THE WESTERN ONION: UWS STUDENT NEWSPAPER
Semester 2, Issue 7, 2006, p. 3
SAVE UWS ARTS!
By 'Save Z Block Collective'
It's no secret that the Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Electronic Arts at UWS have been discontinued in their current form. As a protest of this current state of affairs, UWS students have banded together and established a protest blog called Save UWS Arts http://saveuwsarts.blogspot.com/ For the last couple of weeks the blog has encouraged a community dialogue concerning not only the future of these esteemed degrees but the purpose of art and education in the current social and political climate. A petition has also been established to gather support for the arts programs at UWS: http://www.petitiononline.com/uws6Arts/petition.html
The success of the Fine Arts and Electronic Arts programs are legendary, with former students like Brook Andrew, Raquel Ormella and Justine Williams presently making their mark on the art world. Current students Paul Greedy and Robin Hungerford exhibited recently at Campbelltown Arts Centre and MOP Projects Gallery; former Fine Arts student Sari Kivinen was shortlisted for the recent Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship; while former student Savanhdary Vongpoothorn was one the few Australian Artists selected for the recent Biennale of Sydney.
That's just the tip of the iceberg, as the Fine Arts have produced an impressive honour role of high achieving artists, curators and art professionals over the last two decades. But now the highly reputable degree, which is taught by nationally and internationally regarded artists, is being phased out. Why is Vice-Chancellor Janice Reid not supporting the arts at her own institution when she maintains a presence in the arts as board member of the Art Gallery of NSW, patron for the Kedumba Drawing Prize, and past Trustee for Queensland Art Museum? Why isn't Reid fostering culture and the arts in western Sydney when increased cultural infrastructure has been established to facilitate a meaningful dialogue with tertiary arts programs in Western Sydney? Events such as the ARTiculate Arts Fair are being organised specifically "to showcase and highlight arts practice and issues for artists in Western Sydney - the most artistic and culturally vibrant region in Australia." (Community Cultural Development NSW webpage: http://www.ccdnsw.org/ccdnsw/about/)
The School of Communication Arts plans on replacing the Fine Arts and Electronic Arts with a new Bachelor of Contemporary Art. Intake for this degree has been suspended for the moment however. Head of School Associate Professor Lynette Sheridan Burns and Executive Dean Professor Wayne McKenna have confirmed that it will have an intake in 2008 and are meeting with directors and representatives from Western Sydney Regional Galleries and Arts Centres to help create a professional and dynamic Contemporary Art degree.
But if management is "suspending" intake, we can't help but be concerned that it's all just a smokescreen for the ultimate disintegration of art education at UWS. After countless restructures, offers to staff of voluntary redundancies, and current students struggling to access technical resources, there is no guarantee with the new funding model being introduced in 2007 that the specialised artmaking facilities of Z building (including woodwork, metalwork, printmaking and photomedia studios) will be able to sustain themselves. A current student commenting on the Save UWS Arts blog, writes: “The climate in Z building itself is such that many students have been considering transfer to other Sydney art schools and some have indeed already applied.” Students currently enrolled in art degrees must be ensured the quality they were assured when they signed up for the degree. And future art practitioners from Western Sydney should have an opportunity to attend a tertiary art school in their own neighbourhood if they choose.
Please sign the online Save UWS Arts Petition http://www.petitiononline.com/uws6Arts/petition.html
And keep an eye on updates on the blog http://saveuwsarts.blogspot.com/
Semester 2, Issue 7, 2006, p. 3
SAVE UWS ARTS!
By 'Save Z Block Collective'
It's no secret that the Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Electronic Arts at UWS have been discontinued in their current form. As a protest of this current state of affairs, UWS students have banded together and established a protest blog called Save UWS Arts http://saveuwsarts.blogspot.com/ For the last couple of weeks the blog has encouraged a community dialogue concerning not only the future of these esteemed degrees but the purpose of art and education in the current social and political climate. A petition has also been established to gather support for the arts programs at UWS: http://www.petitiononline.com/uws6Arts/petition.html
The success of the Fine Arts and Electronic Arts programs are legendary, with former students like Brook Andrew, Raquel Ormella and Justine Williams presently making their mark on the art world. Current students Paul Greedy and Robin Hungerford exhibited recently at Campbelltown Arts Centre and MOP Projects Gallery; former Fine Arts student Sari Kivinen was shortlisted for the recent Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship; while former student Savanhdary Vongpoothorn was one the few Australian Artists selected for the recent Biennale of Sydney.
