CAFA and KEDGE BS inaugurate the new campus of the Sino-French Institute of Arts and Design Management in Shanghai

On Sunday 4 December, in the new district of Pudong, Shanghai, President of the China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), FAN Di'an, KEDGE BS Director General and Dean, Thomas Froehlicher, and the Chinese Ministry of Education and Municipality of Shanghai officially inaugurated the new Sino-French Institute (IFC) campus dedicated to Arts and Design Management in the presence of representatives of the French Embassy in China and many guests.

Historically based in Beijing, the administrative capital of the People's Republic of China, the Academy of Fine Arts of China has decided to set up the Sino-French Institute of "Arts and Design Management" in a new district of Shanghai, the economic capital of the country, by Dishui Lake in the Lingang area.

With a surface area of 35,000 m², more than 25,000 m² of which is built, the IFC Arts and Design Management campus will accommodate 1,200 students who will benefit from high-level teaching equipment, an art gallery for exhibitions and an art library. The amount invested is 171,360,000 yuans (23,446,983 euros), fully funded by the People's Government of the new Pudong District. Construction of the buildings began on 27 April 2012 and lasted four years. The buildings were designed by the French architectural agency "Architecture Studio".

According to Thomas Froehlicher, Director General and Dean of KEDGE BS, "the inauguration of this Sino-French Institute is the culmination of an innovative project that was born of the Chinese desire to direct its economy towards fashion, design, visual arts and the creative industries in general. For KEDGE BS, this is also recognition of our expertise in this field and our successful experience with our first Sino-French Institute set up in Suzhou in 2010.”

Thanks to its Creative Industries Culture Research Center, KEDGE Business School can offer an innovative programme, unique in the world, for the Sino-French Institute of Arts and Design Management, providing all applied management courses in the field, and working closely with partners of excellence each bringing their own expertise: CAFA, the Central Academy of Fine Arts (History of Art, Art Theory, Applied Arts and Design), Paris-Sorbonne University (History of Art and Museology), the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris - ENSAD (Design).

In all, for the French part, in the Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Management delivered by KEDGE Business School, 37 teachers will give 52 courses in management of visual arts, heritage, museums, cultural industries, design and creativity. Places in the Master's degree in heritage and art market of Paris-Sorbonne and a Master’s degree in design at ENSAD will also be open to students. The Creative Industries & Culture Research Center will work with the programmes of many French artistic partners and cultural institutions, including the Musée d'Orsay, while CAFA will partner with the Chinese world of art and design. This opportunity for students to be fully immersed in the industry will round out the curriculum to meet the central objective of the programme : to train future managers of art, design and culture in China.

In the first school year, scheduled to begin in September 2017, 80 students will be admitted on a five-year programme : the first 2 years in China, 3^rd year in France, 4^th year in China and 5^th year in France. At the end, they will be granted a double diploma in both Chinese and French at Bachelor and Master level.

The inauguration ceremony also hosted a delegation from the American Alliance of Museums. Representatives of the MET and MoMA of New York and the Art Institute of Chicago expressed their willingness to collaborate with the China Central Academy of Fine Arts and French schools on courses, internships and exhibition exchanges.

On 30 June 2016, after the signing of a cooperation agreement on 29 January 2015 at the Great Hall of the People at Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in the presence of the French and Chinese Prime Ministers, KEDGE BS and CAFA incorporated two other French partners at the IFC of Arts and Design Management : Paris Sorbonne University and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs.