The 101-year-old Hunan Institute of Arts, which now has a department for repairing damaged art objects, welcomed a delegation of Burkinabe journalists on Monday to its premises in Changsha, capital of southern China's Hunan province.160 students, from various levels, are being trained at the Hunan Professional Institute of Arts to become restorers of chipped or broken ancient art objects.The faculty opened for this purpose to accommodate them is the very last in this institute created in 1923, well before the founding of New China.The delegation of Burkinabe journalists, led by the Chargé de mission of the Ministry in charge of Communication, Culture, Arts and Tourism, Bakary Koné, visited the training room for the restoration of wooden objects.In the exhibition room of objects or photographs of restored objects, the delegation was able to observe statuettes, money notes, porcelain, masks, paintings etc., in damaged and restored versions."We opened this faculty at the request of the need," explain ed Ms. Xin Jiang, one of the faculty's leaders. According to her, it is a first for an institute in China."The objects are repaired to preserve their historical and aesthetic values," Jiang added.In the next room, the delegation also visited a mask restoration workshop, which also houses a collection of masks from Africa and Southeast Asia, as well as esoteric objects and exotic animals, dead or alive.A little further on, student restorers are busy in the workshop where musical instruments are made and restored, dominated by old pianos.The visit continued in the Faculty of Performing Arts where rehearsals of traditional Chinese dance are taking place on one side and contemporary dance on the other.This faculty, which prepares students for operas, gave Burkinabe visitors a taste of stage performances and, above all, a large collection of masks and costumes used for the shows, as well as images of memorable performances.Within this institute, another faculty specializes in conception and design in t he fields of characters, products, environment, theater, dance, cinema, advertising and new media according to the head of the faculty, Ms. Liang.The visit ended in the institute's history museum, where photos of the founders, teachers and former students who have become important figures stand out, as well as a wealth of literature stuck to the walls.The head of the Burkinabe delegation, Bakary Koné, expressed the visitors' interest in learning from the officials of the Hunan Professional Arts Institute while thanking them for their professionalism and friendship.The Burkinabe delegation is staying in Hunan as part of a three-week training course organized from October 11 to 31, 2024 for the benefit of media managers from Burkina Faso.Source: Burkina Information Agency
Menu