That's just the tip of the iceberg, as the Fine Arts have produced an impressive honour role of high achieving artists, curators and art professionals over the last two decades. But now the highly reputable degree, which is taught by nationally and internationally regarded artists, is being phased out. Why is Vice-Chancellor Janice Reid not supporting the arts at her own institution when she maintains a presence in the arts as board member of the Art Gallery of NSW, patron for the Kedumba Drawing Prize, and past Trustee for Queensland Art Museum? Why isn't Reid fostering culture and the arts in western Sydney when increased cultural infrastructure has been established to facilitate a meaningful dialogue with tertiary arts programs in Western Sydney? Events such as the ARTiculate Arts Fair are being organised specifically "to showcase and highlight arts practice and issues for artists in Western Sydney - the most artistic and culturally vibrant region in Australia." (Community Cultural Development NSW webpage: http://www.ccdnsw.org/ccdnsw/about/)
The School of Communication Arts plans on replacing the Fine Arts and Electronic Arts with a new Bachelor of Contemporary Art. Intake for this degree has been suspended for the moment however. Head of School Associate Professor Lynette Sheridan Burns and Executive Dean Professor Wayne McKenna have confirmed that it will have an intake in 2008 and are meeting with directors and representatives from Western Sydney Regional Galleries and Arts Centres to help create a professional and dynamic Contemporary Art degree.
But if management is "suspending" intake, we can't help but be concerned that it's all just a smokescreen for the ultimate disintegration of art education at UWS. After countless restructures, offers to staff of voluntary redundancies, and current students struggling to access technical resources, there is no guarantee with the new funding model being introduced in 2007 that the specialised artmaking facilities of Z building (including woodwork, metalwork, printmaking and photomedia studios) will be able to sustain themselves. A current student commenting on the Save UWS Arts blog, writes: “The climate in Z building itself is such that many students have been considering transfer to other Sydney art schools and some have indeed already applied.” Students currently enrolled in art degrees must be ensured the quality they were assured when they signed up for the degree. And future art practitioners from Western Sydney should have an opportunity to attend a tertiary art school in their own neighbourhood if they choose.
Please sign the online Save UWS Arts Petition http://www.petitiononline.com/uws6Arts/petition.html
And keep an eye on updates on the blog http://saveuwsarts.blogspot.com/
posted by UWS Arts at 6:02 PM
4 Comments:
apparently the meeting of regional gallery directors was originally tauted as a means for them to come up with a collective response to the closure of the degree programs at UWS. Then Lynette Sheridan Burns and Wayne McKenna caught wind of what was happening and effectively changed the agenda of the meeting in a PR exercise aimed at placating powerful voices in the wider community. Their aim was that all parties produce a joint statement in support of the new contemporary arts degree, an aim which i believe they achieved.
For me this suggests that the groundswell of support from the wider arts community is a powerful force in the eyes of the administrators at the Uni, and that on the level of their own role in these affairs they don't want to be held accountable for the destruction of a arts program that is so highly valued by the arts professionals of western sydney.
But it is absolutely crucial that there is accountability in this process, which is why the question of TVS is totally relevant. in this respect it is we have to look at the overall performance of our administrators. if they are able to throw millions of dollars down the TVS blackhole and yet they can't find the money to keep the much respected visual and electronic arts programs running then we have to ask the question of how competent they really are.
The administrators must be held accountable on all aspects of their work including their PR work with regional gallery directors. if the contemporary arts degree turns out to be a smokescreen, in either the sense that it doesn't happen or that it is completely removed from the current identity of the visual and electronic arts programs at UWS, then the actions of both Lynette Sheridan Burns and Wayne McKenna in their recent meetings with the regional gallery directors must be held up as one of the most reprehensible PR exercises ever undertaken by Uni administrators anywhere.
In this instance it is crucial that those who have the power to make the decisions as to whether or not the visuals arts continues at UWS are not responsible for silencing those groups that could be amongst the programs most vocal and powerful supporters.
in saying all that i am by no means trying to paint Lynette Sheridan Burns and Wayne McKenna as the enemy. yes they are doing their jobs, the point being that they must be held accountable for the way they do those jobs.
In a time when the bar has been lowered, a state we are in now, the dumbest people will win over the bright ones every single time. The RQF comes out on th side of the practitioners but the mediocre will push everything in their path out of the way to take con trol of the pie without really earning it. What they are up to at UWS wont be forgotten, their actions will be documented historically make no bones about it. They shall be held accountable, its every thinking persons ethical duty to do this. They may try to bulldoze twenty years of cultural effort into the ground but we have a voice here. We must maintain the rage. And any one who falls back on blaming the federal govt for this situation alone is naive and stupid.Ironically that RQF result takes one huge rock that art educators and research students in Australia have had around their neck for years - finally an acknowledgement by the feds of the worth of their research which means real dollars.
SMH had an article on the end of the dance course - a sad day for UWS.And yet for years this has been a really strong course.
Just doing their jobs?
SO DID THE FUCKING SS
DID YOU KNOW THAT TOTALITARIANS ENJOY STIFLING CULTURAL DISCOURSE IT IS BECAUSE THEY FEEL THREATENED DUE TO LACKING ANY SOUL OF THEIR OWN
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