On June 10, 2017, “The Way of Further Education: CAFA 2017 Graduation Exhibition of Outstanding Works by Trainees” opened at the Aimer Art Museum in Beijing, the exhibition is the first Graduation Exhibition of Outstanding Works by Trainees planned and launched by the CAFA’s College of Continuing Studies, which is a collective parade for the educational achievements in the field of continuing education. It is part of the CAFA “Graduation Season” which is in full swing and it is an effective supplement to academic education.
Due to the restrictions of the exhibition spaces of CAFA, the exhibition is also on show outside the school with a focus on CAFA. Su Xinping, Vice President of CAFA, Yin Ji’nan, Dean of the School of Humanities, CAFA, Song Xiewei, Dean of the School of Design, Yu Ding, Dean of the Institute of Arts Administration and Education, Chen Qi, Executive Deputy Dean of the Graduation School, Wang Zhong, Dean of the School of Urban Design, Bi Jianxun, Dean of CAFA’s College of Continuing Studies, Tang Yongli, former Dean of the School of Chinese Painting, Wang Shujie, former Dean of CAFA’s College of Continuing Studies and Executive Vice Chairman of the Trade Union, Liu Qinghe, Deputy Dean of the School of Chinese Painting, Wang Yingsheng, Deputy Dean of the School of Plastic Arts, Jin Rilong, Director of the Personnel Office, Xu Juan, Director of the Organization Department of Party Committee, Yue Jieqiong, Director of the Silk Road Art Research Coordinative Innovation Center at CAFA and Sheng Wei, Editor-in-Chief of the “Fine Arts” magazine, and other honored guests, teachers, scholars attended the opening ceremony and made comments and formed an exchange on the exhibition works.
Su Xinping, Vice President of CAFA addressed the opening ceremony and spoke highly of the creative level presented by the exhibition. The trainees are composed of artists, teachers and art lovers who were from all levels of society, and people could see the high-quality creative standards in terms of the painting style, usage of material, conceptual thinking, etc., and also reflecting the creators’ fine artistic accomplishment and painting awareness. At the same time, Su also said that, since the establishment of the College of Continuing Studies in 2003, it has always attached importance to cooperation with the community, while the cooperation with the Aimer Art Museum was also an excellent case, he also hoped to continue to get the characteristics straight. Yin Ji’nan, Dean of the School of Humanities, CAFA and a critic talked about the standard for a fine work of art and explained simply that, if people would like to collect a work of art but the artist refused to sell it, this would be an excellent work of art and he was pleased to see many excellent works in the exhibition. Trainees can interact with the mind, society and teachers in the study, rather than instilling the mandatory authority, which might be the true meaning of education. Bi Jianxun, Dean of CAFA’s College of Continuing Studies said that continuing education was considered adult education in the past, which was an historical limitation of understanding and a misunderstanding, while continuing education should be a lifelong education after the college education, the knowledge should be continuously charged with continuing studies in this era of knowledge explosion.
CAFA’s motto is to “Do one’s utmost in the subtle detail and apply oneself to the mass” and generations of ancestors and masters of CAFA have been marking the depth and breadth of subtleness and the mass during our study, the artistic trainees who are from all over the country, gather in CAFA for further study, both to learning technology and through the rigorous scholarship of training to recognize such a height and distance, so as to reorganize the military uniform, establishing spirit in the chaos, exploring the life with the brush, and gradually reaching the artistic state of “cultivation of both virtue and art”. At present, the country also attaches great importance to the training after education, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) once again stressed the claim of the “attention to cultivate students’ lifelong learning and development” in the “Opinions of the Deepening of the Reform of the Educational System”. The further education of CAFA is an active practice in this educational strategy.
The College of Continuing Education is a management department that practices the teaching of lifelong educational ideas and the high-end non-academic education, which has been actively exploring the development of high-end non-academic educational ideas and innovative forms, and has established more than ten featured courses, including the “Jia Youfu Advanced Study Class in the Creation of Landscape Paintings”, “The Third Advanced Study Class in the Research on Chinese Religious Paintings”, “Hue Art in the Contemporary Era – Advanced Study Class of the New Chinese Hue Art Paintings”,“Comprehensive Painting Language Advanced Study Class”, “Traditional Western Painting Language Advanced Study Class”, “Oil Painting Advanced Study Class”, “Chinese Painting Advanced Study Class”, “Lanting Chinese Calligraphy Advanced Study Class”, “Water-Based Material Painting Advanced Study Class”. CAFA is about to usher in its 100th birthday, and the exhibition isa report of the teaching achievements of the academy and society.
The exhibition is displayed at the Aimer Art Museum, located outside the campus, which also promotes the contact between the academy education and society, so that the society and audience can better inspect the teaching achievements. Zhang Rongming, Chairman and President of Aimer Art Museum, also welcomes CAFA holding an exhibition in the Aimer, whose enterprise is to create and express beauty, so that it can also have more exchanges and interactions with art. The exhibition remains on view till June 17.
Text and photo by Zhang Wenzhi, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO
