Nov. 10 (NBD) -- Themed with "Creativity Extends Tianfu Culture", the 4th Chengdu Creativity and Design Week kicked off on Friday, bringing together 700 design companies from over 20 countries.

Laska Tatiana, Dean of Arts Faculty of Saint Petersburg State University, accepted NBD's interview at the event. She has been dedicated to promoting art education for 12 years. To her, it's a great way to generate talents by turning their creative ideas into part of city construction. 

NBD: Your university is one of the front-runners in art designing. What strategic global plans do you have?

Laska Tatiana: We are going to embrace changes in the fields such as painting and architecture designing. And we are going to work with more art institutions all over the world.

Laska Tatiana (photo/NBD)

NBD: College innovation plus city development has become a new regional development mode. What has your university done with this regard?

Tatiana: That is a very good strategy. Our university, with the support from the Russian government, regularly arrange exhibitions and meetings for students to display their works and communicate with others. Besides, city governors will select design works of graduates and use some of the excellent ones to improve the city's overall planning and architectural style.

NBD: What do you make of the development of cultural creativity from an academic angle?

Tatiana: I'm from Saint-Petersburg State University, Faculty of Arts. Russian art belongs to art of traditional culture. When I arrived in China, I saw new and creative art, a combination of both modern and classic art. When it comes to cultural creativity, Russia needs to communicate with other countries to create cultural and creative products with more distinctive national characteristics.

NBD: How does your university cultivate talents, considering the scarcity of creative talents?

Tatiana: From the perspective of art education, we need to help our students know more about unique cultures of other countries and appreciate art works of other countries. At the same time, we should retain our own artistic atmosphere. Russia upholds traditional art education, but we need to understand deeper artistic characteristics of both the western and eastern world.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn; tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn