New Center for Interactive Digital Arts Education to Be Created Through Partnership Between Shanghai District of Yangpu and Concept Art House

Online, November 23, 2010 (Newswire.com) - The Shanghai District of Yangpu and international art service provider Concept Art House announced today that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a new institute for interactive digital arts education in Yangpu District, Shanghai.

Situated in the northeast section of Shanghai, Yangpu District is the birthplace of higher education and industry, with 14 leading Chinese universities including Fudan and Tongji, more than 150 research institutes, and 51 Chinese Academy members. Digital Arts and Entertainment are target industries for Yangpu's strategy of innovation, which focuses on high-tech industry development, advancement of knowledge workers, and rapid creation of modern innovation industry clusters.

Worldwide, the digital media sector is one of the fastest growing industries in the knowledge economy, with a projected value of US $2.2 trillion over the next five years. Digital arts are becoming critical to many industries including all forms of entertainment, online commerce, communication, and education.

The partners will work together to create a new educational institute for interactive digital art that will bring the best in education faculty, curriculum, and resources to train the students of the universities of the Yangpu District. This will help grow the innovation and commercialization efforts in this key strategic sector of the new knowledge and creative economy.

"We are excited to sign this MOU with Concept Art House and expect that Digital Arts will be an important innovation cluster within our overall strategy of prioritizing the development of high-tech industries," said Chen Yin, the Party Secretary of Yangpu District, Shanghai City.

"Concept Art House is focused on being an industry leader in digital entertainment, in areas ranging from graphical comics and books, to video games, to feature films," said James Zhang, CEO of Concept Art House. "Like San Francisco, Yangpu District in Shanghai brings together a unique blend of creative, innovative, and technology-savvy people -- exactly the types of people who will be successful in this industry. Our goal with Yangpu is to quickly educate and graduate digital artists to help fuel Yangpu's creation of a digital art industry cluster."

Bay Area Council President Jim Wunderman and Concept Art House Chairman and Bay Area Council Director Matthew Le Merle were witnesses for the signing of the MOU. The Bay Area Council has established a partnership with Yangpu District to help San Francisco Bay Area companies expand in China.

About the Shanghai District of Yangpu

Yangpu District is located in the northeast section of Shanghai, covering 60.61 square kilometers. It is China's birthplace of higher education and industry, having century-old universities, industry, and municipal governance -- a "three century-old civilizations" history. Now, the district contains Fudan, Tongji and 14 other universities, more than 150 research institutes, and 51 academy members. Additionally, college graduates and advanced degree holders account for 40 percent and 50 percent of the population, respectively.

Yangpu District's focus is to create a "university city, and city of universities" through the linkage of university campuses, science and technology parks, and public spaces under the "three zones integrated development" strategy, an innovation in urban development design. The Yangpu District is prioritizing the development of high-tech industries, the development of knowledge workers, and the rapid creation of modern service, electronic information, environmental protection and energy conservation, solar technology, new materials, and innovation industry clusters -- relying on strong universities and their scientific research capabilities for the incubation of new commercializable technologies.

Already Fudan, Tongji, Shanghai Science & Technology, Shanghai Electric Power, and Shanghai Finance & Economics Universities have established five nationally recognized university research parks, three national-level start-up centers and nine specialized science and technology parks to promote the commercialization and industrialization of scientific and technological achievements. Yangpu's science and technology parks have seen the development of more than 3,600 independent innovations and inventions, directly benefiting small and medium-sized enterprises. At the same time, a number of domestic and foreign technology giants and multinational R&D collaboratives in Yangpu have been at the lead of this innovation-based development model.

About Concept Art House

Concept Art House is an international art service provider and original IP developer focused on digital entertainment formats. CAH is a fast-paced company of professional artists and industry veterans -- an energetic and passionate group focused on the work they do for their high profile clients.

Concept Art House is the 'go to' studio when you want your high profile IP assets to shine. The company focuses on 2D, 3D, and social game digital entertainment development. CAH works with owners of popular intellectual properties and companies active in digital entertainment, including Activision, Blizzard, Crowdstar, Disney, Electronic Arts, Hasbro, LucasArts, Sony Online Entertainment, Zynga, and others.

The company Headquarters is based in San Francisco, California. Its Chinese headquarters in Yangpu District, Shanghai include an active education program teaching Interactive Digital Arts to local students.

The senior management team at CAH has decades of industry experience from Electronic Arts, LucasArts Entertainment Company, Shanda, Ubisoft, Ultizen, and The 9. For more information please visit www.conceptarthouse.com or contact Concept Art House public relations at [email protected].