National Dong Hwa University College of the Arts

Hualien Normal School (–1992) The NDHU College of the Arts traces its origins to the art and music tracks that were added to the General Teacher-Training Division of Taiwan Provincial Hualien Normal School ( ) after it was upgraded to a junior teachers’ college in the early 1960s. Students intent on becoming primary-school art or music teachers could elect one of the two streams from their fourth year, although the exact year in which the streaming system began is uncertain. A dedicated Music Education Building was completed on campus in 1973; it was demolished in March 1988 and replaced the same month by a larger facility. Work on an Art Education Building followed in 1989, and the new structure was formally inaugurated on November 29, 1991. When the school became the Taiwan Provincial Hualien Teachers College in July 1987, its newly created Department of Elementary Education contained separate art and music divisions—an administrative arrangement regarded as the formal starting point of the College of the Arts. The music division split away as the Department of Music Education in August 1992, followed by the art division, which became the Department of Art Education in 1993. In the same year, planners for the as-yet unfounded National Hua-Dong University (the institution that would become National Dong Hwa University) proposed establishing a future College of the Arts comprising departments of fine arts, music, dance, and physical education. College of the Arts, Hualien University of Education (2000–2008) The two departments were joined by the Graduate Institute of Visual Arts Education in 2000, forming a “two-department, one-institute” structure that met Ministry of Education criteria for a full college. In August 2005 the parent institution was elevated to National Hualien University of Education (NHUE), and the three units were formally grouped as the College of the Arts. Professor Hsiu-Chu Hsu () of the Graduate Institute became the founding dean. That year Professor Pan Sheau-shei (Yuki Pan; ) drafted a plan—never realised—to relocate the College to the disused Jian Tobacco Factory (Hualien Cultural and Creative Industries Park) and to launch a Graduate Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries. NHUE began phasing out teacher-training status for its non-education units in 2005: the Department of Music Education became simply the Department of Music, and in 2006 the Department of Art Education was renamed the Department of Art and Design, the second Taiwanese program to adopt that title. A master’s program in music and the Graduate Institute of Tech Art were authorised in 2007. College of the Arts, National Dong Hwa University (2008–present) On February 1, 2008, NHUE merged with National Dong Hwa University (NDHU), and the College became one of NDHU’s constituent colleges; the former NHUE main campus was redesignated the Meilun Campus. In 2009, Professor Pan Sheau-shei (Yuki Pan) succeeded Hsu as dean after the latter accepted an appointment of Dean of School of Arts at Macao Polytechnic University. A major internal restructuring in 2010 created the Department of Creative Arts Industries, absorbing the Graduate Institute of Visual Arts Education and the Graduate Institute of Indigenous Arts (founded in 2004 under the NDHU College of Indigenous Studies) as two master’s tracks; the Tech-Art Institute was folded into the Department of Art and Design as a graduate track the same year. Between 2011 and 2015 all teaching and administrative units were transferred from the Meilun to the Shoufeng main campus. The ARTS building was completed in September 2021, enabling the College’s units to consolidate under one roof. In 2015, Frances Liu succeeded Pan Sheau-shei as dean of NDHU ARTS after the latter accepted an appointment of Director of Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei. NDHU ARTS has since broadened its academic profile. International tracks were opened in each master’s program in 2022, and the first college-level doctoral program—the International PhD in Trans-disciplinary Arts—enrolled its inaugural class in 2024. == Academic ==