Since 2015, the biannual Shanghai Urban Space Art Season (SUSAS), with its idea that “Culture Enriches City, Art Enlightens City”, has gone through three seasons which have been increasing in meaningfulness, sophistication and coverage.

While General Secretary Xi Jinping was inspecting the development of waterfront public spaces in Yangpu District of Shanghai in 2019, he pointed out the concept that cities belong to and exist for the people. To thoroughly fulfill the important philosophy of “People’s City” and implement the goals of “Five Everyone” and the working plans to comprehensively enhance the city’s soft forces devised by the Municipal Party Committee and People’s Government of Shanghai, SUSAS 2021 “15-minute Community Life Circle – People’s City”, as the first SUSAS co-hosted by Ministry of Natural Resources and Municipal People’s Government of Shanghai, aims to promote the construction of community life circles, bestow the people with more sense of gain and create happier life for the people.

Community is the basic unit of production, life and governance in both urban and rural areas, the “last kilometer” of citizen service and primary-level governance, the minimal cell which represents the fundamental property, people-centered values, vital signs, strategic missions and spiritual characters of people’s city, and the basic embodiment of inspiring the power of ownership in people and creating communities of social governance that is built, governed and shared by the people.

SUSAS 2021 invites citizens to walk into communities of Shanghai for a taste of humanistic urbanism, a humanistic atmosphere and human touch; and for an experience the fundamental role that sub-districts, towns and communities play in grass-root governance while feeling activated to participate in community construction and promoting the “micro governance” of communities together.

The events of SUSAS 2021, which are staged in communities themselves, include the thematic exhibition and twenty experiential community projects. The thematic exhibition is held at Columbia Circle, Changning District. The experiential projects focus on two key exemplar neighborhoods, Xinhua Sub-district and Caoyang Sub-district, and involve other 18 neighborhoods in 13 districts of Shanghai. The experiential neighborhoods invite citizens to know about and use community service facilities and amenities, participate in community construction and public art, and in a manner featuring co-building, co-governance and sharing, engage all elements of the society to create a happy community life which is suitable for living, suitable for working, suitable for relaxing, suitable for studying and suitable for elderly caring.