Related News
Trash turned into collage art at local community
Print Edition
THE innovation room at Wanli Community Center was filled with laughter and fun recently. Children and their parents, under the guidance of the room’s director Yuan Mingang, were making colorful masks depicting Peking Opera and cartoon characters, as well as collage art with recycled materials.
“In my eyes, there is no waste in the world, as long as it is put in the right place,” Yuan said.
To strengthen people’s awareness of environmental protection, Yuan is devoted to making art out of waste, including pieces like the collages made by his young pupils at the innovation room.
Yuan has become a community celebrity for his efforts. He has been honored by the Shanghai government as a “veteran of science popularization” and his artworks have won awards in many nationwide and citywide competitions. The innovation room also received awards for its projects related to science popularization.
When it comes to his affinity with collage art, Yuan said it arose from a coincidence related to his daughter.
The 56-year-old Yuan started to study painting when he was a child. When he was young, he traveled to 50 or so cities around the world. He was enthusiastic about many creative arts which involved recycling or reuse of discarded materials. When his daughter was 5 years old, she had to make a collage for her kindergarten class. Yuan helped his daughter with the assignment, which later received an award. This ignited Yuan’s passion for collage art.
Spreading awareness
The materials for collages at the innovation room come from old newspapers, magazines, calendars and ads. He told reporters that collage is a popular and fun art for children. It is also a simple, straightforward and acceptable method to promote the concepts of environmental protection. The making of a collage includes several steps of paper collection, painting, paper-cutting and pasting. With Yuan’s creativity, the waste paper found new life.
The innovation room was set up in February, 2016 inside the Community Cultural Activities Center of Wanli. At that time there were already more than 50 innovation rooms at Shanghai’s community centers. The innovation room at Wanli has its own unique position thanks to its “environmental protection and low-carbon life style.” Collage is considered an ideal art form to promote such a concept.
In addition, the innovation room also offers workshops on how to make art from plastic foam, paper folding, sculptures from discarded steel pipes and LED lights.
These workshops have attracted crowds of teenagers and old people of the community.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
