Arts in a Circle

Awardees: Yi Chen (HGSE), Junyi Li (HGSE), and Jin Zhai (HGSE)

Summary: Chinese families are signing their children up for countless pricy afterschool art programs and spend the whole weekend sending their kids to take art courses in multiple locations. Over 2.5 billion families in China have the demand of art education, but over 95% of the courses focus solely on skill improvement, instead of fostering creativity and aesthetic. Based on our market research, over 70% of Chinese parents are unsatisfied with the current industry and crave for new options. Furthermore, families located in 2nd and 3rd-tier cities cannot even get access to high quality art courses offline. My team summarizes that a consultancy program and an online art education platform aiming for improving children’s creativity can reassure Chinese parents and enhance parent-child relationship.

Awardees plan to design an affordable one-stop art education online platform for Chinese families. The first goal is to educate the public about the broad definition of art education. The second goal is to design a series of online courses for families with children aged 5-12. To achieve the first goal, they will host online round-table discussion with art education professionals every week. This series of panel discussion is free and open to the public. Awardees have shared this news with over thirty families who have already sought my advice on art education, and they are ready to join us online and learn more about art education. Selecting and educating families will set a strong foundation for our brand building and customer aggregation. To address the second goal, they aim to build online learning modules with the emphasis on reflection, communication, and connection.