Academic anxiety is widely documented among university students, but the experiences of art students remain underexamined, particularly in China, where creative work is assessed through a combination of written examinations, studio practice, public critique, performance, portfolios, and comparatively subjective judgement. This study examined the level and profile of academic anxiety among art students in Chinese universities, identified barriers to reducing it, and ranked student-preferred interventions. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was completed by 400 undergraduate and postgraduate art students recruited through university and student networks. The 59-item bilingual questionnaire assessed test anxiety, assignment anxiety, classroom participation anxiety, peer comparison anxiety, perceived barriers, and proposed improvements. Descriptive statistics and Cronbach's alpha were calculated in IBM SPSS Statistics 25. The overall academic anxiety score was moderate (M = 3.65, SD = 0.62) but close to the high-level threshold. Assignment anxiety was the only subdimension in the high range (M = 3.76, SD = 0.70), followed by peer comparison anxiety (M = 3.64), test anxiety (M = 3.61), and classroom participation anxiety (M = 3.57). The most serious barriers were the cost of art materials and tuition, insufficient art-specific mental health services, limited training in constructive critique, weak student-lecturer communication about well-being, and uncertain career prospects. Students gave highest priority to transparent grading rubrics, safe spaces for discussing emotional concerns, and counselling tailored to art students. The findings indicate that academic anxiety in art education should not be treated solely as an individual coping problem. Assessment design, critique practices, workload, support services, and career preparation are central components of an effective response.
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