Student photographs on display in the Academic Building lobby
By Honey Huang
I loved my freshman year at Duke Kunshan. I was actually quite nervous when I arrived on campus in August. I didn’t know what to expect. But my first year answered any doubts, and I even accomplished things I thought I wouldn’t until much later.
One highlight was my involvement in organizing the DKU Arts and Music Festival.
It started when I decided to join the Student Leadership Development Program (SLDP), which had about 20 students in its first year. We were divided into small groups of three or four. In my group was another international student and a Chinese student.
The SLDP included workshops on planning projects, effective leadership, how to build relationships with team members, and other useful skills. Each group was then asked to come up with a project that used the skills we’d acquired.
My team had many ideas, ranging from starting a research website to collaborating with other universities on study opportunities to create a website for online tutoring. But when it came to narrowing down the possibilities, to achieve the goals and scope of our assignment, we realized we were being too ambitious given the limited amount of time.
Instead, we focused our efforts on doing something for the Duke Kunshan community that hadn’t happened on campus before ‘ and that’s when we proposed an arts and music festival, which took place March 25 to 30.
My team collaborated on the project with the Office of Student Affairs, which had been planning to do something similar around that time. We began laying out the event in the first week of March, then divided up the logistical work. Our goal was to have an art exhibition run the entire week of the festival and a few workshops to make the festival more engaging. To wrap up the event, we wanted a night of music.
The artwork on display would be on sale, with the funds raised going to charity. Part of the money would also be donated to the nearby Yushan eldercare home.
Honey Huang, Class of 2022, is president of the Photography Club
For the art exhibition, as the president of the Photography Club, I decided to arrange a photo competition for DKU students, so that their work would be the main focus. The theme was ‘Street Photography,’ and we received more than 60 submissions.
I invited five faculty members as judges to select the top 20 entries. These pictures were then printed by a professional studio and displayed in the lobby of the Academic Building. An online survey was also sent to the entire DKU community for people to choose their three favorite images from that selection, to decide the contest’s winners.
First prize was a GoPro Hero 7 camera, second prize was a one-year membership to a Shanghai museum or art gallery, and third prize was a set of art books.
In addition to the photographs, I was also able to include paintings from student artists in Wuxi, Wuhan and Shanghai in the art exhibition.
The opening ceremony on March 25 was a big success and many students and faculty came to attend. The response was overwhelming. Many people said they enjoyed having the artwork to look at while walking through the Academic Building. Visitors on campus tours also showed a lot of interest and said they were impressed with the students’ work.
Over the following days, we held a panel discussion on the subject of contemporary art with five esteemed experts ‘ including Miguel Rojas-Sotelo, a visual artist and visiting scholar from Duke University, and Qian Zhu, assistant professor of history ‘ and a workshop on the guzheng, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument, in which a couple of professionals played music and talked about their experiences. The festival also included an improv theater workshop and a pop-up screen printing workshop.
On the final night, we ended with a musical showcase at Dayu Bay, which is a European-style commercial area with shops, bars and restaurants just a short walk south of the DKU campus. The stage was in an open area beside a large lake.
Among the performers were students and staff members from Duke Kunshan, as well as bands and artists from Wuhan University, NYU Shanghai and from around Kunshan. The management of Dayu Bay also arranged a spectacular nighttime light and water show. Local residents joined in the celebrations, too.
After receiving such a positive response to the first DKU Arts and Music Festival, I decided to make this an annual event. Not only was the student body involved, but the faculty were also excited to participate in the workshops and other activities. I am already in the process of thinking about next year’s installment.
Planning a big event from scratch is not easy, and only having three people working on it is tough ‘ but the outcome was rewarding. The experience I gained and the skills I acquired are something I won’t forget. Not only did I learn a lot, but I made friends who I know have got my back and memories that will last a lifetime.
Honey Huang is a member of Duke Kunshan’s inaugural Class of 2022. She is from Islamabad, Pakistan.
Students enjoy a pop-up screen print workshop, part of the DKU Arts and Music Festival
