The Shanghai Art College was created by Liu Hai-su on November 23, 1912 at Shanghai Zhapu 7, then known as the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts. Renamed Shanghai Picture Academy of Arts in 1915, it moved to the The Shanghai French Concession and in 1921 was renamed the Shanghai Fine Arts School. In 1930 it was renamed again as Shanghai Art College.
In the beginning there was one subject - Western Painting. In 1919 the first school board consisted of Yuanpei Cai, Jujiao Zhao, Zhen Wang, Enfu Shen, Yanpei Huang and other celebrities. At that time the school established a Chinese Painting Department, Western Painting Department, Handicraft Department, Labor Department and Teaching Department. In the same year the school was the first in China to propose that both men and women be eligible for admission. In 1947 a five-year curriculum was set up.
In 1952 the Shanghai Art College, Suzhou Fine Arts College and the Art Department of Shandong Art University combined to form a new school - the East China College of Art and moved from Shanghai to Nanjing. After 1958 the name changed to the Nanjing Arts Institute.