“City Memory: Floating World of the Lotus Island – the 1st Macao Contemporary Illustrations Competition”, organized by Chinese Cultural Industries Promotion Association of Macao and supported by Shanghai Creative Designers Association, was one of the most important cultural activities to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Macao’s return to China. Shanghai was chosen as the venue for opening ceremony and the first stop of touring exhibition at the end of 2014 both of which were highly successful. This competition is also the fruit of implementing “Macao-Shanghai” exchanges and cooperation in the fields of arts and culture. Hundreds of people including government officials from relevant departments in Macao and Shanghai, professionals from the fields of arts and culture, and international jury members attended the awarding ceremony and also the exhibition. After the Shanghai stop, the touring exhibition will continue for a few months at some major cities in Mainland China and Taiwan.
Students from Faculty of Humanities and Arts, MUST, have reaped very good results at this competition. 15 students received various awards and 26 of them got their illustrations exhibited. Among those works of art, “Macau Impression” won both Excellence Award and Special Jury Award; “Macau Festivals Calendars” and “Spade A+” won Special Jury Award too, and 11 other students’ works won Merit Award which got them the invitation to attend the opening ceremony, seminar and exchange activities concerning art and design for three days. Macau University of Science and Technology was honored Best Organization Award.
Miss Meng Shu from Faculty of Humanities and Arts was invited to take the responsibility as the Chief Curator. According to Miss Meng, the purpose for organizing this illustrations competition featuring city memory of Macao was to retain unique memories of Macao by collecting contemporary illustrations with originality and exploring secular stories of Macao. The success of this competition demonstrates that young people in Macao have started to voice their opinions and take actions. Meng Shu also noted that it was the responsibilities of teachers at universities to help in promoting arts and cultural development of Macao by organizing a series of art competitions which should be well-planned, properly-phased, widely-participated and professionally-assessed. It seems that taking advantage of this occasion where 15th Handover Anniversary has been celebrated, a series of art competitions will be carried out soon and in an orderly fashion.
Group photo of contestants and guests in Shanghai
Some illustrations at the competition
