The 2025 Tsinghua International Conference on Art & Design Education (ICADE 2025), hosted by Tsinghua University and organized by the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, the Tsinghua Arts and Design Institute in Milan, and the China-Italy Design Innovation Hub, was recently held in Milan, Italy.

Under the theme Future Context: A New Paradigm for Art and Design Education, the conference brought together over one hundred participants, including deans, professors, scholars, and industry representatives from both domestic and foreign art and design institutions. The conference featured eight keynote speeches, two leaders’ roundtables, four thematic forums, two parallel seminars, and a series of international art and design workshops. Participants engaged in deep cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural dialogue, shared insights spanning from theory to practice, and collectively explored the evolution and transformation of art and design languages in the AI era—reflecting on how to reconstruct educational paradigms within this emerging context.

Participants gather for a group photo during the opening ceremony

At the opening ceremony, remarks were delivered by Qin Chuan, Party Secretary of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University; Anna Barbara, dean of POLI.design, Politecnico di Milano; Dalia Gallico, executive vice president of the World Olymp’Arts Council; Lorenzo Imbesi, president of CUMULUS; and Wu Jian, head of Haier Innovation Design Center. A letter of congratulation was sent by Wu Qiong, dean of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University. The ceremony was hosted by Shi Danqing, vice dean of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University.

The morning keynote sessions featured presentations by Anna Barbara, Rebecca Wright, dean of S School, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London; Rachel Dickson, deputy director of The Glasgow School of Art; and Qin Chuan. In the afternoon session, keynotes were delivered by Francesco Zurlo, head of the School of Design at Politecnico di Milano; Yang Dongjiang, chair of the Academic Committee of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University; Kun-Pyo LEE, dean of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design; and John Ochsendorf, founding director of the MIT Morningside Academy for Design.

During the roundtable discussions, participants exchanged perspectives on two central themes: The Future Mission of Design: Interdisciplinary Education and Global Challenges; and, The Coordinates of Institutions within the Contemporary Context.

The second day of conference featured the thematic forums and parallel seminars within diverse disciplinary and industrial contexts. Experts and scholars from fields including spatial environments, fashion design, industrial design, information design, and intelligent manufacturing engaged in dialogues around the following topics: Rhetorical Translation: Aesthetic Resonance Across Cultures; Dual Subjects: Human-Machine Collaboration and Interdisciplinary Integration; Sensorial Verbs: Designing Through Bodily Experience; and, Plural Space: The Narrative Tension of Multi-dimensional Experience.

Conference participants during the RE-ACTOR International Art & Design Workshops

Concurrently, the RE-ACTOR International Art & Design Workshops took place, focusing on the theme AI Protocols for New Space: Embodied Experiences and Ritual Habitats. Speakers delivered specialized presentations exploring this concept in depth.

Editor：Li Han