisor
Professor Qiao Xiaoguang, the former Director of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Research Center of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, a professor and a doctoral supervisor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts said that, we can tell from the submissions of this competition that children have few reflections on the local culture and art. Nowadays, in the nine-year compulsory education reform, traditional culture and intangible cultural heritage are emphasized by the country. As soon as a consensus on tradition has been established, it will become better in the future.
Professor Chen Shuxia, Director and a Doctoral Supervisor of the Department of Art Education, School of Art Management & Education, Central Academy of Fine Arts
Chen Shuxia, Director of the Department of Art Education, School of Art Management & Education, Central Academy of Fine Arts, a professor, doctoral tutor, and member of the Art Education Committee of the China Artists Association, said in the interview that our original intention was to cultivate children in all aspects through art. Especially in the cultivation of the mind, teachers should play a leading role in guiding the children to open their minds and think more freely, so as to improve on how they express what they want to say.
With a purpose to promote diversified artistic exchanges, the calligraphy unit was added into the Competition in 2021 as it aims to enrich traditional culture, encourage children to observe the outside world, think about things around them, experience life, and use art to show what they think. Most of jury members for this unit have noticed the diversity of children’s selection of calligraphy, covering a wide range of interests, which triggered a series of discussions on the changes and development of calligraphy education.
Mr. Zhang Xuguang (left), Deputy Director of the Cursive Script Committee of the China Calligraphers Association, and Mr. Zhang Ji (right), Vice Chairman of the China Calligraphers Association, communicated during the evaluation process.
Zhang Xuguang, Deputy Secretary-general of the fourth and fifth China Calligraphers Association, the seventh China Artists Association, and Deputy Director of the Cursive Script Committee of the China Calligraphers Association said that, being able to obey the calligraphy requirements to write is remarkable in itself for children, so we must take into account the age characteristics of the children and certain techniques they can grasp.
Mr. Zhang Xuguang, Deputy Director of the Cursive Script Committee of the China Calligraphers Association
Mr. Zhang Ji, Vice Chairman of the China Calligraphers Association
Zhang Ji, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Vice Chairman of the China Calligraphers’ Association, and a national first-class artist, said that in addition to children’s works, there were many teachers’ guiding ideas involved in the teaching process, allowing children to pursue artistic expressions. It might become a trend in the development of calligraphy education in the future.
Feng Haitao, Dean of the School of Continuing Education at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, presided over the review activity and delivered a speech
Feng Jie, Party Secretary of the School of Continuing Education, Central Academy of Fine Arts
Huang Li, Deputy Dean of the School of Continuing Education, Central Academy of Fine Arts
Mr. Tony Brown, Tenured full Professor of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts de Paris, France and former Provost of the Parsons School for Design, Paris
Mr. Franco Amadei, an expert in European music history and former Director of the Italian Cultural Center and Cultural Counsellor of the Italian Embassy in China
Mr. Xu Hai, Deputy Dean, Professor, and Doctoral Supervisor of the School of Chinese Painting, CAFA
Mr. Yin Hailong, Deputy President of Seal Carving Institute of the China National Academy of Arts, a national first-class artist and postgraduate tutor
Ms. Lei Wanying, Founder and Curator of M WOODS, and Ms. Fu Ping, President of Qingdao Blossom Education Management Company discussed and reviewed works.
Famous illustrator Mr. Li Jian (a.k.a. NECHO)
It is reported that under the national double reduction of over-education policy, art education has increasingly been valued by parents, educators and the whole society. In the development plan for children’s aesthetic education promoted by the Competition, the purpose is not just about awards, but it intends to convey the values of “fair” education through the Competition. For this reason, the organizing committee has set up the Lucion Charity Award in the competition, which is intended to guide everyone to pay attention to the social issue of the balanced development of education. Starting from the third Competition, the organizing committee will also organize award-winning works to be exhibited in the countryside, and it will contribute to the country’s common prosperity policy in the future.
Text and Photo by CAFA ART INFO and the Organizer
