Published: February 19, 2009 04:34 pm      

Chinese art, visit of Shanghai Educators Feb. 23-24

COMMERCE — Texas A&M University-Commerce will host a Chinese art exhibit and a visit of Chinese educators to campus on Monday, Feb. 23, and Tuesday, Feb. 24.

The A&M-Commerce International Students Office and the Shanghai Social Sciences Association are sponsoring the free art exhibit in the Sam Rayburn Student Center on Feb. 23-24.

The public is invited to attend the exhibit, which will feature 30 paintings by Shanghai artists, according to John Mark Jones, director of A&M-Commerce International Student Services. The paintings are on the history and new face of Shanghai, including ancient and modern architecture as well as people's lives in urban and rural areas.

Shanghai is one of the largest cities in China, located on the west coast of the Pacific and is in the middle of China's east coastline and at the mouth of the Yangtze River. This city has a population of 16 million with 9.48 million living in urban areas.

The A&M-Commerce exhibit is the third in the United States following shows at Denver University and Brigham Young University.

The visiting Chinese educators are associated with Shanghai Normal University, which focuses on teacher training and the liberal arts and has an enrollment of about 38,000 students, and Nanjing Art College.

Dr. Jiaming Sun, A&M-Commerce sociology and criminal justice faculty member, visited Shanghai Normal University in early June 2008 to discuss possible scholar exchange programs between A&M-Commerce and the Shanghai university.

An A&M-Commerce faculty member has been invited by Shanghai Normal University to visit and lecture in May 2009. Dr. Dan Jones, president of A&M-Commerce, has been invited to attend an education conference at the Shanghai institution in October 2009.