The Zhejiang Artists Association Fishermen Painting Center was inaugurated in Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province, on April 18.

The Zhoushan Fishermen Painting Art Center was also launched at the inaugural ceremony.

The establishment of the two centers is designed to integrate resources and improve work mechanisms in an effort to advance the high-quality development of the city's fishermen painting, said Zhang Hui, Party secretary of the Zhoushan Federation of Literary and Arts Circles.

An exhibition displaying more than 80 fishermen paintings is now on at the city's news media center.

Liao Kaiming, the former assistant curator of the National Art Museum of China, said at the ceremony that fishermen paintings need to incorporate new elements, such as marine ecological protection, to make more significant progress in the new era.

The creation of fishermen paintings featuring the city's maritime culture started in 1983, and some of the paintings have been exhibited at the National Art Museum of China, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the Zhejiang Art Museum, and the Zhejiang Exhibition Hall.

Zhoushan's four districts and counties were recognized as "the hometown of modern Chinese folk painting" by the Ministry of Culture in 1988.