HCMC – The Vietnam Festival of Creativity and Design (VFCD) will take place from November 6 to 21 this year to create an open, timely and interactive platform for creative individuals and organizations to engage with thousands of people online.
In its third year, VFCD is being organized by RMIT University Vietnam in partnership with the UNESCO, the Vietnam National Institute of Culture and Arts Studies and COLAB Vietnam.
Spotlight on Vietnam’s creative future
Under the theme, “Creative Future”, this year’s program will include talks, workshops, exhibitions, podcast series, contests and various online activities and discussions about the vision, trends, cultural identity and future opportunities for the creative industries in Vietnam.
“The creative industries are facing new challenges – the post-Covid world won’t be the same and we all need to think about what the ‘new normal’ might be. We need creative thinkers and innovators to find these solutions. Hence, the festival aims to be a forum where some of these challenges can be discussed and possible solutions can be identified,” said Professor Julia Gaimster, Dean of School of Communication and Design at RMIT University.
Associate Professor Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong, Deputy Director of VICAS, expects this year’s festival to create an even stronger impact on promoting creativity among the youth and micro, small and medium-sized organizations, which are inherently the protagonists of the core values and inspirations that drive creativity.
“During these times, let’s try to find our vitality by igniting and connecting our creative values through activities in the cultural-creative sector,” she said.
A diverse range of online activities
Building on last year’s momentum, VFCD 2021 can be experienced almost entirely online via the festival’s social media channels and other digital platforms. Most of the events are available in both Vietnamese and English and do not require entrance fees.
Similar to the previous years, the 2021 program will feature multiple activities led by other partners. This year’s line-up of around 20 collaborators includes “The Big Draw” (an international initiative to promote the value of drawing), the Australian Embassy in Vietnam, the Contemporary Art and Social Transformation research group, Vietcraft, Work Room Four and the Vietnam Design Week, among others.
An activity that will run throughout the festival is the digital collaborative art campaign, “To_morrow”, held in association with Behalf Studio, the creative adviser of VFCD 2021.
This project welcomes the public to submit their photos on Instagram with hashtags and receive a bespoke design generated from the picture. The designs will then be added to a bigger mosaic-style artwork that grows over time on VFCD’s official website.
As the festival’s initiator, RMIT University Vietnam is spearheading around 10 events, including a forum on the art and design archive in Vietnam, an “edit-a-thon” to increase the quality of content on Wikipedia about Vietnamese art and culture, workshops on sustainable fashion and drawing, etc.
COLAB Vietnam founder Thanh Bui highlighted that the future is in the hands of creatives. This is also the inspiration behind the six-part workshop series hosted by COLAB Vietnam during VFCD 2021 titled “CREATIVITY, OPEN & UP!”
“It doesn’t matter what company you work for – whether it’s in finance, education, or logistics – if you are creative and able to ignite ideas, you will be successful and be leaders. So please join us and create this incredible community of Vietnamese creatives, so that we can truly connect with the world and bring our products and culture to the world,” Thanh Bui said.
For further details about VFCD 2021, visit https://vfcd.events/en or https://bit.ly/vfcd21calendar.
