The 2025 KIC Knowledge and Arts Festival kicks off. Roam around the "Boundaryless University" on University Road.

Brewing with knowledge, letting thoughts linger. Inspirations collide here, and culture is perpetually passed on. Recently, the 3rd KIC Knowledge and Arts Festival officially kicked off at KIC Creative Park in Shanghai. This year's festival is themed "Cheers to Knowledge" with the core concept of "The Boundless University". It aims to explore diverse inspirations and cultural contents. Through a series of inspiring dialogues, sharing sessions, and performances, it creates a space for learning and communication in the city, activating interesting cultural innovations and inspiring collisions of ideas.

The KIC Knowledge and Arts Festival lasted from April 22nd to May 5th. In collaboration with co - creation partners such as bilibili, Meetu Lab, Yueyue Books, Shiguang Poetry, Shanghai Student Drama Alliance, and Yucheng Impression · Fuji University Road Experience Store, it launched more than 40 cultural and knowledge activities within 14 days through two major thematic sections, "Knowledge Ladder" and "Art Presence". These activities covered diverse fields such as reading, sustainability, art, and AI technology, transforming KIC Creative Park into a "Boundless University" - a place without barriers and restrictions on identity, where knowledge flows, collides, and ferments equally, ultimately achieving an organic integration of knowledge, art, and life, and forming an urban cultural landmark with Shanghai characteristics.

KIC Knowledge and Arts Festival

University Road Beautiful Bookstore Festival: Reconstructing Multiple Possibilities of Reading

Bookstores are quiet corners in the city and also the most active spaces for thoughts. They are windows through which people view the world and "spiritual paradises" that nourish the soul. This year, as the KIC Knowledge and Arts Festival entered its third year, the "University Road Beautiful Bookstore Festival" was launched for the first time. It brought together over 100 leading domestic publishers, Shanghai Century Publishing Group, characteristic bookstores in Shanghai, art derivatives, and lifestyle brands, creating a unique cultural street experience for book lovers.

During these 14 days, KIC Creative Park collaborated with several characteristic bookstores in the University Road area to plan a series of activities: in cooperation with Yueyue Bookstore, it invited famous teachers from Shanghai to hold a series of offline sharing sessions on "Great Figures"; an old - book exhibition titled "Discover New Knowledge in Old Books - The 'Great Time' Old - Book Exhibition" was held at Fudan Old Bookstore; an exhibition of rare detective novels from the Republic of China era, "Discover New Knowledge in Old Books - The 'Great Detective' Exhibition", was held at Miyun Library; in cooperation with CITIC Bookstore, a "Lighthouse · Podcast Booklist Exhibition" was launched, and a sound - related discussion was initiated on University Road.

Fudan Old Bookstore

In addition, the KIC Knowledge and Arts Festival, together with co - creation partners such as Siye Caotang and InnoSpace, successively held offline sharing activities called "Knowledge Tasting Talks" in cafes and bars on University Road. Many academic experts participated in the inspiration discussions. In cooperation with bookstores, cafes, and pubs, it launched "Limited Special Drinks + Recommended Good Books" and a "Bookstore Roaming Map", leading citizens to visit the bookstores in the University Road area. With the book - scented map, characteristic booklists, and a series of inspiring special drinks, it connected 8 characteristic bookstores and more than 10 cultural and artistic treasure shops in the University Road area, allowing people to rediscover the inspiration and beauty in life during the process of knowledge hunting.

Knowledge Tasting Talks

The other section, "Art Presence", aims to provide a display platform for emerging local cultural and creative organizations, bringing art into people's lives and allowing citizens to experience on - stage performances up close. KIC Creative Park collaborated with surrounding universities, breaking down the "walls" of universities and transforming the streets and alleys of the University Road community into a wonderful urban stage. During the May Day holiday, it collaborated with drama troupes from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and Woyuan Drama Club of East China University of Political Science and Law to carry out characteristic cultural activities such as environmental drama performances on University Road, expanding the cultural landscape of "Bookish Shanghai" and promoting the integrated development of culture, business, tourism, sports, and exhibitions.

In addition, Meetu Lab, a public innovation laboratory jointly initiated by KIC Creative Park and the College of Design and Innovation of Tongji University, launched a poetry art exhibition called "University Road is Readable" during this event. Through the poetry canopies dotted around the University Road area and the temporary pedestrian street on University Road, it displayed the co - created poems by local residents and students. In particular, in cooperation with "Shiguang Poetry" from Kunming, Yunnan, 10 poems written by children from the mountains were carefully selected for exhibition. Children of different ages created freely, presenting beautiful imaginations with pure words, looking at the world from a different perspective, and thus discovering another way to read life.

KIC Knowledge and Arts Festival x Shiguang Poetry Children's Poetry Special Exhibition

This year's KIC Knowledge and Arts Festival also collaborated with the 1862 Fashion and Art Center to launch a customized route for the Silent Disco City Tour at Jiangwan Stadium and University Road, starting a city - wide dance. At another corner of the community, the KIC Knowledge and Arts Festival and the Fuji University Road Experience Store jointly launched a themed exhibition called "Renewable Creative Portraits · The Beauty of Rebirth Under the Mirror", using visual language to reshape the artistic life of discarded plastics and allowing people to feel the ecological cost behind consumerism.

During the May Day holiday, a limited - time "University Road Cultural Street Banquet" was launched at the University Road Beautiful Bookstore Festival, allowing people to have a one - time limited "Food + Poetry" experience on the street. This was an immersive dining - and - reading experience at the table. It invited professors from Fudan and Tongji Universities, bookstore owners, and partners from the pan - cultural ecosystem. They carefully selected seasonal special dishes, using books as a link to tell a story of taste buds, enabling people to find a sense of community belonging in the blend of knowledge and the aroma of delicious food.

Ultimately, the University Road Beautiful Bookstore Festival is not only a feast of books but also a practice of KIC Creative Park's ideal of a "composite innovative knowledge community". When knowledge truly integrates into the daily life of the community, the "Boundless University" becomes a growing reality.

Humanistic Knowledge Community: The Boundless University, the Promising City

Under the shade of the camphor trees on University Road, the KIC Knowledge and Arts Festival depicts a vivid picture of "Knowledge is the community, and the community is the classroom". KIC Creative Park has always been deeply rooted in the community, proving through continuous innovation that a real humanistic knowledge community is where knowledge is elevated from books and naturally grows in the conversations at the corner cafes and in the street - flash dramas.

When fragmented reading impacts in - depth thinking and urban spaces are dominated by commercial logic, every page - turning sound, every dialogue, and every collision of inspiration at the KIC Knowledge and Arts Festival contribute to the blueprint of a "bookish society". In the University Road community, every street corner is a classroom, and knowledge will regain its freedom like a flowing river. Everyone is both the source and the sea.

KIC Knowledge and Arts Festival

During these 14 days, knowledge re - connected the warmth between people and at the same time inherited the urban cultural genes. Changing one street means changing a city. Building a boundless university means building a promising city. In the future, the KIC Creative Park community is committed to becoming a world - class humanistic knowledge community.