The art education at CUPL began in early 1960s. Art teachers at that time organized an Art Troupe, a Drama Club and provided Calligraphy courses, etc. The Institute of Art was then officially established in 2001, under the Faculty of Humanities and started to provide general art courses such as “Fine Arts Appreciation” and “Music Appreciation”. More systematic music and art education at CUPL have been developed since then.
Since the establishment of the institute, faculty members have set up nearly 40 general art courses, 27 of which are regular courses available every year. These courses includecore and major coursesof general education (such as “Introduction to Chinese Civilization” , “Artistic Culture and Art Appreciation” and “Chinese and Foreign Classic Music”), online courses and some elective courses as well. These courses contribute to the perfection of Humanities education at CUPL. They are very popular among students, and nearly 5,000 students take these courses per year.
In recent years, the institute has made progress in many aspects such as teaching staff recruitment and training, curricula development, and teaching quality. In 2018, we established the Art Education Development Center of CUPL in order to promote discipline development and aesthetic education. There are currently 8 faculty members in the institute, including 3 professors, 3 associate professors and 2 lecturers. Their professional background covers many fields, including painting, Chinese calligraphy, vocal music, instrumental music and so on.
In recent years, our teachers have hosted more and more research projects funded by the National Social Science Fund of China, the Ministry of Education and Social Science Foundation of Beijing and so on. The number of high-quality academic papers published in the core journals has increased sharply.On June 22nd, 2019, the institute held a conference on general education of fine arts history and fine arts appreciation in colleges and universities with the title “The Aesthetic Education and Humanities Cultivation”.
TheInstitute of Art is responsible for the training of postgraduate students majoring in Aesthetic. We also try to establish a systematic, diversified curriculum for undergraduate students, with Chinese and foreign classic arts as the main content, and well-integrated with core courses of general education and general selective courses.
Extracurricular activities are an important approach of art education. All teachers of the Institute of Art actively participate in providing guidance for student during their artistic activities, and carry out all kinds of extracurricular teaching activities. For example, Sun He has been the tutor for our students in the Beijing Calligraphy Contest for College Students for many times, and has won the “Excellence Tutor Award” 4 times. Under the guidance of Wang Li, Gao Wenting and Kang Chenyu, the chorus of CUPL participated in many competitions and performances, and won many prizes, such as the first place of “Singing and smiling: chorus pioneer (Season 2)” in 2014, which was held by the CCTV Music Channel and silver medals of the Chorus Competition of Beijing University Students Art Festival (2016, 2018).
