In April, they forced the cancellation of the Yunnan Multicultural Visual Festival in southwest China, an important platform for emerging documentary filmmakers, and last August, the authorities literally pulled the plug on the Beijing Independent Film Festival by cutting the power on the opening day.
As a result, James Mudge, director of the London-based Chinese Visual Festival, expects to see "a bit more blurring of the line in what you consider a Hollywood film and a Chinese film", as foreign studios look to pair up with Chinese counterparts to get round the restrictions.
These master pieces have quietly instigated an art movement in the city of Rishikesh, and led to birth of a visual festival called Rishikesh Street Art Festival.
He is also organizing, and performing at, Meltdown, a contemporary music, film and visual arts festival in London.
The artists have exhibited together often, most notably in the Open Studios exhibition, a visual arts festival held in the historic center of Nicosia.
Produced by Dance Landscape, this new (and free) performing arts, fashion and visual arts festival takes place on a barge and inside a riverside tent.
But Still Life: An Audience with Henrietta Moraes will run instead as part of visual arts festival HOUSE, sister to Brighton and Hove's Artists Open Houses.
Citizens Theatre, Thu to 20 Feb LG This visual theatre festival is bringing great shows to Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Norwich, not least the European premiere of Birdheart by Saskia Lane and Julian Crouch (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed; Norwich Puppet Theatre, Fri).
I felt like sticking my head in there, just to soothe away the questions, the frustrations and doubts I had about the whole biennial, now the largest visual arts festival in the UK, which this time is subtitled Touched.
Today, it has been reborn as a cultural haven, with cavernous warehouses that host concerts and exhibitions, including the spectacular Biennale of Sydney, a visual arts festival.
The annual Visual Arts Festival, Open Air Photography Biennial and the Vevey International Photography Award draw the expected eager crowds to these events.
