School of Art and Design of Shanghai Institute of Technology was founded in 1959, known formerly as Shanghai Light Industry College Fine Arts Department, and one of the earliest institutions to cultivate talents specializing in art and design in Shanghai and China. There are two majors at present: painting and design. With a history of over 50 years, the major of Art and Design consists of seven specialties, including visual communication design, multimedia design, interior design, landscape design, industrial design, exhibition design, and decorative design; and the major of painting consists of two specialties, namely painting and watercolor painting.

Currently, there are 71 full-time teachers in our academy, including 4professors, 21associate professors,3 with doctorate degree and 37 with master’s degree.8 of them are graduates from world-renown art schools in the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and Korea. After years of accumulation and development, School of Art and Design has become well-established with Art and Design as the key discipline of SIT and Shanghai Municipality. The school has won local university projects funded by the State, the "085 Project" from the Shanghai Education Commission, and established the “SPMArt Creative”art studio of SIT, which is one of the eight university creative art studios funded by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission. In addition to four key courses and two fine courses at Municipal Education Commission level and 23 key courses at university level, our school also enjoys near 20 sketching and painting bases. The employment rate of students stays above 96% in recent years.

For decades, our graduates have worked all over the country, with many becoming well-known artists, designers and design educators. The design and painting works of previous teachers and students have won national and international awards, including: emblems, logos, posters and mascots of the Shanghai 2010 World Expo 2010,the International Art Festival of China, Beijing Asian Games, National Games, East Asian Games, Asian Skating Championships and World University Games, the Sixth World Football Championship for high school students, the Seventh National University Games and other major projects. Other awards include Membership Award of Asia Packaging Design Exhibition, the World’s Star Award, first prize of outstanding college students packaging design; gold and silver prizes of National Watercolor painting Exhibition, gold prize of Belgium International Young Designers Design Competition, merit award of UK Conqueror Design Competition, silver and bronze prizes of the National Art Exhibition, and merit award of China Interior Design Competition. We have also undertaken design and production of the Beijing Great Hall ballroom murals, Shanghai Municipal Government Building, murals and other major engineering. Some of our teachers are now in charge of China and Shanghai’s academic societies.