首都师范大学艺术与美育研究院是学校独立设置的教学与科研实体机构，其前身是成立于2016年的“首都师范大学美育研究中心”。北京市教委批准成立的“北京市学校美育研究中心”，设在首都师范大学艺术与美育研究院。
首都师范大学艺术与美育研究院根据国家、北京市和学校发展需要，以适应学校“双一流”建设要求、实施重大成果、重大项目、重大平台建设为导向，着力通过校内外优质资源整合，积极创新美育教学模式，组织开展全校性美育教学；通过搭建跨院系高层次科研平台，组织重大攻关项目培育、交叉科学研究以及承担政府部门或社会委托研究项目等，促进艺术与美育学科融合发展；通过“引育并重”、“专兼结合”等方式，孵化和储备高层次艺术与美育师资，以“特区”形式建设人才高地。
近年来，首都师范大学艺术与美育研究院立足学校教育教学综合改革与人才培养目标，以立德树人为根本，将培育和践行社会主义核心价值观、传承和弘扬中华优秀传统文化融入美育全过程，致力于培养眼界开阔、情趣高雅、文化自信、富有民族情怀和创新精神的全面发展的高素质人才。通过在“中国大学MOOC”开设通识类美育慕课、创办美育本科辅修专业、推广“美育云课堂”及“美育微课”、举办“美育大讲堂”、组织“美焕文心”首都师范大学艺术季，以及开展各类国家、教育部及北京市科研课题研究，主办“当代美育、艺术教育的观念与实践”国际学术会议、全国高师院校美育高峰论坛、中国美学暑期高级研修班、高校美育教师进修班等学术活动，在学术界和社会上产生了广泛的影响，2017年入选“中国核心智库榜单”。
2022年10月，首都师范大学以统筹全校艺术学科建设为主要职责，组建艺术学部，办公室设在艺术与美育研究院。
2023年9月，经国务院学位委员会批准，学校获批艺术学一级学科硕、博士学位授权点，艺术与美育研究院负责招收和培养“艺术理论与评论”方向硕、博士研究生。
作为兼具人才培养、科学研究和人才队伍建设功能的专门机构，首都师范大学艺术与美育研究院将积极探索构建符合学校校情的高水平艺术与美育人才储备、培养机制，不断丰富艺术与美育学科建设内容，努力建设成为教育部和北京市重要的艺术与美育教学、科研基地。
The Research Institute for Arts and Aesthetic Education at Capital Normal University (henceforth, THE "RIAAE") is an independent teaching and research entity established by the University. Its predecessor was the "Aesthetic Education Research Center of Capital Normal University," established in 2016. The RIAAE is also the host of the "School Aesthetic Education Research Center of Beijing," approved by the Beijing Municipal Education Commission.
Based on the needs of the nation, Beijing, and the University, oriented towards meeting the requirements of the university's "Double First-Class" initiative, and aimed at implementing major achievements, major projects, and major platform constructions, the RIAAE focuses on integrating high-quality resources within and outside the university, actively innovating teaching models for aesthetic education and organizing university-wide aesthetic education teaching. By establishing high-level interdisciplinary research platforms, promoting the cultivation of major research projects and interdisciplinary scientific research, and undertaking government or socially commissioned research projects, the RIAEE fosters the integration and development of arts and aesthetic education. The institution also incubates and reserves high-level arts and aesthetic education teaching resources by "emphasizing both recruitment and development " and "combining full-time and part-time staff," building a high-caliber talent hub in the "special zone" format.
In recent years, based on the University’s comprehensive reform of education and teaching and its talent cultivation goals, and taking "fostering virtue through education" as its fundamental goal, the RIAAE has been committed to cultivating high-caliber and well-rounded developed talents with broad horizons, elegant tastes, cultural confidence, a strong sense of national identity, and an innovative spirit by incorporating the cultivation and practice of socialist core values and the inheritance and promotion of traditional Chinese culture into aesthetic education. Moreover, RIAEE has offered general aesthetic education MOOCs on "Chinese University MOOC," established an undergraduate minor in aesthetic education, and promoted "Aesthetic Education Cloud Classroom" and "Aesthetic Education Micro-lectures." It also hosted a series of "Aesthetic Education Lectures," organized the "Mei Huan Wen Xin" Capital Normal University Art Season, and conducted various research projects supported by national funds, the Chinese Ministry of Education, and the foundations of Beijing. In addition, it held the International Academic Conferences of Contemporary Aesthetic Education and Art Education Concepts and Practices, National Aesthetic Education Forums of Teachers Universities, and hosted the Advanced Summer Training Program on Chinese Aesthetics and Advanced Training Program for University Aesthetic Education Teachers. These activities have had a broad impact on academia and society, and, in 2017, the institute was listed in the "China Core Think Tank List."
In October 2022, the Capital Normal University established the School of Arts, with its executive office in RIAEE, to coordinate the construction of the university's art disciplines.
In September 2023, with the approval of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, the University was authorized to confer master's and doctoral degrees in the first-level disciplines of art studies. The Institute of Art and Aesthetic Education is responsible for recruiting and training master's and doctoral students in the orientation of "Art Theory and Criticism.”
As a specialized institution with multiple functions—talent cultivation, scientific research, and talent team building—RIAEE will actively explore the construction of a suitable cultivation and reservation mechanism for high-level art and aesthetic education talent according to the University's requirements. Furthermore, the RIAAE will continuously enrich the content of art and aesthetic education and strive to become an important teaching and research base for art and aesthetic education for the Chinese Ministry of Education and Beijing.
