Autumn Project（秋计划）
Seasonal Creative Market · Community Arts & Slow Culture PracticeProject Type
Seasonal Cultural Programme / Creative Market & Community-Based Arts
Time & Location
Autumn 2022
Chaozhou, Guangdong, China
Organiser
Escape Art Club (EAC)
Role
Project Director · Chief Planner
Cai Boxuan (Boosen Tsai)
Background
Autumn Project was initiated as a follow-up to Urban Escape Project, responding to a key reflection that emerged from the earlier large-scale festival: cultural vitality does not rely solely on intensity, but on continuity and rhythm.
Rather than replicating a one-off peak event, Autumn Project adopted a seasonal framework, using autumn as both a temporal marker and a cultural metaphor—signalling harvest, slowing down, and reflection. The project aimed to cultivate a sustainable platform where creative practice, community gathering, and public education could unfold at a human scale.
Description
The programme took the form of a curated creative market integrated with workshops, informal sharing sessions, and small-scale cultural activities. Local artists, designers, craftspeople, and independent creators were invited to present works rooted in everyday observation, material experimentation, and regional culture.
Unlike conventional markets driven by consumption, Autumn Project foregrounded process over spectacle. Activities were designed to encourage conversation, making, and lingering—allowing audiences to encounter creative practices as part of daily life rather than as staged performances.
Through its modest scale and relaxed tempo, the project tested a model of cultural engagement that privileges depth, accessibility, and repeat participation. It functioned as an open-ended experiment in how grassroots cultural initiatives might sustain momentum beyond festival formats.
Outcomes
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Successfully delivered a seasonal creative market with integrated cultural programming
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Supported local artists and independent creators through low-barrier participation
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Fostered informal knowledge exchange between creators and audiences
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Developed a scalable model for recurring community-based cultural activities
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Strengthened Escape Art Club’s long-term relationship with local creative communities
Significance
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Marked a strategic shift from event-driven culture to rhythm-based cultural practice
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Demonstrated an alternative model for sustaining youth-led cultural initiatives
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Reinforced the value of slowness, seasonality, and everyday engagement in cultural work
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Complemented large-scale projects with a grounded, repeatable format
Keywords
Seasonal Culture · Creative Market · Community Arts · Slow Culture · Grassroots Practice · Local Creators · Cultural Sustainability