Saturday, March 31, 2012

Part 2: Shanghai Diary -- American School

Our host for the visit to China was the Shanghai American School (SAS), which has two campuses on opposite ends of the city, in the Pudong and Puxi districts. 

Over a six-day period at the two campuses, I gave 22 presentations to groups ranging from pre-K to high school seniors. I offered drawing workshops, dinosaur drawing demos, behind-the-scenes presentations on Dinotopia, and a creature design demo.


At SAS, a lot of the students are children of expatriate Americans and other nationals who are working in China and have brought their families to live there. 
Although the schools offer classes in Chinese history, language, and calligraphy, most of the classes are conducted in English by American expat teachers, and the vibe of the school resembles a well-endowed American private school. 

The Pudong campus, which we visited first, has an indoor Olympic-size swimming pool, a climbing wall, and an art room with skeletons, plaster casts, and an abundance of supplies. The Puxi campus has a film class, with production equipment. The weekend we were there was the annual Student 
International Film Festival, and storyboard artist Daniel Maslen was a guest lecturer.
The collection of the libraries of the combined campuses represents the largest collection of English-language books in all of China.
------





4 comments:

Carol Scown-Raynal said...

Thanks for sharing. You said a few days ago what it was like to find a book before the era of the Internet. Yes, it was a complete different world - at that time. I remember well when I purchased a postcard in 1988 of a painting you made for National Geographic Magazine 100th anniversary, wonderful painting. I bought several postcards in fact since I liked this painting so much. I didn't know it was you until recently when I got onto your blog and books, etc... It's a good thing Internet is here to put light and color onto you the artist and no wonder you have fans all over the world. Great job ! Do you intend to come to France ?

Anonymous said...

Mr Gurney i have an unrelated question about your drappery post made a few days ago. I don't have a model to study drappery but i have plenty of photographs of greek sculpture that have a lot of very complex drappery folds. Is this a good substitute?

James Gurney said...

Anon, yes, you can get a lot out of doing copies of how the Greeks and other sculptors approached drapery. Bernini was a good one to look at, too.

Carol, it has been about two years since I have visited France, and I miss your great country. I don't know when I will be back again.

traumador said...

If you're making any (public) appearances in Hong Kong I'd love to try and attend if you're coming through this way.

In either case enjoy your Chinese adventure!