On 3 July 2013, the School of Art of the Open University of China (OUC) was established. The establishment of the School of Art was based on the OUC’s objective, positioning, and functions of running the school, with the aim of integrating better arts resources, propelling the construction of course resources, and carrying out social art education to satisfy the art education needs of all members of society in every respect, and to focus on offering non-degree education in the arts.

The OUC School of Art was established on 3 July 2013

Teaching work conference of the School of Art

Currently, the school is focusing on curriculum construction. Firstly, the school will focus on constructing art education courses appropriate to the public, including courses for community education, cadre education, elderly education, and a training plan for new-type industrial workers and farmers. At the same time, it will launch a batch of high-quality general education curricula for students in various majors in the OUC. In the progress of constructing resources for courses, it hopes to gradually form curricula in the arts characterized by the OUC’s features. 

There are 13 external visiting professors, including calligrapher Yang Mochun, calligrapher Cai Dali, curator Zhang Qing, oil painter Liu Ye, sculptor Zhong Ma, Chinese painter Liu Xuewei, oil painter Xiao Fei, watercolor painter Ai An, Chinese painter Xu Zhan, art designer Cheng Gong, calligrapher Yang Weiguo, and Chinese painter Zhang Qingzhi.

The School of Art currently has 3 full-time teachers: Tang Yingshan, Xu Hang, and Yang Yao; as well as 12 part-time teachers: Li Yanzhong, Kuang Tianjian, Wang Guochuan, Zhu Zhizhong, Wang Jian, Chen Qi, Song Wenyi, Pan Shuqiu, Zhang Guiyue, Niu Tao, Ren Tianchun, and Zhang Manying

The open university system has a galaxy of talents. The School of Art has recently been gathering data from hundreds of art teachers so as to exert the advantages of the system to further improve quality. Not long ago, the “OUC art teacher team” was opened on WeChat.

Cooperating with Publishing and Media Group to set up the Painting and Calligraphy Art Education Research Institute (PCAERI)

The School of Art contributed to the current creative mechanisms and established the following institutes and organizations: the PCAERI of the OUC, the Studio of Distance Art Education, the Workshop of Beijing Opera of the OUC, and the Research Office of Distance Music Education. 

“Your Arts Network” developed by the PCAERI of the OUC （www.urart.cc）started its online trial on 20 June 2014

Cooperating with Development and Planning Office and Labor Union to establish the Workshop of Beijing Opera of the OUC

Cooperating with Multimedia Press to establish the Studio of Distance Art Education

Cooperating with Chamber Music Society of China Musicians Association to establish the Research Office of Distance Music Education

Inkstone Culture Association strategic cooperative agreement signing ceremony

Since the establishment of the School of Art, the focus has been on statistics and organization of art courses constructed by various departments of the OUC (School of Education, OUC Press, Multimedia Press, Digital Learning Resources Centre and the Community Education Centre). Currently there are 212 courses and 6,874 credit hours available within the OUC’s art curriculum, involving nine categories, including: painting, music, calligraphy and seal, traditional opera, film, applied art, dance, photography, and art appreciation. 

Focusing on course construction is the current priority. After assessing the situation of school resources, the school began to construct 12 courses related to six fields including music, painting, opera, seal, applied art, and art appreciation, among which there were 2,300 minutes of video. These resources were assessed and arranged according to the changing of requirements of people at all levels of society, the development of art education, and the needs of students in the open university system. 

Shooting of the mural course (interviewing Mr. Hou Yimin)

The first non-degree resources construction table in 2014

Shooting of flower arrangement course

Shooting of oil painting course (interviewing Mr. Chen Danqing and Mr. Yang Yunfei)

Shooting inkstone culture course

Shooting of chamber music-string quartet course 

Shooting of inkstone culture course

The School of Art follows “four principles” in the construction of courses: Positioning to attract people and introduce them into arts, inspiring the interests of the public towards various kinds of art, engaging famous artists and masters as keynote speakers, and choosing interviewees that enhance the authority of the OUC's arts courses. The visual design will be oriented to feature programmes in the form of courses that harmoniously combine knowledge and visual aesthetics, this video structure allows for the dissemination of the course via various channels and for multiple end uses.

Shooting of animation course

Shooting of Jingdezhen ceramics art course

Shooting of shadow puppet course

Transforming table for painting of flowers and birds course with small freehand brushwork in traditional Chinese painting

According to the requirements in the overall planning of the OUC and the construction project of the School of Art, the school began to reform existing art courses of the OUC, and organized teachers to refine and divide video resources for 30 courses, customizing them according to use. 

By the OUC School of Art