China Academy of Art

China Academy of Art, also translated as China National Academy of Fine Arts, was founded in Hangzhou in 1928 by the government of the Republic of China and the renowned educator Cai Yuanpei. It was the first art university and first graduate school in Chinese history. In 2016, the Academy had been approved to be jointly-administrated by Zhejiang Provincial Government, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Culture. It is a Chinese state Double First Class University Plan university.At the time, China Academy of Art's goal was to promote fine arts education as a replacement for religion in the then war-torn China. Fine arts has been held as equal to a religion at the institution for over nine decades. The academy has many renowned artists as its alumni and is considered one of the most prestigious art institutions in the country. It is colloquially called Guomei.