Pudong enlisting professional artists to help grassroots art groups

Pudong is inviting renowned artists to instruct amateur performers and improve the level of grassroots art.

Pudong has more than 6,000 amateur art groups, but only half of them are active on stages. The average age of group members is over 60.

The art groups are in need of professional instruction and new blood for further development, surveys show.

In response to their demand, the Pudong Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau is working with the Shanghai Dramatists Association to recruit artists as instructors for the groups, said Peng Weifen, deputy director of the bureau.

This year, the first 36 art instructors will be in place to offer personalized help to the groups, Peng said.

Big names include Mao Shanyu, director of the Shanghai Huju Opera Theater, Wang Rugang, director of the Shanghai People's Farce Troupe, and Cai Jinping, director of the China Welfare Institute's Children's Art Theater.

By the end of this year, groups instructed by the artists will stage performance competitions.