Wuhan UNESCO City of Design
Located in the heartland of China, Wuhan is a large city of 10.76 million inhabitants and the capital of Hubei province. Famous for its 3,500 years of cultural history, the city is the cradle of urban civilisation in the Yangtze River basin and the oriental tea harbour of the ancient Tea Road. Wuhan is known for its expertise in bridge and high-speed rail engineering, resilient urban planning and high-tech industries. Creative industries represent an important mainstay of the local economy, accounting for 7.47% of the city’s GDP.
Creative design is at the core of Wuhan’s cultural agenda, which includes the large-scale Wuhan Design Biennale, focusing on cross-cutting approaches between art and technologies. The city also hosted the first New Media, Animation and Game Expo in China, establishing a key cooperation platform for Chinese, Japanese and Korean experts and professionals. Wuhan also hosted the 10th International Garden Exhibition on landscape design.
Wuhan continuously introduces programmes to create a conducive environment for creative designers, including the Qingtong Plan, which has supported young creative entrepreneurs by establishing 73 dedicated districts and 217 incubators. The City has also effectively implemented a plan to transform Wuhan into a city of creative design, to accelerate the development of creative industries and give a new momentum to economic growth based on culture and innovation.
Hubei Institute of Fine Arts
Hubei Institute of Fine Arts (HIFA) is the only top institution of higher learning in fine arts in central China. As one of China’s earliest art colleges, HIFA is an important cradle of modern higher art education in the country. Over the past years, HIFA has developed an “inclusive” academic spirit and the “compatible and interactive” teaching principle, cultivating generations of outstanding students who are in sincere pursuit of “Morality, Academic Progress, Action and Beauty” and dedicate their talent to the society, making unique contributions to the development of fine arts in China.
