At 9:00 am on June 18, 2015, Graduation Season | the 2nd National Institutions of Art Philosophy and Social Science Development Forum officially started in the Auditorium of CAFA Art Museum. The forum was directed by the Social Science Department in the Ministry of Education, supported by the National Institutions of Art Research and Innovation Management Collaborative Committee, hosted by China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), organized by the Research Department of CAFA. This forum is designed to guide the artistic creation to focus on the theme of the times, carrying forward the Chinese spirit, to create more art works with a strong academic depth and cultural height, to promote the development of the prosperity of philosophy and social science in the institutions of art. The forum invited the leaders of institutions of art, directors of creative and scientific research organizations and famous experts across the country, to have an in-depth discussion around the value, method and path of artistic creation as well as to explore the global leading art developing road with Chinese characteristics. After the conference speech there were two parts of the event including the panel discussions and representatives’ speech, and the meeting deliberated and approved “The 2nd National Institutions of Art Philosophy and Social Science Development Forum Consensus”, and announced Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts as the organizer of the next session.

Guo Lei: Dean of Beijing Dancing Academy

Beijing Dancing Academy combined the teaching and creation in running a school, achieving fruitful results in the dance competitions in Beijing, China and the world. Art practice and art creation was closely integrated with teaching, the academy carried out a variety of initiatives with various specialties, using the creation of drama to promote the teaching of the director’s specialty, using stage performance to promote the teaching of the performing specialty, using the combination of theory and practice to promote the teaching of the dance education specialty, using project and design to promote the teaching of the practice and communication specialty, which formed the art teaching and created the system of the integration of artistic practice and social practice, campus practice and off-campus practice, by which Beijing Dancing Academy conducted art creations and practices, constructed the teaching mechanism of the academy as well as the practice mechanisms covering performing, directing, teaching, theory, design and communication, over the years.

Hang Jian: Assistant to President of China Academy of Art

Hang Jian made a speech on behalf of President of China Academy of Art, he said, outstanding creation was the premise and the best verification to the excellent education and teaching for academies of art and outstanding creation by outstanding teachers was the engine that academies of art generated outstanding education. In addition, the philosophical trend had already challenged the teaching of the academies, with the individual knowledge network, the teachers and students together stood on the starting line in the internet world, ideology replaced skills, therefore, we needed to go back to the thinking of the nature of humans’ creativity in art, in the current high education of art.

Zhou Xian: Dean of the Institute of Fine Arts of Nanjing University

Nanjing University had a history of 100 years, with a remote tradition of art education, Zhou Xian said comprehensive universities were different from professional colleges of art, and they had a different path in development, Zhou Xian combined the situation of Nanjing University and his personal observations to talk about the three ideas. Firstly, the education of colleges and universities of art should strengthen the balance of morality and skills, and it should both attach importance to the teaching of skills and morality, as well as the issues of moral accomplishment. Secondly, the scientific spiritual cultivation was very important for each artist, we stressed the scientific reasoning and the artistic sensibility, which were quite uniform at a high level. Thirdly, it was necessary for colleges to design special activities to promote the events of the artworld which were related to science.

Ding Fang: Executive Director of the School of Arts, Renmin University of China

The School of Arts, Renmin University of China was small and it was trying to find its own developmental locality, its main idea was to rely on the strong comprehensive literary power of the humanities department covering literature, history and philosophy specialties to build the school of arts, so we focused on interdisciplinary work. The School of Arts, Renmin University of China mainly trained academic artists with a combination of art and science, which did not only indicate the developing direction of Chinese art in the new century, but also referred to the training goal of a new art talent.

Text by Yu Ya, Photo by Xu Fan/CAFA ART INFO

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO