Since its establishment in 1949, Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts (XAFA) has been one of eight major specialized fine art institutes and the only art institution of higher learning in the Northwest China. XAFA has made great achievements in school running, become well-known nationwide, and gathered and cultivated a large number of excellent arts talents. Numerous artists and fine arts educators, represented by Wang Ziyun, Zhao Wangyun, Shi Lu, Liu Mengtian, Wang Zhanfei, Chen Qi’nan, Liu Wenxi, Zheng Naiguang, Luo Ming, Fan Wenjiang, Li Xiqin, Yang Lizhou, Yang Xiaoyang, Wang Shengli and Guo Xianlu, had sowed the seeds of art and left their trails of cultivation here.

Over recent years, comprehensive capacity and academic level of our faculties rank the top among fine arts colleges and universities in China. XAFA has always given priority to progress concerning faculties and talent development, stuck to the guideline for talent cultivation “with discipline construction as a flag, development promotion as a fundamental starting point, reasonable allocation and effective development and utilization of faculties resources as a focus, comprehensive improvement of teachers’ quality as a core, and cultivation of young and middle-aged academic leaders and core teachers as the key point, faculties are built with high competitiveness in such a way as to be consistent with school-running thoughts of XAFA, suitable for discipline construction and adaptive to career development of XAFA, attaching equal importance to cultivation, introduction, stabilization and improvement, introduced systematic management method for discipline (academic) leaders and academic backbone team construction, defined echelon construction and improved tumbling-type cultivation. Through years of efforts, XAFA has formed a high-level teachers group with reasonable mix, high overall qualification, plentiful academic works, active thinking in arts, humanistic spirit and innovative spirit. Those teachers enjoy a high reputation and gain fame in art circle and fine arts education circle at home and abroad and highly appeal to students. There are full-time teachers in XAFA, including 65 professors and 175 associate professors. Teachers with a master's degree account for 72.81% of all teachers and those with a PhD account for 7.66%. Among full-time teachers, there are 18 doctoral supervisors (excluding part-time doctoral supervisors) and 108 master supervisors. XAFA has accumulatively cultivated 2 nationwide distinguished teachers, 15 distinguished teachers in Shaanxi Province, 4 people meeting “three-five requirements for talents”, 7 experts with outstanding contributions, 14 people entitled to special government allowance, 1 excellent returnee, 1 top talent in key section in Shaanxi Province, 1 person entitled to “allowance for talents in Sanqin, 2 rising stars among young technicians in Shaanxi Province, 1 nationwide outstanding person in teacher's ethics, 5 outstanding persons in teacher's ethics in Shaanxi Province, 1 model for teacher's ethics in Shaanxi Province, 2 excellent workers in Shaanxi Province and 1 excellent teacher in Shaanxi Province. A teacher team, where young and middle-aged people are the majority, has basically formed with high professional title and high degree.