Bulletin Vol. 10 No. 7 Apr–May 1974

CONT I NU I NG DEVELOPMENT OF THE F INE ARTS DEPARTMENT The Department of Fine Arts of New Asia College has undergone a significant reorientation and reorganization in the last few years and the programme has emerged with a widened scope and a firmer base. Students now have a choice of two streams, the practice of (or studio) art or the history of art. These are mutually reinforcing rather than exclusive, as all majors are expected to have a foundation in both streams so that scholarship and practical work should not become isolated from each other. Concentration upon a chosen stream permits the student to receive more in-depth training than would be possible without this degree of specialization. This year, the practice of art curriculum has been revised, after careful deliberation in the Staff-Student Consultative Committee and the Board of Studies in Fine Arts. Technical skills and techniques will be emphasized in the first two years of the undergraduate programme in both Chinese and Western painting. The final two years will allow students to focus upon one or the other tradition, to formulate new approaches bridging and perhaps transcending both , and to seek new expression in sculpture, print-making or mixed media. The history of art programme now provides undergraduates with a broad knowledge of European and American art movements, developments in Asia as a whole, and the principles of art criticism, theory and history. China receives more comprehensive coverage, with courses covering pre-historical archaeology, decorative and industrial arts (bronzes and ceramics, etc.), Buddhist art, and painting. It is hoped that programmes for the M. Phil, degree in history of art and archaeology, formulated and first presented for consideration this year, will be implemented in the near future. Starting this year, first-year students may take courses from any department and it has become apparent that a number of students are interested in taking Fine Arts courses. To facilitate this broadening of interests of non-specialists, the Department has made a number of basic courses intercollegiate—drawing, Chinese painting, and art theory. The Art Gallery of the Institute of Chinese Studies is also playing its part in the Fine Arts programme. This year, students in the Chinese archaeology course helped in an excavation with the Hong Kong Archaeological Society, and also participated in organizing an exhibition about this season's dig—“Lamma Island, Sham-wan Phase III" . The graduating students will be holding their own exhibition of works at the Gallery in July 1974. Considerable effort has been made to increase and improve study and research materials for Archaeology and Fine Arts at the University. Slides are now kept at the Department in New Asia College for teaching purposes, and will be available for general lecture use throughout the University once they are catalogued. Photographs are deposited at the Art Gallery for research consultation. The University Library has rationalized holdings of books: specialized books and periodicals in art and archaeology will be placed in one location for easier access and better protection. A concentrated effort has been made to provide the University with a strong core of works on Chinese art and archaeology especially, and related Asian arts as well. The goal of this present development programme is to provide students with a sound foundation for work in more diversified fields of artistic or art historical endeavour. While trained in the Fine, rather than Commercial or Industrial, Arts, students should emerge as more than private creators. They should be able to elevate the general artistic standards of the community. Our archaeo- logically- or art historically-oriented students need not remain in academic “ivory towers",but should contribute to the tasks of exploration, comprehension and presentation which will help people of all origins to understand the importance and enduring value of past creations to present traditions. Prof. Hsio-yen Shih, Visiting Professor of Fine Arts Prof. Hsio-Yen Shih was born in China and received her higher education in the United States. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1955 with an A.B. degree and obtained her M.A. in 1958 from the University of Chicago. She was awarded a Ph.D. degree by Bryn Mawr College in 1961 with the thesis: Early Chinese Pictorial Art from the Han through the Six Dynasties. Prof. Shih's association with the University of Toronto dates back to 1961. She was Assistant Curator of its Royal Ontario Museum (Far Eastern Department) and Assistant Professor of its Department — 4 —