From October 11^th to the15^th, CESS had the pleasure of hosting six distinguished faculty members from Inner Mongolia University Arts College, located in the city of Huhhot, Inner Mongolia, in northern China.  The six, Li Shuangxi (group director, art history and film), Zhou Yu (fine arts), Sun Xiaoyan (translator and English), Bao Xiaolan (fine arts), Shi Weishen (music), and Cao Guichen (dance), were the first delegation of visiting scholars to travel to UVM after CESS Dean Fayneese Miller and IMUAC’s President Li signed a partnership agreement last year establishing an Academic Educational Exchange program between the two Universities.  The agreement provides for exchange visits by scholars from each University, with the first UVM contingent traveling to China in the spring of 2011.      

As they walked through the gate at Burlington International Airport on the night of October 11^th, the IMUAC group seemed no less for wear after their 13-hour flight from Beijing.  They were greeted by Dr. Juefei Wang, Program Director of the Freeman Foundation, and Founder and Former Director of the Asian Studies Outreach Program (ASOP) at UVM, and CESS Emeritus Professor.  He welcomed them to Vermont on behalf of Dean Miller and the University, before escorting them to their hotel.  The next day began a busy weeklong schedule of classroom visits and observations, discussions with UVM faculty counterparts, an excursion to the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont, with a side trip to Stowe and the Trapp Family Lodge. 

Dean Miller officially greeted the group at a Tuesday night dinner at Pauline’s. In her welcome to the group, she expressed appreciation for President Li’s leadership in partnering with her to establish the academic exchange program that brought the present visitors to UVM.  I am confident, she said, “that the partnership between our two Universities will provide rich rewards to scholars from both schools in the coming years.”  She concluded, saying, “Activities such as this can only have a positive effect upon relations between our two countries, particularly at a time of global contacts and the importance of sharing the most up-to-date knowledge in our respective academic fields.”  At dinner with Dean Miller and IMUAC faculty were UVM faculty members Linda McIntyre, Tom Toner, and Ricardo Johnson, Chrysanne Chotas from Development, Ellen Baker, CESS Director of Teacher Education and Program Coordinator for Elementary Education, and Juefei Wang. 

Highlights of the week were many.   On Wednesday, the six divided into two groups, with one attending Wayne Schneider’s Music History and Literature, and American Music classes, and the other Linda McIntyre’s Graphic design class.  Each met informally with Professors’ Schneider and McIntyre for after class conversations.  Following lunch at Billings’ dining hall the group adjourned to observe a class in Ted Lyman’s Animation Studio, then meeting with Ted to discuss his work.  

Thursday saw a continuation of Wednesday’s schedule.  First on tap was a CESS sponsored general discussion on higher education in the U.S. and China, held in the John Dewey Lounge and open to the UVM community.  Joining the IMUAC faculty members were several from UVM, Clare Byrne (Dance), Deb Ellis (Film), Martin Thaler (Theater), and Bill Mierse (Art History).    Then it was on to observe classes with each, Deb Ellis’s Intro to Film and Video Production, Bell Mierse’s Pre-Columbian Art, Movement and Improvisation with Clare Byrne, and Alan Mosser’s Fundamental of Costuming Lab, at the Royall Tyler Theatre. 

Friday the group embarked in a van from their Burlington Hotel to travel to Johnson, in the northern Green Mountains, to visit and tour the Vermont Studio Center.  Greeting them was Jonathan Gregg, who along with Louise von Weise and Fred Osborne founded the Center in 1984.   In his welcome, Jonathan explained that the VSC is the largest International artists’ and writer’s Residency Program in the United States, and one that hosts 50 or more artists and writers each month from across the country and around the world.   Many of those currently in residence were on hand to welcome the IMUAC delegation, including two artists from China.   After a delicious lunch, prepared at and served in the Center’s spacious commons dining room, Jonathan guided the group on a tour of the Center’s facilities, now totaling thirty historic buildings, on a large tract of land along the banks of the Gihon River, including studios, housing, lecture hall, dining hall, meditation house, yoga studio, studio store and gardens, all within walking distance of each other and the center of the village.  The group gathered for pictures in the Red Mill Gallery, before departing for Stowe and a visit to the Trapp Family Lodge. 

At the Thursday night dinner hosted by Juefei Wang at Zen Gardens, Dr. Wang remarked that the IMUAC visit “is a groundbreaking event, for it is the first time professors from IMUAC have been in UVM classrooms.”  Raising his glass, Dr. Wang proposed a toast to the continued cooperation between the two Universities, concluding with the conviction that “we are making history.” His words, echoing those of Dean Miller in her greeting to the group on Tuesday, summed up the significance of the visit, at the same time underscoring its importance to the members of both Universities, and to the positive relations between our two countries.

On Saturday morning, the IMUAC delegation left Burlington for Washington D. C, where they would spend a few days sightseeing, and then onto New York City to do the same, before making their way back to Inner Mongolia, taking with them not only memories of their American visit, but more important, what they learned from their counterparts at UVM.