为教育平权而设计：让艺术教育回到它发生的地方

当下的教育体制越来越被制度和标准所规训，教学被限定在教室、考试与等级中，渐渐远离了人的真实经验，也脱离了与生活、与社会的关系。于是我们重新追问：教育应该从哪里出发？又应为了谁而展开？我们相信，教育不只是知识的传授，更是回应现实、共建生活的过程。艺术教育尤其如此，它必须从感知出发，扎根于具体的社会情境中，才能激发创造力。

我们依托中国美术学院提出的“以乡土为学院”理念，设计并实施了一套贯通教学体系、嵌入社会现场的教育系统。它不是对校园的复制延伸，而是一种系统性的重新设计：打破围墙，重组空间、关系与制度，让教与学的过程重新建立在现实的互动与合作之上，在可被共同参与的日常生活中进行教育的社会性重构。

我们从一门“下乡采风”课出发，设计了一整套贯穿四年的教学体系：一年级以单元式课程激发感知力；二年级夯实专业能力；三年级以项目协作聚焦现实议题；四年级以毕业创作回应社会，完成从观察、提问到构建的全过程。以“一生一本”为核心方法，让学生建立与现实链接的同时完成个体与社会的双向塑形；通过微专业、学分制等结构性改革，让社会现场成为教育体系正式的一部分。

我们同步设计了一套艺术教育与社会的衔接（中介/协作）机制：联合政府通过政策支持、财政保障与空间配套，为教育提供制度基础；将社区行动纳入教学环节，通过社区营造、合作共创等方式激发在地参与；引导社会资源通过项目孵化、地方品牌共建，形成扎根本地的可持续协作网络。由此打通教育体制与社会结构之间的隔阂，使艺术教育转化为一个可被多方参与、共同维护的社会系统。

十五年以来，我们已构建了11所乡土学院，超过200个乡土研习基地，形成了覆盖全国28个省区的“中国美术学院乡土学院网络”，累计8万余人次参与，推动城市美学、乡村建设、公共文化等服务项目超过500项。项目教育资源触达城乡各类人群，线上线下累计受益人次过亿。这一切不仅是教学方法的革新，更是我们对“教育平权”的呼吁行动——人人皆可教，人人皆可学，人人皆是艺术家。

Design for Educational Equity: Bringing Art Education Back to Where It Happens

The current education system is increasingly disciplined by institutions and standardized norms. Teaching is confined to classrooms, examinations, and rankings, drifting away from genuine human experience and detaching itself from life and society. This compels us to ask again: Where should education begin? And for whom should it unfold? We believe that education is not merely the transmission of knowledge, but a process of responding to reality and co-constructing life. This is especially true of art education, which must begin with perception and take root in concrete social contexts in order to truly spark creativity.

Grounded in the China Academy of Art’s principle of “Taking the Local as the Academy”, we have designed and implemented an educational system that integrates a complete curriculum with lived social contexts. This is not a simple extension or replication of the campus, but a systemic re-design: breaking down walls, restructuring spaces, relationships, and institutions, and rebuilding teaching and learning upon real interaction and collaboration—thus socially reconstructing education in the everyday life that is open to collective participation.

Starting with a “Field Research in Rural Areas” course, we have designed a four-year progressive curriculum: in the first year, modular courses cultivate perceptual sensitivity; in the second year, professional competence is consolidated; in the third year, project-based collaboration addresses real-world issues; and in the fourth year, graduation works engage society directly, completing a full cycle from observation and questioning to construction and response. Anchored in the core methodology of “One Life, One Book”, students simultaneously forge links with reality and achieve mutual shaping between the individual and society. Structural reforms such as micro-majors and credit systems incorporate real social sites into the formal education framework.

In parallel, we have developed mechanisms to bridge art education with society through mediation and collaboration. Governmental support—via policy, funding, and infrastructural provisions—lays the institutional foundation; community engagement is embedded into pedagogy, activating local participation through community building and co-creation; social resources are mobilized through project incubation and co-branding with local initiatives, forming a sustainable network of locally grounded collaborations. In this way, the barriers between education systems and social structures are dismantled, transforming art education into a participatory social system maintained by multiple stakeholders.

Over the past fifteen years, we have established 11 “Local Academies” and more than 200 field-based research centers, forming a “China Academy of Art Local Academy Network” that spans 28 provinces across the country. More than 80,000 participants have taken part, advancing over 500 projects in urban aesthetics, rural revitalization, and public culture. Altogether, our educational resources have reached diverse populations across urban and rural settings, with over one hundred million beneficiaries online and offline. This is not only an innovation in pedagogy, but also a call to action for educational equity—that everyone can teach, everyone can learn, and everyone can be an artist.

Prof. Chen Zhengda