By Sidney Herrell

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Two horse capitals of the world will saddle up together for the Living Landscapes Festival, a cultural exploration of the art, people, lands and livelihoods of Mongolia and Kentucky.

This week-long festival of international arts and culture events began Sunday and continues until Saturday with events taking place at various locations across campus.

With events ranging from Throat Singing 101 to the Horse Country Musical Mashup, guests will have the chance to experience “the best of both worlds,” said Rui Li, UK School of Music student.

The festival is presented by the UK College of Fine Arts, Confucius Institute, Art College of Inner Mongolia University and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region International Culture Association.

Preparing for the event took about a year, said Huajing Maske, director of the Confucius Institute.

She said the institutions work together to promote academic and educational exchanges of students, faculty and research.

“All activities and exchanges brought (here) will help to broaden UK’s national student horizon and provide opportunities to engage in academic activities,” Maske said.

The UK Confucius Institute partnership with the College of Fine Arts and IMU has played a crucial role in the success of the program, said Maske.

She added she was privileged to work as part of the team.

Li said he considers this event to be special because he was born in Mongolia.

“You get to experience horse culture from the other side of the world,” he said. “It’s different, but at the same time, you would be surprised at how much we have in common.”

Organizers are promoting a student passport contest, which will reward students with prizes for checking in on Facebook, foursquare, Instagram and other social media during Living Landscape events throughout the week.

For more information about Living Landscapes and for a complete schedule of events, visit finearts.uky.edu/livinglandscapes. All events are free and open to the public.

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