Introduction to the School of Arts

In January 2022, the School of Arts, Nanchang University (the School) was established through the merger of four departments from the former School of Art and Design—Fine Arts, Music, Dance, and Drama, Film & Television—and is jointly operated with the Department of Art Education and Teaching, Nanchang University.

The School currently offers 4 undergraduate programs: Painting, Musicology, Dance Studies, and Performance. Dance Studies is a national first-class undergraduate program, while Painting, Musicology, and Performance are provincial first-class undergraduate programs in Jiangxi Province. The course “Modern Dance II” has been approved as one of the third batch of national first-class undergraduate courses. Currently, there are over 1,600 full-time undergraduate students. The School also offers 1 doctoral program in Arts Management (a second-level discipline), 1 master’s program in Arts Studies (a first-level discipline), and 2 professional master’s programs in Music and Fine Arts & Calligraphy. It is an authorized institution for training Master of Fine Arts (MFA) students. Currently, there are over 170 graduate students (including doctoral students) and over 1,600 undergraduate students.

The School currently has 133 faculty and staff members, including 114 full-time teachers, among whom are 13 professors, 32 associate professors, 3 doctoral supervisors, and 52 master’s supervisors. Thirty-one teachers hold doctoral degrees, 77 hold master’s degrees or higher, and 33 are young or middle-aged teachers with study or visiting scholar experience in Europe, America, Japan, or South Korea. Additionally, the faculty includes 1 teacher from Ukraine and 1 from Russia. One faculty member is a member of the Ministry of Education’s Teaching Steering Committee, and 13 are recognized as provincial or ministerial-level talents. Six teachers concurrently serve as vice chairpersons of the Jiangxi Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles and vice chairpersons of the Jiangxi Provincial Artists Association, Calligraphers Association, Musicians Association, Dancers Association, and Quyi Artists Association.

The School boasts excellent facilities and comprehensive teaching resources, including a concert hall, chamber music performance halls, rehearsal halls, academic lecture halls, and art galleries. It also has various studios, laboratories, and functional rooms for sculpture, wood carving, animation, dance, Chinese tea ceremony, MIDI, and piano, covering a total area of 20,000 square meters. The school library houses 77,890 books, 3,912 Chinese and foreign periodicals (226 titles), and 359 e-books.

The School values school-enterprise cooperation and industry-education integration. It has established research platforms such as the Gan Opera Culture and Art Center, Sifang Art Research Institute, and Dai Zhonghui Trumpet Research Center to provide research consulting and technical support to industries, enterprises, and sectors. It has also cooperated with off-campus cultural and artistic companies, theaters, dance troupes, television stations, professional galleries, tea companies, and other units to jointly build 18 internship and practice bases.

In the past five years, the School has been approved for 1 Major National Social Science Fund Project in Arts, 4 National Social Science Fund Projects, 1 National University Ancient Book Collation and Research Funding Project, 1 Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Science Fund Project, 6 National Arts Fund Projects, and 67 provincial-level research projects. It has also been approved for 1 Key Research Base (Demonstration) for Culture and Art Science in Jiangxi Province and 1 Research Base for Intangible Cultural Heritage in Jiangxi Province. The School has won 2 provincial-level teaching achievement awards, been approved for 17 provincial-level teaching reform projects, and has 17 courses approved as provincial-level first-class courses, provincial-level excellent courses, and Jiangxi provincial university talent cultivation sharing plan courses. More than 10 courses have been launched on platforms such as Xuexi Qiangguo, Chaoxing Erya, Zhihuishu, China University MOOC (iCourse), UOOC, CNMOOC, and Xueyin Online.

The School has strengthened its international cooperation and exchanges, establishing partnerships with the Trossingen University of Music in Germany, the Lecce Conservatory of Music in Italy, the University of South Carolina School of Music in the United States, the Prokofiev National Music Academy in Ukraine, Kangwon National University in South Korea, Hoseo University in South Korea, and the New York Film Academy in the United States. It has hosted events such as the Sino-German Exchange Concert and the Sino-German Baroque Music Week. Artists from Germany, the United States, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have given academic lectures and concerts at the academy. Faculty and students have been invited to perform or hold art exhibitions in countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, the United States, Mexico, Indonesia, Japan, Ukraine, Botswana, South Africa, Thailand, and South Korea, and in regions such as Taiwan and Hong Kong to actively promote excellent traditional Chinese culture.

The faculty members have received numerous awards, including the “Five-One Project Award” from the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the “Wenhua Award”, the “Tian Han Drama Award (First Prize for Theory)”, the “China Drama Award”, and the “China Dance Lotus Award”. Their works have been selected for exhibitions such as the “National Art Exhibition”, the “Exhibition of Works by New Young Chinese Oil Painters”, the “China Oil Painting Exhibition”, and the “National Youth Art Exhibition”. They have been invited to perform at CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala, Mid-Autumn Festival Gala, and July 1st Gala, and have participated in charity performances organized by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the China Dancers Association, and the China Musicians Association.

Student works have been selected for numerous exhibitions, including the National Art Exhibition, the National Oil Painting Exhibition, the China Youth Oil Painting Exhibition, the National (Dafen) Exhibition of Oil Paintings by Young and Middle-aged Artists, the Wu Guanzhong Art Museum National Oil Painting Exhibition, the China (Xiamen) Lacquer Painting Exhibition, the Nanjing International Art Exhibition, the 3rd China Beijing Modeling Art Exhibition of New Artists, and the National Comic Sketch Show. Awards include the Bronze Award for Performance in the General Colleges Group of the China Dance Lotus Award, the “Drama Award” at the China Drama Festival, the First Prize in the National College Student Art Exhibition, the Silver Award in the China International College Student Innovation Competition, the Special Gold Award in the National College Student E-commerce “Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship” Challenge, the “China Top Dancers Growth Plan” (Top 100), the Third Prize in Group A of the Beijing Electronic Music Composition Competition, and the Second Prize in the 2nd National College Students’ Ideological and Political Education Art Exhibition to Commemorate the 40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening Up. Several student oil paintings are in the collection of the National Art Museum of China. Students have a wide range of employment opportunities and a high employment rate. The School has won numerous honors from the university, including “Advanced Collective in Student Work” and “Advanced Unit in Graduate Employment and Entrepreneurship”.

The School emphasizes forward-looking development, innovation, and application. It unites resources, collaborates on innovation, and strives to build platforms of education and teaching, scientific research and disciplines, and exhibition and performance. It vigorously cultivates high-quality, professional, and interdisciplinary art talents and endeavors to become a first-class comprehensive university art school in the province, with regional characteristics and national renown.