China Academy of Art looks to the future as it marks 95th anniversary
Faculty and students from the China Academy of Art gathered at Nanshan Campus to celebrate the school's 95th birthday on April 8.
During the past 95 years, the CAA has developed into a national institution of higher education in fine arts with more than 10,000 students and faculty across five major campuses, namely Nanshan, Xiangshan, Xianghu and Liangzhu in Hangzhou, and Zhangjiang in Shanghai.
Gao Shiming, president of the CAA, announced at the celebration ceremony that April 8 was designated the day of the CAA Report, and a series of academic activities would be hosted on that date every year.
The CAA Report aims to be an extravaganza of art, a public platform for creators and designers, an event for citizens, and an engine driving social innovation.
The academy also announced three major projects on its anniversary.
Large posters have been hung outside the gate of the China Academy of Art's Nanshan campus to celebrate the school's 95th anniversary. A series of academic activities were hosted on April 8, namely the CAA Report Day.
First, the establishment of a School of Calligraphy.
Although the academy set up the nation's first calligraphic education major in 1963, the education content and talent cultivation system had changed tremendously over nearly a century. Last year, the Ministry of Education upgraded fine arts and calligraphy into the first-level discipline of higher education. Therefore, the CAA adjusted its majors and built the School of Calligraphy.
Chinese calligraphy is not just an ancient art with rigid rules. It can be modern and reflect an avant-garde spirit.
The CAA had been dedicated to cultivating young calligraphers to explore contemporary aspects of the ancient art since the mid-1990s. In 2005, it initiated the "Writing and Non-Writing" exhibition, which was held every five years in Hangzhou. Artists from home and abroad showcased the possibilities of the ancient art in various media. Viewers could observe how the artists merged calligraphy into modern life and other cultures.
The second event was the unveiling of the CAA Cosmos and Meta Art Academy.
The CAA Cosmos is an online art community that allows real-time multi-person interaction. Users can learn, socialize, and play games by creating their own digital identities, sharing their original artworks, and organizing and participating in art activities.
The community is also about to deeply explore AI and other new technologies in a bid to create a meta social application.
The Meta Art Academy is a mixed reality interface for single-person immersive experiences. With hyper-immersive-themed world courses, realistic audio-visual exhibitions and performances, the MAA is designed to develop a virtual art academy, providing a multiverse to users and build majors that integrate the arts with technology and sciences.
During the ceremony, Gao also announced that the CAA was about to build a China Cinematic Arts Institute and a School of Social Aesthetic Education.
The CAA announced the establishment of the School of Calligraphy on April 8, with two other major projects.
The institute is going to further elevate the status of Chinese movies in the world, enhance their international influence, promote filming technology, and strive to become a new engine for artistic innovation in Chinese movies.
The School of Social Aesthetic Education aims to advocate lifelong art education and promote traditional Chinese culture. The school will collaborate with other institutions of higher education, government departments, enterprises and industrial associations to utilize social resources.
In an effort to integrate art into the construction of rural areas and enhance people's artistic aesthetics, the CAA launched its "For a Better China" project in 2021 to encourage young artists to experience and create art in villages and impoverished areas. That was a major part of developing social aesthetics education.
In 1928, Cai Yuanpei, a renowned educator and a leading figure in the New Culture Movement, established the precursor of the school – the National Academy of Art.
Cai wanted to "replace religion with art education," and when he envisaged a national art school, he thought Hangzhou's West Lake would be the best place to set up a campus.
The premises of the school were then located in Luoyuan Courtyard, a Chinese garden commanding a prime view of the West Lake on Gushan Road. On the day of the opening ceremony, Lin Fengmian was appointed as the first president. In his speech he encouraged the faculty and students to "create beauty" and to "change people's interests from superstition to seeking beauty in life."
