On a bright day with the summer moon in the sky, parades of youth are ready to set on a journey, towards the future. Budding hearts, are reflected throughout the world...
The China Central Academy of Fine Arts (abbr. CAFA) has upgraded the “graduation exhibition” to a magnificent “graduation season” since last year, and the entire campus was open to the public and a series of academic activities were launched to create a perfect period for the school life of all the graduates. The CAFA Graduation Season has become an important academic brand, and it received great attention from the fields of art and education. After the accumulation and preparation over nearly a year, on May 18, 2016, the CAFA Graduation Season with a completely new look was opened and for the first time, the graduation season brings the Graduation Exhibition of the Graduate School into the overall framework of the exhibition, and all the graduates, postgraduates as well as PhD graduates showcase their creations during the same period, which provides a good opportunity for the public to comprehensively understand the status quo of art education in the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. Meanwhile, a series of rich campus culture activities will be staged in the next month during the graduation season.
This year’s graduation season is entitled as “Happening and Voices”, as Gao Hong, CAFA Secretary of the Party Committee explained that, “happening refers to efforts of yesterday, leads to good results to bear new fruits, which reflects the inheritance of CAFA teaching from generation to generation: “Voices” means that their future’s growth have made their voices today, which reflects the pleasant expectation from the academy for the future development of all the graduates.
The Panoramic Display Mode of “Great Art Museum”
The Graduation Exhibition is the most important part of the “Graduation Season”, and it follows the panoramic display mode adopted last year and during the graduation season this year, CAFA will also be transformed into a “great art museum” as the space of the entire campus will be made into an exhibiting platform, and the achievements of all the 1394 graduates and what they have accomplished in the process of art exploration during their campus life will be comprehensively showcased. For the first time, the graduation exhibition of the Graduate School has been included in the “Graduation Season” which means that the entire vision of graduation will be broader and it will reflect the various perspectives of CAFA art education on various stages of the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral phase.
May 18 is both the starting date of the Graduation Season this year and the opening day of “Graduate Exhibition 2016”. The exhibition is divided into plastic art, design, architecture, presenting about 1200 graduation works by 376 master students and doctoral students (except for the Theory Discipline element). The exhibition spans Chinese paintings, oil paintings, prints, sculptures, murals, experimental art, design, photography, architectural design, moving image and other media, which comprehensively reflects the research and creative levels of postgraduates over the last three years. In recent years, the high-end art talent education of CAFA Graduate School has made great advances. The number of the graduate students accounts for one third of the total number of the students at CAFA, in respect of discipline construction, the Graduate School of CAFA has formed academic and professional degrees and it has been developed into a new situation. As for this graduate exhibition, Su Xinping, Vice President of CAFA, Dean of CAFA Graduate School said, “as for these works, we cannot comment, but we would like to present them in an objective and professional way, as we pass the judgement to the audience. We would like to receive feedback from the audience and criticism from the community. On June 8, all the 877 graduates of 2016 will demonstrate their achievements in learning over the four years, and the “Graduation Season Night” will also be unveiled which will push the “graduation season” to another climax.
Rich campus activities assist young students to enter society
The graduation season is not just a graduation exhibition, it is more like an art festival, an academic festival. At the launching ceremony, CAFA professors Liu Xiaodong and Yu Hong recalled their memories when they studied at CAFA. The sound installation entitled “Voices” jointly created by all the graduates was presented at the ceremony. The show with both folk tradition and modern avant-garde features highlight the temperament of CAFA that it inherits from traditions and conveys the contemporary.
Two Branding Academic Activities will be held during the graduation season. The Open Classes for Graduates: experts from various fields will be invited to give open classes to all the graduates, to share their wisdom and nourish their lives. Germination: Forum of Venture and Innovation: Renowned youths who excel in ventures and innovation will be invited to give themed lectures, they will provide new ideas for new graduates and an opportunity to share their new experience with their peers. Eight professional schools of CAFA will also launch “container activities” which are the arena of campus activities for various schools, highlighting their diversified performance and artistic temperament. During the graduation season, the academy will cooperate with social agencies to promote a “Recommend Program” and other events, so that the community institutions and enterprises will get a further acknowledgment of the CAFA students. It will also build a bridge for graduates to start their new lives. Further, the alumni day, flea markets, farewell ceremony and the series of high-end graduate academic lectures, forums and salons will also be held during the graduation season.
June 8, the new "Graduation Season Night" will be on the front lawn of the multi-purpose hall of the Academy, teachers and students with friends of CAFA are invited to participate in an unforgettable summer graduation.
Cultivation of High-end Art Talent Entering into the New Stage
Upon the launch of the graduation season, President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts Fan Di’an, Vice President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Dean of the Graduate School Su Xinping jointly activated the Graduate School of CAFA and they announced the leadership team members of the Graduate School at CAFA which means the Central Academy of Fine Arts Education will enter a new high-level system stage. The China Central Academy of Fine Arts has led the discipline of construction into a new era, China has become a remarkable country of education, how to better cultivate high-end talent, this is the moment to think about the issue of the education sector as a whole. President Fan Di’an mentioned postgraduate teaching at CAFA is an important symbol of development of higher art education since the reform and opening up, training generations of art masters, and it has become a symbol of national prosperity and development of culture and arts. And now on the basis of the experience gained, it is necessary to further improve the teaching level, which led to the establishment of the Graduate School.
The Executive Vice President of the Graduate School at CAFA Chen Qi stated that the establishment of the Graduate School aims at forming a series of organizational systems, from the aspects of curriculum, standards and other aspects of culture, it would be better adapted to the new requirements of high-end art talent, which is the first graduate school of domestic art institutions, it should be forward-looking and it will lead the National Higher Art Education towards a new stage.
For the establishment of the graduate school at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Su Xinping, Vice President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts spoke at the press conference, to meet the developmental requirements of the new era, the Central Academy of Fine Arts has made appropriate reforms in three stages of adjustments: enrollment, teaching and graduation. In terms of enrollment, it aims to change the exam-oriented educational malpractice; further encouraging the integration in teaching and sharing of teaching resources, the establishment of the Graduate School is one of the measures to integrate teaching resources; the upgrading of the graduation exhibition into a graduation season, made an alteration in means of display, further developing the relations between the academy and society by analyzing and researching the teaching situation, to promote the construction of a first-class art academy with first-class disciplines.
Text by Zhang Wenzhi and Photo by Yang Yanyuan, Hu Sichen/CAFA ART INFO
Translated and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO
