Founded in 2000, the Nanjing Institute of Visual Arts (NIVA) is located in the Konggang industrial park district of Nanjing, provincial capital of Jiangsu and a famous cultural and historical city. It is 30 kilometres from Nanjing city and 5 kilometres from Nanjing's Lukou International Airport. The Institute's former incarnation, the South China Institute of Photography, was the first third-level photography institution to be founded in China. 2300 students from all over China study photography, film-making, animation, design and 20 other subjects here. The Institute has around 150 teachers and 120 staff members, and has established educational exchange relations with universities in Australia, Korea, the US, the UK and other countries. Every year, over a hundred domestic and foreign experts, artists and scholars come to the Institute on visits and exchanges. Through organizing conferences and film festivals as well as photography, design and art exhibitions and lectures, the Nanjing Institute of Visual Arts (NIVA) is already opening up its campus and moulding itself into a prominent international centre of artistic education and exchange.