Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts, the former Second division of the Northwest People’s Art Institute, was founded in 1949 and was moved from Linfen City, Shaanxi Province to Xingguo Temple, Chang'an County, Xi'an in July 1949, and was renamed as Art College of Northwest Army & Government University. In May 1960, it was officially named as Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts after evolving from Northwest Academy of Art and Northwest Academy of Fine Arts. In 1994, XAFA was moved to South Section of Hanguang Road, Yanta District, Xi’an. It is the authorized unit which has the right to grant the Doctoral Degree, Master’s Degree and Bachelor’s Degree, it is also one of key “featured and high-level” universities in Shaanxi Province at present.

XAFA has the right to grant the Doctoral and the Master’s degree for three first-level disciplines, artistic theory, fine arts and design science, is qualified to cultivate Master of Fine Arts (MFA), on-the-job postgraduate studied by teachers in universities, and entitled to award the Master’s Degree applied for with equivalent education background, and provides center for post-doctoral studies on fine arts in 2014. XAFA now has 27 undergraduate majors and 15 undergraduate teaching departments (faculties), including Chinese Painting Department, Oil Painting Department, Printmaking Department, Sculpture Department, Public Art Department, Design Department, Environmental Architecture Department, Fashion Design Department, Experimental Arts Department, Art History & Criticism Department, Film, Photography & Animation Department, Arts Education Institute, Basic Education Department, Plastic Arts Department and Special Education Arts Institute as well as 50 specialty direction studios (teaching and research offices). XAFA also has 13 research institutions including Adult Education College, Affiliated Secondary Fine Arts School, Shaanxi Province Primary School Teacher Training Center and other teaching institutions and Art Research Institute, Research Institute of Loess Painting School, Figurative Painting Art Research Center, Cultural Origin Institute, Chinese Art and Archeology Research Center, Higher Education Research Center, Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts China Western Oil Painting Art Research Center, Western Schools of Painting (Chang'an School of Painting, Loess Painting School) Research Collaborative Innovation Center, Information Art and Product Design Collaborative Innovation Center, Art Creation Teaching Center, Contemporary Art Education Research Center, Silk Road Art Research Center and Liu Wenxi Art Research Center. XAFA has 7013 full-time college students, 808 faculty members including 240 professors and associate professors. Among them, There are 2 national teaching teachers, 15 provincial teaching teachers, 4 national “Three Five-Year Plan” talents and 14 teachers enjoying special government allowances.

XAFA has a number of national teaching teams, excellent courses, featured majors, innovative and experimental zones for pattern of talent cultivation, experimental teaching demonstration centers, specialized comprehensive reform pilots, teaching research bases, off-campus practice bases for undergraduates, and demonstration bases for red classic art education. In recent years, teachers and students have created a large number of excellent art works and won thousands of awards in national exhibitions. On the other hand, XAFA has established a long-term and friendly cooperative relation with over 20 internationally well-known art academies and institutions.

XAFA has a library, western art museum, art museum and other institutions, collecting more than 558 thousand volumes (pieces) of literature in paper, over 1,300 pieces of ancient, modern and contemporary calligraphic works and paintings, 368 pieces (sets) of cultural relics from different dynasties, more than 20 thousand pieces of stone carvings, such as hitching post and stone lion, and runs specialized academic publicationFine Arts in West China.

XAFA adheres to the spirit of “arduous effort, a pursuit of excellence” and abides by the motto of “carrying forward beauty and virtue and creating the now by virtue of the ancientry”, continuously follows and attaches importance to such “four traditions” as the history and culture of Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang Dynasties, Yan’an revolutionary literature and art, northwest folk art, contemporary Chang’an School of Painting and the Loess Painting School and “four basic teaching” in painting, calligraphy, history of art and Chinese folk art, pays attention to academic frontier, underlines school-running characteristics, and regards building high-level, featured, “internationally well-known and domestically first-class” art academy as a school-running target.