Doctoral Course in Fine Arts

The Graduate School of Fine Arts has a single doctoral degree program, the Fine Art program that enables interdisciplinary and multimedia researches in five areas of study. The program revolves around creating works and writing theses to receive a doctorate. During the three-year program, students will be instructed for their studies by the Doctoral Program Committee, an organization consisting of faculty members in charge of the program. The Graduate School of Fine Arts will make a continuous effort to strengthen its system to cope with advanced and interdisciplinary researches and actively contribute to the local community and society.

Aichi University of the Arts, surrounded by a vast green forest in Nagakute City, to the east of neighboring Nagoya City, is a "university of fine arts in the woods." Its fundamental policy of education is to provide "small-class education" based on thorough personal guidance. The combined number of students across both undergraduate faculties and graduate schools of art and music studying in this rich natural environment is at most around 1000.

If it is assumed that artists work is to put their own soul into their performances and works, the fact that there have been a large number of painters and composers since ancient times who have escaped from the urban hustle and bustle to place themselves amid the tranquility of nature to pursue their creative activities tells me of today that it was inevitable and certain for them. The prevalence of the Internet in the present day has given people an easy access to knowledge and information, yet at the same time may have kept them away from the kind of understanding which comes from the human senses and physicality. I think this, too, is where people find the meaning and value of learning art in an environment richly endowed with nature.

On the other hand, our university values connections with society. In June 2019, Aichi University of the Arts opened a satellite gallery, "SA・KURA," in Sakae, in downtown Nagoya City. It is a wonderful space for not only exhibitions but also mini-concerts. The lively art expression activities by our faculty members and students, such as regular orchestra concerts at Aichi Prefectural Art Theater, public opera performances at the hall of Nagakute Cultural Center, and various art courses, are the very core, the keystone of our dissemination to society.