Founded in 1986, School of Fine Arts is one of the earliest art academies in Sichuan and Chongqing to offer art and design programs. After nearly forty years of development, it has established a distinctive character and regional advantages. Located in the beautiful Libaihe Campus of SUSE, it covers an area of more than 50,000m2, including an art building, an art gallery and a colored lantern and sculpture training factory.
The school currently has more than 90 faculty and staff members, 38% of whom hold the title of professor or associate professor, and 94% of whom hold master's or doctoral degrees. It has nearly 3,000 graduates, undergraduate and junior college students. The school offers four master’s programs: Fine Arts, Visual Communication Design, Environmental Design, and Fashion and Costume Design. In 2014, it was authorized to grant master’s degrees in Fine Arts. It is currently authorized to grant two master's degrees in Fine Arts and Calligraphy and Design.
The faculty and students adhere to the people-centered concept in artistic creation and design innovation, focusing on cultivating applied, practical, and innovative talents. The teachers have led five nationally funded art projects and five Sichuan provincially funded art projects. Teachers’ and students’ works have been selected for exhibitions and won awards at domestic and international exhibitions, including the 13th National Art Exhibition, Bashu Literary and Art Award, Sichuan Provincial Wenhua Award, Peru International Poster Exhibition, Sofia International Stage Drama Poster Triennial Exhibition, National Environmental Art Design Competition, Asia Graphic Design Biennial, etc. The “Folk Colored Lantern Workshop” won the first prize at the 5th National College Student Art Festival. Student teams won the Challenge Cup National Silver Award and Sichuan Provincial Gold Award, co-hosted by the Communist Youth League Central Committee, China Association for Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, and National Student Federation. They won awards for their visual design works selected in the National College Student Art Exhibition and received commendations from the Sichuan Provincial People’s Government. The works of the faculty and students have been spotlighted on national platforms such as CCTV, China Education TV, and Study in China.
In November 2023, the School of Fine Arts successfully became the home to the “Chinese Lantern Academy” . The school has platforms for research and vocational practice, such as the Chinese Lantern Art Heritage Center, the National Cultural Export Base Lantern Art Center, the Sichuan Provincial Folk Lantern Cultural Popularization Base, the Sichuan Provincial College Students’ Off-campus Practice and Education Base, and the Lantern Metaverse Research and Development Center. It has carried out more than 100 research projects at various levels, including the “Zigong Lantern Festival” subproject under the “Festival Image Chronicle”, a major project commissioned by the National Social Science Fund and the “Zigong Batik Art Innovation Talent Training” project supported by the National Art Fund. In the past five years, it has completed projects such as the “Langzhong Spring Festival Lantern Exhibition” and the “Montreal Lantern Carnival in Canada”, generating a revenue of nearly CNY 50 million for research funding. It has won the 17th Sichuan Provincial Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award and the 8th Sichuan Provincial Higher Education Teaching Achievement Award. Three courses, “Chinese Lantern Art Design”, “Art Colored Lantern Landscape Design Training” and “Film and Television Advertising Design” have been approved as the first-class master’s degree courses in Sichuan Province.
Based on the “Zigong Lantern Festival” , an internationally renowned cultural brand, the School of Fine Arts has developed its own unique advantages and cultivated a large number of talents to inherit and innovate the folk lantern art in Zigong and even the whole country. The artists embody the spirit of “652” - "a sense of patriotism, a sense of responsibility, and a sense of self-improvement and pioneering". They uphold the university’s motto of “Virtue and Reason, Striving and Diligence” and the school’s motto of “Cultivating Body and Mind through Artistic Practice, Pursuing Beauty and Virtue”. These ideas are popular and deeply rooted in the Libaihe campus, which is immersed in a scientific, fashionable, modern and artistic atmosphere.
