The predecessor of the School of Arts & Archaeology is the School of Artistic Design&Creation, which was established in 2008. In August 2021, the School responded to the anticipation of the national and local governments and established the first archaeology program in Zhejiang Province, and then renamed the School. It now has four departments: Archaeology, Environmental Design, Visual Communication Design, and Industrial Design. Currently, over 650 undergraduate students and more than 60 graduate students are enrolled in the School. The School has a master's degree awarding point in Design and the qualification for team archaeological excavation, and jointly trains postgraduates and postdoctors with Zhejiang University and other universities.

At present, the School of Arts & Archaeology has two first-level disciplines, Archaeology is a first-class discipline (Class B) in Zhejiang Province, and Design is a key construction discipline of the University. There are 42 faculty members in the Department of Design, 7 are with senior titles, and all graduated from famous universities at home and abroad. There are 16 faculty members in the Department of Archaeology, including 1 provincial expert of special rank, 3 with senior titles, and 7 qualified as archaeological excavation leaders. The School has 2 doctoral tutors and 19 master's tutors; there are also 8 part-time appointed famous professors and national talents, including members of the Discipline Review Group of the State Council and Cheung Kong scholars.

The discipline of Design focuses on national strategic needs, Hangzhou's urban positioning and characteristics, and the demands of economic and social development. Through faculty development, scientific research, service to local industries, and promotion of international exchanges, it aims to build a high-level academic team, develop research platforms, and cultivate innovative and applied talents. The discipline of Design has concentrated on establishing and developing disciplines such as cultural heritage digital communication design, product integration innovation design, and resilient urban and rural environmental design, emphasizing the interdisciplinary development of design with archaeology, culture, and technology. For each characteristic focus, the discipline programs continually gather outstanding academic leaders, accumulate exemplary projects and significant achievements, and jointly construct high-level platforms and research teams with Zhejiang University and utilize provincial and municipal quality resources.

Since its establishment, the Department of Archaeology has closely revolved around the national call, societal demands, and the characteristics of archaeological cultural resources in Zhejiang Province. It sets "field archaeology" as its core, with "urban archaeology," "ceramic archaeology," and "Neolithic archaeology" as key development directions, focusing on team construction, infrastructure improvement, and promoting extensive cooperation with archaeological cultural institutions. The Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Heritage Bureau and the West Lake Scenic Area Management Committee are co-building institutions for the archaeology program. Agreements for external internship education bases have been signed with institutions such as the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Zhejiang Natural Museum, Hangzhou Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute, Ningbo Institute of Cultural Heritage Management Research, Suzhou Archaeological Research Institute, and Wuxi Cultural Relics Protection Center, enhancing the practical ability training for archaeology talents.

The School emphasizes practical education and focuses on the cultivation of applied design talents for the digital creative industry. We have more than 5,500 square meters of teaching and scientific research practice space, and invested 20 million yuan in constructing technical platforms and laboratories to establish 23 teaching and research laboratories, one comprehensive practice base for creative products, and 28 external practice teaching bases. All would help train and strengthen our students’ comprehensive application capability. In the past five years, students and teachers have won more than 500 awards in international, national, and provincial academic competitions.

Aligning with national and regional strategic needs, the School focuses on integration with the industry, and has jointly established the "Cultural Digital Heritage and Smart Design" Hangzhou City Engineering Research Center with BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd. It also hosts the Digital Culture Innovation Research Institute, the Beautiful Hangzhou Environmental Planning and Architectural Design Research Center, and the Liangzhu Civilization Research Center (in preparation). In the past five years, its faculty members have initiated more than 20 new projects at the national and provincial/ministerial levels and set up 114 horizontal projects. 14 contracts exceeding 1 million yuan each, and the total research funding is more than 50 million yuan. In addition, 4 monographs were completed and published and 106 articles were published in high-level journals at home and abroad.