ArtoEastFaculty-led programmes in China, shaped with your department
Credit-bearing fieldwork, sabbatical residencies, and research delegations — designed in dialogue with the faculty leading them.
ArtoEast works directly with academic departments and study-abroad offices to design China programmes around your learning outcomes, your IRB requirements, and the documentation your risk-management committees actually need to sign off.
ArtoEast is a cross-cultural exchange platform, not a study-abroad vendor reselling a catalogue. Each university programme begins with a conversation between the faculty lead and the hosts in China — the craftspeople, scholars, archivists, and studio directors whose work the students will engage with. Learning outcomes are drafted together, not imposed afterwards. That distinction matters when a programme has to map onto a syllabus, satisfy accreditation review, and survive the scrutiny of an academic affairs office.
We work with departments running summer field schools, January-term intensives, sabbatical-fellow residencies, and cross-departmental research delegations. Group sizes typically run from ten to twenty-five students with one to three faculty; lengths range from ten days to eight weeks. Our role is to design the in-country structure — host introductions, studio access, language support, fieldwork logistics — and to provide the IRB-compatible methodology documentation and risk-management paperwork your study-abroad office needs to process the programme through standard channels.
The substance underneath the brief.
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Learning outcomes drafted with the faculty lead
Before any logistics, the faculty lead and our programme designer work through the syllabus integration: what the students need to be able to do by the end, what evidence of learning the department wants to see, how the in-country work feeds the assessment. The host studios and scholars are briefed against those outcomes, not a generic itinerary. This is what makes the programme credit-bearing in substance, not just on paper.
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IRB-compatible methodology for primary research
Where students or faculty are conducting interviews, oral histories, ethnographic observation, or material culture documentation, we provide methodology documentation that maps onto standard IRB protocols — informed consent procedures in Mandarin and English, data-handling provisions, host-community agreements. Your IRB office reviews the same kinds of documents they review for any field-based research, in the format they expect.
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Risk management documentation for study-abroad office review
Every programme comes with a documentation pack written for the study-abroad office: vendor onboarding paperwork, indemnification and insurance certificates, in-country emergency protocols, health-and-safety briefings per region, and named in-country contacts on duty for the duration. We have walked this through enough ed-abroad RFP processes to know what your committees will ask before they ask it.
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Direct host-to-faculty conversations, not commodified content
Faculty leads speak directly with the studio directors, master craftspeople, and scholars hosting their cohort — by video before the programme, in person on arrival, and in the debrief afterwards. The conversations shape what the students encounter. Hosts are paid fairly for their time and treated as collaborators, which is why they engage substantively rather than performing a script.
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Language support that allows real fieldwork
Interpreters on our programmes are briefed on the academic purpose, not just the vocabulary. For interview-based research, that means an interpreter who understands what a follow-up question is for and when to leave a silence alone. For studio observation, it means someone who can render technical craft terminology accurately. This is the difference between language support that enables fieldwork and language support that flattens it.
Starting points, not menus.
Each programme is designed bespoke from the first conversation — the shapes below are typical starting points that we adapt to who is coming, what they are hoping to understand, and the constraints they are bringing.
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Faculty-led summer field school in Jingdezhen
2-3 weeksCredit-bearing studio residency built around porcelain fieldwork — students work alongside kiln masters and ceramicists, with parallel seminars on material culture, trade history, and contemporary craft economies, assessed via portfolio and field journal.
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Sabbatical-fellow residency in Suzhou or Hangzhou
4-8 weeksSingle-scholar residency with research-grade access to garden conservators, silk archives, or calligraphy studios, depending on the fellow's discipline. Includes interpreter support for primary-source work and an academic host affiliation where useful.
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Cross-departmental research delegation
10-14 daysSmall mixed-faculty delegation — typically 6-12 scholars across two or three departments — designed around a shared research question. Past shapes have included heritage conservation, urban environmental policy, and contemporary art markets.
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January-term immersive in Yunnan
2-3 weeksIntensive credit-bearing programme in Dali, Lijiang, and surrounding villages. Anthropology, ethnomusicology, or environmental humanities cohorts work with local hosts on documentation projects with IRB-reviewed methodology.
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Pre-honors immersive field study
2 weeksSmaller cohort of advanced undergraduates preparing thesis work — paired with hosts in a region relevant to their projects, with structured observation and interview blocks and faculty-supervised fieldnotes.
What makes the encounter different.
Designed with faculty, not sold to them
The faculty lead is a co-author of the programme, not a customer of one. Learning outcomes, host selection, and assessment structure are drafted in dialogue. Departments that have run programmes with us tend to run them again because the shape can evolve with the syllabus.
Research-grade access to hosts and studios
Our host network is built on long relationships — master craftspeople, studio directors, scholars, conservators. That means access for academic purposes that a commercial study-abroad operator cannot replicate, and host briefings substantive enough to support primary research.
Documentation your committees expect
We provide the risk-management pack, IRB-compatible methodology notes, vendor onboarding documents, and indemnification paperwork in the formats your study-abroad office and academic affairs office already work with. No bespoke chasing on your side.
Transparent on cost and on host compensation
Programme costs are itemised — host honoraria, interpreter fees, in-country logistics, our design and coordination fee — so your procurement team can see exactly what each line funds. Hosts are paid fairly and the rate is visible.
Built for accreditation review
Programme documentation is written assuming it will be read by an accreditation reviewer, not skimmed by a prospective student. Learning outcomes, contact hours, assessment evidence, and host qualifications are stated cleanly enough to be cited in a self-study.
The things universities usually need to know.
Are you an approved vendor, and what does onboarding look like?
We complete standard university vendor onboarding — W-8BEN or equivalent tax forms, insurance certificates, indemnification language, COI disclosures, and any institution-specific supplier questionnaires. Most onboarding cycles take two to four weeks. We are happy to be added to your study-abroad office's approved-vendor list and to respond to ed-abroad RFPs.What insurance, indemnification, and liability coverage do you carry?
We carry general liability and professional indemnity cover appropriate to in-country programme delivery, and we name the institution as additional insured on request. Our documentation pack includes certificates of insurance, indemnification clauses for review by your general counsel, and the in-country emergency protocols your risk-management committee will want to see.Can the programme be credit-bearing under our existing accreditation?
Yes — we design contact hours, assessment structure, and learning-outcome evidence to fit the credit model your registrar and accreditation review use. The faculty lead remains the instructor of record. We provide the supporting documentation; the credit assignment sits with your institution, as it must.How do you handle primary research and IRB requirements?
Where students or faculty conduct interviews, ethnographic observation, or any human-subjects research, we provide methodology documentation written for IRB review — bilingual informed consent, data-handling protocols, host-community agreements. Your IRB office reviews it on their normal timeline. We do not proceed with research components until IRB clearance is in place.What in-country support is provided if something goes wrong?
Every programme has a named in-country lead on duty for the full duration, a 24-hour contact line, and pre-briefed protocols for medical, legal, and safeguarding incidents. We coordinate with your study-abroad office's existing emergency channels and provide an incident report within 24 hours of any escalation. Documentation is shared in advance for risk-committee review.
If you're scoping a faculty-led programme, drafting an ed-abroad RFP, or weighing a sabbatical-fellow residency for the coming cycle, we'd rather start with a conversation than a brochure. Send the brief — learning outcomes, departmental context, the constraints your study-abroad office is working within — and we'll respond with a shaped proposal and the documentation your committees need to review it properly.