Home-based 'art galleries' spring up from villages at foot of China's Qinling Mountains

Photo shows the beautiful scenery of Caijiapo village in Huyi district, Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province. (Photo courtesy of the publicity department of the Communist Party of China Huyi district committee)

Thanks to a public-benefit project named "home-based art galleries", the homes of 60 families living in villages nestled at the foot of the Qinling Mountains in northwest China have been transformed into more artistic and beautiful spaces.

Launched in 2023, the project has engaged 160 teachers and students from the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts (XAFA), located in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The students and teachers have collaborated with local villagers in creating various imaginative artworks using local resources. They have written poetry with elderly villagers who keep bees, designed signboards and trademarks for local noodle shops, created music albums to document the lives of villagers, and contributed garden ideas to beautify the backyards of local people's houses.

With the help of these creative college students, a batch of unique home-based "art galleries" have emerged in Caijiapo village in Huyi district, Xi'an, as well as other nearby villages.

Liu Xinyuan, a female villager of Caijiapo village, is greatly delighted by the creative decorations made by three students for her backyard garden.

One of the works is a creative piece of art transformed from an old television set. Inside the red and black television shell, moss and stones are nicely arranged, with several plants seemingly "growing" out of it.

"This 'garden television set' even has a small light inside that can illuminate at night," Liu said. She explained that this art piece was created by students from the XAFA during the Sixth Guanzhong Mangba Arts Festival held in Caijiapo village this year.

"Art students and teachers often visit my home. They say, 'the front yard is for daily necessities, while the backyard is for dreams'," Liu told People's Daily.

In addition to the "garden television set", another art piece created by students from the university last year, named the "symbiotic botanical garden", is also impressive.

According to Liu, several art students exchanged labor for old items from villagers for the creation. They helped farmers with farm work including planting Chinese green onions, harvesting wheat, and drying rapeseed in exchange for items such as pot lids, bamboo sieves, straw hats, milk powder cans, old shoes, and various kitchenware, she said.

After gathering these materials, they invited passing tourists to come and pick an old item they like, grow a plant to match the item, and finally take a photo with their creation, Liu explained.

Using old items as flower pots, the group spent half a day planting flowers in front of Liu's house, setting up over 30 pots of mugwort, millet, roses, green foxtail, and more.

The "botanical garden" filled with a wide variety of distinctive plants has attracted many neighbors and tourists, who are often full of praise for the display, Liu said.

The "home-based art galleries" project represents an exploration aimed at bringing high-quality cultural resources directly to the grassroots level, according to Cui Kaimin, a teacher from the Department of Transmedia Art of XAFA.

Many villagers possess innate artistic talents, Cui said, noting that the role of the project is more about inspiring and encouraging local villagers to showcase the inherent beauty of rural life through art.

"Through collaborative creation, joint performances, and other forms, we are creating new living scenes and aesthetic spaces, engaging in unique artistic expressions," Cui said.

"There is inherent beauty in rural life, the key is to discover it and truly appreciate it," said Liu, who shares a similar view with Cui.

"Enjoying life is a kind of art," she said while trimming flower branches in her backyard.