China is in the spotlight at the Venice Biennale. [Photo/Xinhua]

Venice, the Italian water city where Chinese artists have impressed at the ongoing Biennale international art exhibition, is also home to an art academy where dozens of young Chinese students are preparing to be artists of the future.

"We have more than 100 Chinese students here, around 9 percent of the total number of students at our academy, and they are increasing every year," vice director and professor of history of contemporary art at the Academy of Art in Venice Sileno Salvagnini told Chinese journalists in an interview earlier this week.

"Most of them are students with very high-quality skills," Salvagnini underlined. "They come here with a strong knowledge in all fields of art, from painting and sculpture to new technologies," he noted. "Just to make an example - a pair of them are excellent at wooden sculptures," the professor said.

In order to overcome some language difficulties, Salvagnini said that the academy is planning to organize courses of Italian to support the integration of its precious Chinese students. "I went to China with a few colleagues last year and we visited some art schools. I would like to further strengthen exchange programs with China. Chinese art is booming in Italy," he said.

In fact, with a national pavilion and several China-related artworks on display at collateral events, China is in the spotlight at the Biennale, running between May 9 and Nov. 22 in Venice.

The Venice art academy, the only state art academy in northeastern Italy, whose foundation dates back to 1750, has strong ties with the Venice Biennale, professor of phenomenology of contemporary arts Riccardo Caldura explained to Xinhua.

"Many of our students collaborate to concretely realize some of the works of other artists exhibited at the Biennale," he noted. Moreover, the academy has its own exhibition space at the two-year event.