Professor Chen Ping and Zhang Jincheng, Director of Qingdeng Stone Carving Art Museum

Exchange with Spanish artists stationed in Iran

On September 14, 2026, during the "Handicraft 50 Forum" of the China Arts and Crafts Society in Wenzhou, Professor Chen Ping, the Chief Chair of the UNESCO "World Traditional Handicrafts: Inheritance and Innovation" Chair, Global President of the International Folk Art Organization (IOV), and Dean of the Institute of Cultural Heritage and Creative Industries at Jinan University, visited the Qingdeng International Art Community. She visited the Qingdeng Stone Carving Art Museum and multiple aesthetic spaces in the community, exchanged ideas with resident artists and handicraft creators, and discussed possible future cooperation between the Qingdeng International Art Community and IOV.

The connection between Chen Ping, Qingdeng Stone Carving Art Museum, and Qingdeng International Art Community began in November 2024. At that time, she went to Wenzhou to attend the 2024 think tank annual meeting of the "Crafts 50 Forum" and specifically inspected the Qingdeng Stone Carving Art Museum. During this visit, she focused on visiting the newly unveiled Qingdeng International Art Community to further understand the museum's international exchange activities, as well as the operation and development of the community.

Qingdeng Stone Carving Art Museum

The Qingdeng International Art Community has developed from the widely popular Qingdeng Market. Since its establishment in 2020, Qingdeng Market has held 11 sessions as of spring 2026, attracting over 5 million visitors and achieving a turnover of over 400 million yuan. In the spring of 2024 alone, the six day passenger flow reached 527000 people. Qingdeng Market has become a demonstration level cultural tourism integration project and a provincial-level cultural industry support project in Zhejiang Province, as well as a representative cultural brand and cultural exchange window in Wenzhou.

As an important project for Qingdeng to expand from a "seasonal market" to a "year-round normalized aesthetic ecology", Qingdeng International Art Community takes Eastern life aesthetics as its theme, connecting art exhibitions, traditional handicrafts, artist residency, cultural exchange, and contemporary life. The first phase of the community has about 60 art director spaces, and currently nearly 30 domestic and foreign aesthetic brands have settled in for a long time.

Qingdeng Market

During the visit, Chen Ping had in-depth exchanges with resident artists and handicraft creators at home and abroad, and learned about various topics such as qipao embroidery, guqin making, Ou kiln handicrafts, and international youth fashion handicrafts. She has been continuously following the Qingdeng Market, especially impressed by its practice of guiding young people to participate in the active inheritance of cultural heritage and promoting exchanges between creators from different cultural backgrounds with the theme of "International Youth Fashion Handicrafts".

Chen Ping stated that the value of Qingdeng is not only reflected in the scale of the market and public influence, but also in its exploration of how traditional handicrafts can enter contemporary life. Museums, handicrafts, artist residency, youth creation, and public participation form connections here, providing a space for craftsmen to showcase and exchange ideas, and also giving more young people the opportunity to come into contact with, learn from, and re understand traditions.

In depth exchanges with resident artists and handicraft creators at home and abroad

This is also the reason why IOV focuses on youth, community, innovation, and sustainable development. Folk art festivals and traditional performance exchanges are still important components of IOV's work. At the same time, IOV is further focusing on the research and inheritance of cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage, emphasizing youth capacity building, innovation in traditional handicrafts, development of female craftsmen, and cross-cultural exchanges. The sustainability of tradition depends not only on whether skills are protected, but also on whether young people are willing to participate, whether artisans can gain new development opportunities, and whether traditional knowledge can continue to exist in communities and daily life.

The practice of Qingdeng International Art Community is consistent with the current focus of IOV. Chen Ping stated that in the future, IOV will further explore cooperation in the active protection of cultural heritage by young people, international artist and craftsman exchanges, youth talent cultivation, artist residency, support for female craftsmen, innovation in traditional handicrafts, international exhibitions and academic exchanges, and create more exchange opportunities for folk artists, craftsmen and young creators from different countries and regions through IOV's international network.

From markets to normalized art communities, Qingdeng is establishing new connections between traditional handicrafts and contemporary life. How to involve more young people and continue learning, using, and creating handicrafts in the community will also become a common focus of the Qingdeng International Art Community and IOV.