Markor offers students grants

Marker Home Furnishings Co Ltd initiated its Art-Home Scholarship Program this year.

Five artistically and academically outstanding undergraduates of the Academy of Arts & Design of Tsinghua University each received a 5,000-yuan scholarship.

The Markor Home Furnishings Art-Home Scholarship Program will cultivate art and design talents and promote Chinese art.

As an extension to this program, Markor Furnishings plans to provide students with practical experience through in-store internship opportunities.

In addition to Tsinghua University, Markor Home Furnishings also plans to partner with Tongji University in Shanghai this year to extend the scholarship and in-store internship program to the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and School of Art and Design of Hunan University.

Next year, Markor Home Furnishings will expand the program to the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and Hunan University.

"We are truly aware that it is the artistic talents who are most enthusiastic about arts and aware of the great potential for improvement in this field in China," said Ron Rossi, vice president of advertising and marketing for Markor Home Furnishings.

"However, they need academic knowledge, an artistic atmosphere and practical social experience to become capable of leading the development of Chinese art," he said.

The Markor Home Furnishings Art-Home program also will donate art materials to school and provide art education for primary school students.

The company already has donated art textbooks and materials to 30 primary schools in Chengdu, Shanxi province, Sichuan province, and Hefei of Anhui province, benefiting about 25,000 students.

Markor plans to include another 60 primary schools from Shenyang, Zhengzhou and Changsha in this program, which will not only serve as a supplement to traditional art education in schools, but also guide and nurture the development of artistic awareness in primary school students

The company has initiated a volunteer art education program in Chengdu that will be replicated in Hefei and in Shanxi province in the future.

Markor Home Furnishings, founded in 2001, is the retail division of Markor International Furniture Co, and the exclusive retailer of Ethan Allen-brand furniture in China.

(China Daily 12/21/2009 page10)