Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts (XAFA), 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 with Marshal He Long as the first president. In May 1960, it was officially named as XAFA 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, as well as 27 undergraduate majors, including including Chinese Painting Department, Oil Painting Department, Printmaking Department, Sculpture Department, Public Art Department, Design Department, Environmental Art of Architecture Department, Costume Department, Art Education Department, Art History & Theory Department, Video & Animation Department, Basic Education Department, Plastic Arts Department, Art Education School, School of Continuing Education, Special Education Arts School as well as Affiliated Secondary Fine Arts School and other teaching institutions. It has 13 research institutions including Research Institute of Loess Painting School, Chinese Art and Archeology Research Center, etc. XAFA has more than 7000 full-time college students, 800 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, 7 outstanding contribution talents.
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, more than 20 thousand pieces of folks and arts, such as cultural relics from different dynasties and hitching post, and runs specialized academic publication Fine 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.
In order to show development achievements of Academy for 68 years, we compile History of Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts (1949 – 2015) to present hardworking and continuous self-improvement spirit of a lot of outstanding characters and teachers emphatically, share the same fate as art development of motherland, express spirituality of youth and brilliance in modern art history, stimulate all teachers and students to make arduous efforts to establish XAFA to be “international famous, domestic first-class” professional art academy.
