Besides working with schools and art institutions since 2009, I have worked with churches and libraries since 2015. During my trips to the USA, I taught 82 hours on cross-cultural and integrated Chinese art through workshops and demonstrations in three churches and three libraries in Missouri. Below are snippets of my work with these two types of organizations.

1.In Three American Churches

Since 2016 to 2025, I have given demonstrations, workshops, and courses totalling 60 hours on my cross-cultural and integrated Chinese art through enjoying and practicing painting, music, and poetry in three American churches: Springfield Chinese Church, the Crossroads Community Church and a branch of the Peace Chapel in Missouri, USA.

-- November 7 to March 14, 2025: I gave a course for 54 hours via a Cross-Cultural and Integrated Art Workshop serving the local American-Chinese community and native English speakers at the Springfield Chinese Church in Missouri, USA. We had planned for 24 hours, but I delivered 54 hours free of charge. As a result, the group of teenagers completed 12 Chinese paintings, including Baimiao and Xieyi styles, and the group of adults completed 10 paintings on average, including Baimiao, Gongbi, and Xieyi styles. Also, all of them have learned to read and recite four Chinese poems and recognize about 30 Chinese seal script characters—one of the earliest forms of Chinese characters.

1) Until March 1,2025: the teenager group completed their 12th painting and the adult group completed their 9th painting.

You can see some snippets in the first and third groups of photos via the link.

2) February 22, 2025: The teenager group completed their 11th painting and the adult group completed their 8th painting. 

 You can see them in the first and third groups of photos via the link.

3) A strong snowstorm inspired me to change my original teaching plan and teach my students to paint a snow scene in the Chinese Xieyi style.
You can see some of their artworks via the link

4) Before starting to paint in a teenager group and adult group, the students always worked together to learn to read, sing, and recite a Chinese poem; to understand the culture behind the poetry; and to recognize some ancient Chinese characters.

You can see a few snippets of what they studied via the link.

-- February 1, 2025: I gave a demonstration lasting three hours on my cross-cultural and integrated art at Crossroads Community Church in Missouri, USA.

You can see a snippet via the link.

-- January 2, 2016: I offered a cross-cultural and integrated Chinese art demonstration for three hours at the Peace Chapel in Missouri, USA.

You can see the work snippets via the link.

2.In Three American Libraries

From 2015 to 2025, I have taught in three American libraries: Park Central Branch Library, Springfield-Greene County Library; the Central Library of Springfield, MO; and another branch library where I was driven to but I didn’t know its name.

Here are some snippets of our working process.

-- Dec 20, 2024 to March 7, 2025, I gave a Chinese Painting Workshop for a group of highly educated artists (included two doctors, one professor, two instructors, two engineers and one manager) for 66 hours (10 of the hours in the libraries); the first three sessions, totaling about 10 hours, were held in a library in Springfield, MO, USA.

 You can see this group of artists in the first photo and the last group of photos via the link.

-- September 30 (Wednesday), 2015, during my 5th art exhibition at the Brentwood Branch Library, Springfield, Missouri, I gave a presentation for 2 hours for a group of international students from the Adult Education Department of Ozarks Technical Community College.

You can see them in the second photo via the link, and also, the last photo shows two of the students.

Note: Because these 2 hours have been counted toward Shirley’s teaching at college, they are not included in the count of Shirley’s teaching in libraries.

-- September 4 to 30,2015: During my 5th art exhibition in the downtown library, Springfield, MO, USA, I gave a course with five or six lesson sessions for about 12 hours for several groups of readers and visitors on the Cross-cultural and Integrated Chinese Art workshop, and this course lasted until Dec. in the Central Library.

1) Via the link, you can see our work snippets.

2) You can see the students in the last photo via the link.

3) You can see them in the 5th photo via the link.

4) You can see two of them working in the library in the last photo via the link.

5) Via the link, you can see some of the students in the 7th photo.

6) You can see them in the central library of Springfield, MO in the third photo from the end.

If you have any questions, comments, or advice, you are welcome to write to me via info@ebridge.cn orshirley@ebridge.cn, and I will be very delighted to read them and respond to you with a big smile.

Sincerely,
Shirley Yiping Zhang

January 24, 2026