Gao Shiming is the President of CAA  and former Director of ICAST (2007-2023).

Gao Shiming established the first training program in mainland China for curators and contemporary artists. In his role, he promoted interdisciplinary innovation in art, science, and various intellectual domains through a model of integration of science and art. He successively established institutions such as the School of Intermedia Art with the “Intermedia Art Major” (a new major added by the Ministry of Education in 2015), School of Design and Innovation, and the Institute of Network Society, and cultivated the first professional art cohort of Master’s and Doctoral students with interdisciplinary backgrounds in China. He was a pioneer in launching the “Art-Science” interdisciplinary joint Master’s Degree program (a joint degree in art and engineering) and a graduate education program in “Contemporary Art” aimed at international students studying in China’s art colleges. In recognition of his efforts, he has won numerous prestigious awards such as the National Graduate Teaching Achievement Award and the Asian Contemporary Art Contribution Award.

He has long been engaged in research on contemporary art and social thought, and has continually advocated in both art education and curatorial practice for art that is “socially engaged” and “emotionally meaningful.” He first proposed the “Asian Perspective” in contemporary social thought, established the Inter-Asia School, and launched the Modern Asian Thought program (MAT), promoting Asian academic platforms such as the Renjian Thought Forum, Asian Young Scholars Annual Conference and Inter-Asia Biennial Summit. He is the founder of the art education research platform Panel 21: Art/Education in the 21st Century and the China Art Education Forum (Dean’s Forum of Chinese Art Colleges), and has edited and published more than 20 academic books, including Renjian Thought Review and Post/Colonial Knowledge Status.

Gao Shiming is a proponent of constructing visual culture and curatorial projects with culturally Chinese roots and connotations. He has curated numerous international exhibitions including the Shanghai Biennale, Guangzhou Triennial, and Hangzhou Chinese Painting Biennial. He has served as an academic committee member and juror for international art and culture exhibitions such as the Shanghai Biennale and Venice Biennale Chinese Pavilion, and he has been consistently listed as one of the top 100 most influential people in Chinese contemporary art. Gao Shiming, Qiu Zhijie, and Zhang Songren co-founded the Visual Culture Research Center at the CAA in 2003.

Gao Shiming has planned and organized numerous exhibitions, forums, and workshops and has developed a research network on contemporary art and social thought that integrates art, academic, and intellectual circles. As one of the primary architects of the ICAST ideological framework, he has developed unique project-based teaching methods to cultivate critical awareness and emotional perception across the student body.