The Haizhu district is currently holding the 7th Lingnan Painting and Calligraphy Art Festival, as well as the 5th Guangdong Lingnan Art Exhibition. The events opened on July 19 and are scheduled to run through July 30.

The 5th Guangdong Lingnan Art Exhibition is being held at the new Guangzhou Cultural Center. [Photo/WeChat account: gzhzfb]

Since 2007, the Lingnan Painting and Calligraphy Art Festival has been held for six consecutive years at the Shixiang Garden Memorial Hall.

The 5th Guangdong Lingnan Art Exhibition received nearly 1,000 works from Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macao during its call for submissions.

After preliminary evaluations, re-evaluations, publicity and other aspects, 116 works were given awards. Of these, two received gold awards, five silver awards, 10 bronze awards, and 51 excellent award works.

The opening ceremony of the art festival held a grand ceremony in honor of the new Guangzhou Lingnan Painting and Calligraphy Art Museum Alliance.

The grand ceremony in honor of the new Guangzhou Lingnan Painting and Calligraphy Art Museum Alliance. [Photo/WeChat account: gzhzfb]

The Guangzhou Art Museum, Shixiang Garden Memorial Hall, Gao Jianfu Memorial Hall and Chen Shuren Memorial Hall jointly signed the agreement for the alliance.

The alliance will protect, inherit and promote Lingnan painting and calligraphy art. It will build a platform for exchanges and cooperation between museums and memorials, as well as promote the high-quality development of Lingnan painting and calligraphy in Guangzhou.

A short video introducing Ju Lian, a famous painter from Shixiang Garden, which was the birthplace of the Lingnan School of Painting in Haizhu district, was played at the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony also reviewed previous Guangdong Lingnan Art Exhibitions in short videos.

In order to promote the development of Lingnan School of Painting and Calligraphy, Haizhu will hold a new edition of the Guangdong Lingnan Fine Art Exhibition and organize a series of themed exhibitions, such as the "Shixiang Garden Cup" Youth Painting and Calligraphy Competition.

It will create a series of plays about the painter Ju Lian, hold an online auction of painting and calligraphy works and organize a charity auction, with the proceeds donated to the Guangzhou Foundation for Promoting Culture and Art Development and Prosperity.

In addition, Haizhu held the fifth "Shixiang Garden Cup" young people's painting and calligraphy competition for children. It collected more than 4,000 works of calligraphy and Chinese paintings. More than 1,000 finalists were selected from online voting, with internet hits of more than 2 million people.