• Drawing

Provincial First-Class Course

Grounded in the perceptual traditions of fine arts, the course expands the scope of drawing through observational practice, the study of historical masterworks, and experimental exploration. It develops students’ technical proficiency while establishing drawing as a fundamental mode of artistic inquiry that supports learning across disciplines.

Organised around the theme of visual narrative, the course integrates studio practice with independent exploration, encouraging students to move fluidly between observation and image-making. By connecting the legacy of drawing with contemporary image culture, it cultivates precision, openness, and experimentation in visual thinking. Through sustained engagement with everyday life and lived experience, students develop critical inquiry, research-driven approaches, and creative confidence.

Course Link：https://gmjk.caa.edu.cn/detail/JK72

• Social Practice: Down to the Countryside

National First-Class Course

The course integrates fieldwork, artistic practice, and cultural research, encouraging students to engage directly with local communities and diverse regional contexts across China. Through the study of cultural landscapes, social life, vernacular traditions, and material culture, students develop methods of field research and strengthen their ability to translate lived experience into visual expression.

Combining observation, drawing from life, documentation, and creative inquiry, the course fosters sensitivity to place, environment, and everyday life while cultivating visual literacy and interdisciplinary thinking. It encourages students to respond to contemporary realities through artistic practice, nurturing humanistic perspectives, cultural awareness, and a sustained engagement with society.

Course Link：https://gmjk.caa.edu.cn/detail/JK31

Creative Practice

Provincial First-Class Course

Creative Practice introduces students to image-making through thematic studio projects that combine observation, experimentation, and creative inquiry across a variety of media.

The course strengthens students' foundational skills while encouraging them to develop individual approaches to visual storytelling, spatial thinking, and contemporary creative practice. Through projects that move between analogue and digital media, students learn how ideas evolve from research and experimentation into coherent visual outcomes.

Rather than focusing on technical proficiency alone, the course encourages students to develop a personal visual language, an awareness of cultural context, and the confidence to communicate ideas creatively across multiple media. It provides a strong foundation for advanced study in animation, illustration, film, digital media, and other image-based practices.

• Fundamentals of Traditional Chinese Painting and Calligraphy

Provincial First-Class Course

This foundational course is designed for over a thousand first-year students across the Fine Arts, Image and Media, and Design, serving as a core disciplinary foundation course for multiple programs in the context of the new liberal arts and new arts. Guided by the educational philosophy of "drinking from the source and walking with the greats," the course engages students in the study of traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting, fostering a deep appreciation for China's artistic heritage while encouraging students to connect their professional practice with contemporary social realities and cultural developments. The course promotes the transmission of traditional culture and aesthetic sensibility within the context of modern artistic education.

Course Link：https://gmjk.caa.edu.cn/detail/JK71

The Department of Foundation Studies offers a diverse programme of workshops, ranging from year-round research-led studios to intensive Short-term Workshops and International Workshops. Together, these initiatives provide students with open and collaborative environments for experimentation, interdisciplinary exchange, and creative practice beyond the core curriculum.

1. Long-term Workshops

The studio encourages curiosity, sustained engagement, and personal exploration in a supportive learning environment beyond the formal curriculum.

Traditional Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Studio

The Traditional Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Studio offers students the opportunity to engage with the techniques, aesthetics, and cultural traditions of Chinese painting and calligraphy through sustained studio practice. Offered alongside the regular curriculum, the workshop is guided by the principles of fostering interest and experience through immersive, organic engagement—creating a relaxed, diverse, and sustained learning environment.

Open to students across the China Academy of Art, the studio provides specialist instruction in bird-and-flower painting, landscape painting, figure painting, and calligraphy. Alongside regular studio sessions, students participate in lectures, field projects, community engagement activities, and educational outreach, fostering a deeper understanding of Chinese artistic traditions within contemporary practice.

Perception Lab

The Perception Lab is an experimental platform dedicated to interdisciplinary media practice.

Working across movement, materials, space, sound, performance, and AI-assisted creative practice, the lab offers workshops in contact improvisation, performance-making, narrative direction, spatial construction, theatre, and sound.

Through collaborative projects, artist talks, and teaching by faculty and invited practitioners, students explore how perception, embodiment, and artistic expression evolve within contemporary technological and social contexts. Regular performances and public presentations provide opportunities to experiment with collaborative and cross-media practice.

Digital Intelligence and Art Lab

The Digital Intelligence and Art Lab introduces first-year students to emerging creative technologies and their applications in contemporary artistic practice.

The lab explores areas including AI-assisted creative practice, virtual production, intelligent agents, embodied interaction, VR/AR, and immersive interactive experiences, while also encouraging critical discussion of the cultural and aesthetic implications of digital technologies.

Students participate in collaborative projects with industry partners, cultural organisations, and research institutions, connecting studio experimentation with professional practice and public engagement.

Led by artists, designers, filmmakers, researchers, and technology specialists, the lab provides an interdisciplinary environment where art, design, and emerging technologies converge.

2. International Workshops (Short-Term Workshops)

The International Workshops bring together internationally recognised artists, designers, curators, and educators to explore global issues through collaborative studio practice.

Working across different cultural contexts and disciplinary perspectives, students engage in project-based learning, international collaboration, exhibitions, workshops, and academic exchange, developing cross-cultural awareness and an expanded understanding of contemporary creative practice.

Mutual Perspectives International Workshop

The Mutual Perspectives International Workshop promotes dialogue between foundation programmes at leading art schools worldwide through collaborative teaching, studio practice, and cultural exchange.

The programme encourages students to engage with different educational traditions and artistic methodologies while developing international perspectives and cross-cultural communication skills.

Entering the Scene: Visual Narrative Across Contexts and Media

Led by Dr. Lucie Lososová, Stage and Costume Design, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.Focusing on theatre design and visual storytelling, the workshop explores script interpretation, scenography, character development, costume, and stage design through studio projects and mentoring. Students investigate how visual narratives are constructed across different media while strengthening spatial thinking, intercultural awareness, and cross-media creative practice.