China Academy of Art

China Academy of Art
Motto 團結 奮進 求實 創新
Established 1928
Type Public
President Xu Jiang
Academic staff 500
Location Hangzhou
Shanghai
,  People's Republic of China
Campus Urban, Suburban
Colors Black and White
Website http://www.caa.edu.cn/

China Academy of Art (simplified Chinese: 中国美术学院; traditional Chinese: 中國美術學院; pinyin: Zhōngguó měishù xuéyuàn) is the highest university of art in China. It was founded in Hangzhou in 1928 by the government of Republic of China.

Contents

Introduction

China National Academy of Art (also China National Academy of Fine Arts), colloquially known in Chinese as Guomei (國美, Guóměi).

The China National Academy of Art has the most complete range of degree offerings and programs of study in fine arts in China. There are eight schools under its jurisdiction offering Ph.D., master’s and bachelor’s degrees in fine arts, design, architecture, multi-media and film.

There are currently 7,000 undergraduate and graduate students in three campuses with a faculty and staff of 800. The administration of the Academy is headquartered in the Nanshan Campus, which is located right on the beautiful West Lake in Hangzhou. Students in the Master's program live on the alternate campus 40 minutes away, on the outskirts of Hangzhou. A free bus is offered to transport students to and from the campus from the dorms at designated times. Taxis do not drive to the outlying campus after 4:30 in Hangzhou. Other regional campuses are the Zhangjiang Campus, which is strategically located in Shanghai, and the Xiangshan Central Campus. In the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, the undergraduate student population will grow to 6,600 with a graduate student body of 800, making it one of the biggest fine art institutions in the world.

Undergraduate students typically spend one year in general education courses in the Department of Foundation and then three years in the core courses of their particular majors. Graduate courses are typically three years long and include extensive experience in the studio and research with mentoring faculty. Foreign students can take short-term or long-term courses in Chinese art, language and culture in the Institute of International Education. Courses are taught mainly in Chinese, so students are advised to take 1 year of only Chinese classes before attending art classes. In order to progress onto art classes, students must take a Chinese proficiency test. If students do not pass the Chinese reading/writing/speaking test, they can enroll in a second year of Chinese lessons.

The school is not run in western measures, meaning it is the student's job, not the faculty to orientate around the school. It is the students responsibility to locate learning materials, living amenities, and departments such as the financial office.

Lodging standards will differ on basis of cash pay or scholarship. Scholarship students are not permitted to live with cash paying students. Scholarships are not available to students above mid-30's.

As of 2010, Enrollment tuition is Y38,000. Visitors will be billed Y200 a night to sleep in the dorms. Cooking and smoking are not permitted in the dorms. Dorm rooms on the Nanshan campus house up to 2 foreigners or 6 Chinese students, although students considered of senior age will be allotted a private room with 2 beds.

China Academy's pedagogy consists mostly of mimicking techniques of former Chinese artists rather than appropriating to one's own style. China Academy encourages communistic unity in scaffolding techniques, rather than by western Montessori methods. Only through constant repetition of copying former works can one successfully achieve level of proper traditional Chinese painting and other medias.

The Academy encourages diversity in thinking, art exploration and academy research. It takes as its motto “diversity in harmony” and fosters an environment for innovation.

History

In 1928, the National Academy of Art(國立藝術院) was founded as the first comprehensive art academy in China on the bank of the West Lake in Hangzhou by the eminent educator Cai Yuanpei(蔡元培) with Mr. Lin Fengmian(林風眠). It takes integrating eastern and western arts, creating arts of the time and developing Chinese culture as its tenets. Over the decades, the location of the Academy has been changed ten times and its name changed six times, as follows:

Campuses

In 2008, there are three campuses:

Campuses existing

Campuses not existed

Colleges and Departments

Nanshan Campus

Zhangjiang Campus

Xiangshan Central Campus

External links