Overview
Hubei Art College (Hubei Institute of Fine Arts, HIFA) is a public art academy in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, founded in 1920 by Jiang Lanpu, Tang Yijing and Xu Ziheng as the Wuchang Fine Arts School (later Private Wuchang College of Arts) — the first private art school in modern China. It relocated west to Sichuan Province in 1938 after Japanese bombing during the war, returning to Wuhan in 1945.
The school operated under several names — including South Central Academy of Fine Arts and Art Department of Hubei College of Education — before being established as Hubei Art Institute in 1958. It became an independent institution with the approval of the Hubei Provincial People’s Government and the National Education Commission in 1985, and is regarded as one of China’s three oldest art universities.