Founded in 2010, Snowland Arts is a 5-year ethics-based arts apprenticeship program for disadvantaged but talented young artists from western China. After completion of the program, graduates go on to take on students or begin their own projects.

The Snowland environment doesn’t permit copying other artists’ work and promotes knowledge-based art learning. Our premise is that talent, one is born with; to be an extraordinary artist, one needs knowledge of subjects from history to mathematics. Apart from art, Snowland’s foundation is equality, boys and girls, teachers and students. In a community where girls are still regarded as less able than boys, providing an environment based on equality and respect is a slow but sure way to change outdated ways of thinking. Through the medium of art, Snowland girls grow in confidence, our boys in respect. 

Apart from the main art program of art, art history, calligraphy, English and Chinese lessons, we run a yearly girlpower camp, do upcycling projects and hold a yearly fundraiser effort for animal shelters. 

Maintaining Snowland despite a series of dramatic obstacles makes a spellbinding and unbelievable story, one inextricably linked to the personal life stories of the artists.