Following professors and leaders attended the opening ceremony: Gao Shiming, vice president of CAA, Michael Grady, the previous vice-president of San Francisco Art Institute, and professor of school of arts of University of North Carolina, United States, and relevant leaders and teachers from School of Inter Media Art and International College of China Academy of Art. The opening ceremony was hosted by Guan Huaibin, the director of School of Inter Media Art of CAA. Shike, associate professor of Department of Experimental Image will become the teacher who will be in charge of the class, and he also met the students via video calls.

 

 

 

In the past two decades, the world has seen the rapid expansion of art and ideas beyond old boundaries and obsolete cultural constructs. The IMFA program at the CAA has been developed in response to the rapidly increasing globalization of the art world.

 

It is a three-year residential program, and also the first master program taught in English at CAA. It intended to recruit potential undergraduates from highly-reputed universities around the world. Finally, 13 undergraduates from internationally famous art universities are enrolled including Rhode Island School of Design and San Francisco Art Institute. Students will be awarded the Master of Fine Arts Degree from China Academy of Art, upon the successful completion of all required courses and presentation of final artwork and written thesis.

 

 

Gao Shiming gave a brief introduction of the CAA and elaborated on his expectations for international students of this program. The CAA is one of China’s oldest and most prestigious art colleges. The combined enrollment of CAA campuses is currently around 10,000 including graduate and undergraduate students from all over China, and around the world. Its graduates are among China’s leading artists and are currently very active internationally. Its three campuses, located in Hangzhou and Shanghai, have state of the art facilities – studios, digital access, libraries, museums and galleries. The School of Inter Media Art was established in 2010, which is the youngest, the most pioneering and experimental school at the CAA. In terms of his expectations, overseas students in China are encouraged not to be limited by their own departments or academy. Rather, they should further explore Chinese society and learn Chinese culture from it. 

 

“I am quite delighted and honored to witness growth of the CAA along the way. The past three decades saw big changes happened in China and the world is influenced by China from every aspect”, said by Michael Grady. Meanwhile, he suggested international students in China to be disseminators of culture and art who promote exchanges between oriental and eastern cultures rather than tourists. “CAA is an academy full of vision, ambition and imagination. I hope that everyone can take the precious opportunity to be part of the CAA, its tradition and get a deeper understanding of Chinese society and culture.” Michael said.

 

The mission of IMFA at CAA is to introduce the world’s most promising young artists to a new world of contemporary art – an art world in which the creative and expressive practices from around the world join together to create art that is as vital and innovative as the contemporary world itself. Faculty and students from Asia, Europe, the Mid-East, Africa, Oceania and the Americas provide a new vision to join in this bold new program. 

 

The curriculum explores the newly emerging paradigms of relationality, multi-culturalism, social practice and extended media that have defined the world’s most exciting contemporary art for the past quarter of a century. It also considers the traditional creative practices of a variety of cultural traditions specifically in studio art, public art, and contemporary art theory. Art and science, technology and economics will be considered in relation to contemporary art practices. In addition, students will explore the full range of new ideas in science, technology and design. Traditional and contemporary ideas about aesthetic philosophy, cultural perspective, curatorial practice and social relevance will be at the heart of the IMFA curriculum. 

 

Students work independently in specially assigned studios. They enroll for Individual Studio Tutorials with distinguished working artists from around the world, both regular CAA faculty and a distinguished group of International Advisory Faculty who serve each year as visiting artists for limited periods of time at the Hangzhou Campus and by Internet. Students meet individually with their tutors at regular intervals to examine their own artwork in close detail from both a technical and philosophical perspective. These tutorials allow each student to develop their own unique artwork with the guidance and support of a variety of faculty from their areas of artistic interest. International visiting artists ensure students have ready access to the international art scene.

 

Graduating students are prepared first and foremost to be fully functioning contemporary artists.  Alumni will exhibit their artwork internationally; participate in dialogues and discussions through print and internet media, to teach in the world most advanced and prestigious art colleges. CAA actively assists graduates in the marketing and promotion of their artwork internationally including important connections to galleries, publications and museums. By virtue of their affiliation with one of China’s leading art colleges, and their familiarity with Chinese language and cultural history, IMFA graduates will have unparalleled access to the Chinese art world. Graduates of the IMFA will be qualified to teach in professional art colleges anywhere on the planet. 

 

 

Get interested? Find more information about international master of fine art program (IMFA) in the attached document.