Federation of Literature and Arts of Zhejiang announced the second “Art Villages of Zhejiang”, and Haiyan’s Beituan was included.

The project “Constructing Art Villages” is implemented to integrate art elements into rural development, develop rural culture and renew rural cultural ecosystems to realize rural comprehensive development.

Located in the southeast of Qinshan, a sub-district of Haiyan, Beituan Village used to be the Beituan site of Baolang Salt Farm of the Song Dynasty, hence the name. In recent years, it has vigorously developed salt-centered culture, introduced, employed and retained literary and artistic talent to build a salt-centered art village. The literary and artistic elements have made the Village take on a new look, and benefited the villagers a lot.

In this village there is a photography studio “Chasing Light and Shadow” with white walls and green trees around. In the studio, nuclear power-themed photos are exhibited, attracting many villagers. Last year, this studio was just an abandoned warehouse. Since this year, the Village has revitalized the idle resources and upgraded the original warehouse.

Besides, the Village has introduced a lot of literary and art personnel to support villagers to participate in literary and art creation and help the Village’s sound development and governance. With the help of Chen Shuanghu, a local famous artist, the Village cooperates with 37 members of Poetry Association of Jiaxing, Writers Association of Jiaxing, Artists Association of Jiaxing and Film Association of Jiaxing to hold seminars and salons on “Eight Scenic Spots of Beituan” to tap into local traditional cultural resources since the beginning of this year. Their cooperation achievements like poems, prose and photos are collected as the core art contents of Monograph of Culturally Rich Beituan. This village is striving to include this monograph into national-level famous village annals, and now it has received provincial-level recommendation. The art rooted in the countryside has been gradually integrated into villagers’ daily life. In recent two years, the Village has introduced “Studio for Famous Art Masters”, Base of Photography Association of Chinese People, Base of Calligrapher Association of Haiyan, Base of Photographers Association of Haiyan, and Base of Literary Federation of Qinshan. Till now the Village has organized more than 20 calligraphy and painting exhibitions and photography activities.

In addition, Beituan has intensified efforts in the project “One Village, One Cultural Brand”. By integrating and highlighting its culture, this village has built up a rural culture brand with regional influence. Driven by Zhejiang’s Green Rural Revival Program and the concept “art’s entrance to rural development”, Beituan will set up photography workshops beneficial to the people, construct outdoor rural art galleries, compose “Song of Beituan Village”, implement the “Art Village Head” system, etc. to achieve new progress in constructing the art village.