the central cademy of fine arts

the central academy of fine arts

established in 1918, the central academy of fine arts (cafa) is the first national art school in china. it was given its current name in 1950.

currently it has departments and programmes in chinese painting, oil painting, printmaking, mural painting, sculpture, design art, history computer art and folk art. for decades, the school was based in a small compound adjacent to downtown beijing's wangfujing area, which is now the city's most prosperous commercial area. the limited space and worn facilities of the downtown campus were not up to meeting the school's growing demand, which had enjoyed increasing international recognition. during the feverish economic boom of 1994, the school moved out of the downtown campus to give way to real and commercial estate development. the controversial move incited some debate over whether art should give way to the economy. the school found a temporary home in a factory in eastern beijing's jiuxianqiao. in september 2001, it moved its own new campus located in the northeastern part of the city's huajiadi.

the reform of the art education system in an era of information and economic globalization seems more urgent. like in the rest of the world, chinese higher art education is facing new challenges as the future of art be- comes more and more uncontrollable and the boundary of art more blurred. the central academy of fine arts used to focus mainly on pure art. in the future it should pay more attention to art design to meet the demands of modem society. after opening a design department, the central academy is planning to establish a design school in the near future, which will train both art designers and design administrators. of course it is important to put the aesthetics of pure art into the education and practice of design. that should be an advantage of the central academy. against the back- ground of globalization, it is necessary to stress humanistic concern and to develop an art education system with chinese characteristics. veteran architect, wu liangyong, designed the new campus for the central academy of fine arts. claimed to be the world's largest art school, the new campus is spread out more than 7.6 hectares (18.78 acres) of floor space. the first phase of the project included construction of offices, dormitory buildings, sports facilities, a library, a function hall, a sculpture and plaster gallery, an outdoor theater, and a multimedia studio. space has also been left for an art museum and a design school to be built during the second phase of construction. according to architect wu liangyong, the buildings have been designed in gray, a typical color of traditional elegant design of the traditional chinese academy, a higher-learning institution popular in the song dynasty (960-1279). wu liangyong, a professor, of tsinghua university, wanted to combine western and modem elements in his design since modem technology is such an integral part of artistic creation and education in the modem age. the sculpture studio is equipped with mechanical lifting facilities for the production of large-sized sculptures. the design and photography departments are equipped with the most advanced computers, camera and other high-tech equipment.

 

 

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last updated: april 4, 2006

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