June 1–20, 2024
On June 1, 2024, the “World Tree: CAA Graduation Season” was simultaneously inaugurated at eight venues, including the CAA’s Xiangshan Campus, Liangzhu Campus, and Xianghu Campus, Zhejiang Art Museum, Zhejiang Library’s Zhijiang Branch, World Tourism Museum, Quan Shanshi Art Center, and OōEli. It presents the graduation works of a total of 2,868 graduates (1834 undergraduates and 1034 postgraduates) from 20 academic units, as a youthful art festival across the city of Hangzhou and various domains. The opening exhibition and fashion show took place on the evening of June 1 at 7:28pm at CAA Liangzhu Campus. The online graduation exhibition has also been launched on CAACOSMOS.
In 2010, CAA became the first art academy to present its students’ graduation works from all disciplines to the public, in the form of the brand-new “Graduation Exhibition Week”. The feast also aims to recommend outstanding talents to society. The CAA Graduation Exhibition 2019, the world’s largest one, reached beyond the walls of the Academy to the entire city, gathering greater strengths. On one hand, it showcased CAA as an “Unwalled Academy” that integrates internal and external resources; on the other hand, it shared the Academy’s educational achievements with society, to promote the common growth of young artists in line with the times. It has become the most influential Graduation Season in China.
In 2024, the CAA Graduation Season takes “World Tree” as its theme. The World Tree guides us to view the world with the perspective of life and to explore within. Each departure reaches higher and farther, or delves deeper and more specialized. Every action is a tiny exploration welcoming a new life. President Gao Shiming pointed out, “The ‘World Tree’ was once a channel connecting heaven, earth, and humanity. Now, this ancient legend will guide us to understand the world with the perspective of life and understand people with the perspective of nature.” This graduation season creates a broad, cross-disciplinary, and youth-filled art festival that serves as a “youth declaration observing the times, a creative space-time of fusion and convergence, a heritage site of cultural classics, and a gathering place for various futures.”
This year’s graduates have achieved remarkable success on national exhibition platforms. A significant number of works from traditional domains such as Chinese painting, oil painting, printmaking, and sculpture were shortlisted for the 15th Zhejiang Fine Arts Exhibition and the preliminary round of the 14th National Exhibition of Fine Arts, both held once every five years.
This series of events not only presents CAA’s educational achievements and talent quality but also reflects the Academy’s high regard for and active promotion of graduate employment. Looking ahead, CAA will continue to deepen cooperation with businesses, strengthen employment guidance and services, and provide graduates with more high-quality resources and platforms to help them get employed. At the same time, the Academy is committed to pioneering models for innovative talent training, aiming to develop high-quality talents with an innovative spirit and practical skills, thereby significantly contributing to societal advances.
As President Gao Shiming said in his opening speech, “The ‘World Tree’ tells us that our lives are always interconnected with countless others, our branches being connected to each other, growing entwined among the myriad things of the world, which is how one’s personhood becomes enriched. This requires a broader heart and deeper care. We can put together the two poems by Mr. Tao Xingzhi from 1931 and 1946 in response to the call of the ‘World Tree’: ‘The universe is our school, Nature is our teacher, All beings are our classmates, Together we compose poems. Creation is the spring of life. It is not just giving; it itself is the reward.’”
We extend our invitation to all once again: On this Children’s Day, come to Hangzhou to enjoy the 2024 CAA Graduation Season! Let us witness this “World Tree” thriving into a forest!
The exhibition will last through June 10/15/20.
