Australian Art School Education – My Perspective

There have been many changes in education as a whole in the past 20 years, and of particular interest is the state of university based art-schools.  These are my comments about the art schools within the university system, based on the interviews with the Heads of the University of Tasmania’s School of Art, Griffith University’s Queensland College of Art, and the Curtin University of Technology, School of Art and Design featured in NAVA QUARTERLY, December 2009, 09.4 Learning (pp.4-7) titled “Australian Art School Education:  3 Perspectives” written by Tamara Winikoff.

From a student’s and educational point of view, the changes to the Queensland College of Art is that there is now the flexibility to study the subjects you want to study (in theory anyway) which is a  fantastic idea, allowing students to complete part of a design and business degree, which could be utilised to turn their idea “… into businesses” (p.5).  It is however only part of the story, and if students wanted to get a job, they would need to go on to a Masters degree to complete the particular path they want to specialise in, which is a big turnoff from a students perspective, as it means time out of your life, and your reward is a huge HECS debt.

The whole ethos of education is to churn out employees.  Yet 2010 and beyond is the start of a new era where creativity in design, combined with some good old fashioned common sense, might help to get humanity to start to build a sustainable future, with an economic system that is honest, but still allows the entrepreneur to bring to market products that change our world for the better.  Introducing arts into the national curriculum is a start which means Australians will “… end up more of a European type culture where the majority of the population comes to appreciate good design, and come to appreciate the importance of the arts in the community …” (p.6) and that we might catch up and perhaps one day overtake “… those countries that consistently outperform us in innovation …” (p.7)

However getting back to the crux of the question, I personally believe you will be severely disadvantaged and short-changed if you attend university if you want to go specifically to Art School to learn how to be a painter.  You will be taught how to develop “… intellectual conceptual skills, the capacity to think, problem solve, communicate, advocate, challenge, question, through processes of making.  Whether it results in a finished artwork is much less important …” (p.4).

These ideals are in and of themselves noble pursuits, however I’m particularly starting to question the role of talent, as unfortunately technology has spawned the use of enablers and wannabe’s.  With QUT’s creative industries terminology wrapped up in a “… mausoleum of rhetoric …” (p.7), is it little wonder the rubbish produced could even be termed art and entered into an art competition? For instance, take the presitigious 2009 Stan & Maureen Duke Gold Coast Art Prize.  Upon entering the room we were greeted by the Exhibition host who told us not to stand on the thing that looks like a stage, because its actually ” … one of the artworks on display”.  Now when someone has to TELL me that an object is a piece of art there is something wrong.  Anyone with reasonable common sense can tell the difference between art and furniture.  It is akin to shoe shine boys giving stock tips just before the Great Depression.  It tells me that the pendulum has swung too far, and I believe change is imminent.

I’m starting to think that people have lost their minds?  Surely after the Great Contemporary Art Bubble burst, people would start to realise that paintings produced in a manufacturing environment, aka Damian Hirst and China’s manufacturing arm, supported by Interior Design shops/galleries that import paintings from China and then mark them up 400-500%, have infiltrated the heart of what the dictionary describes as art.

Back in 1993, the first year that Queensland College ofArt amalgamated with Griffith University, I spent two years studying printmaking as my minor (Painting was my major) all because the ceramics class was booked out by students majoring in photography, and now I have a HECS debt, a proportion of which was of absolutely no use to me, courtesy of the Federal Government.  It did however teach me an important lesson, Art School as we knew it, was in decline.

Looking back almost twenty years, I have seen the Queensland College of Art, which had a great reputation, fall into disrepair.  Now folios have disappeared, replaced by entrance scores with courses that have twice as many students, half as many staff, even less contact hours and an ever decreasing budget.  However, as I can attest, the arts can attract some of the best thinkers in our society, those in the medical profession and the sciences, as QCA have “… some of the highest entrance scores in the university.” (p.6)  For the moment though, that leaves some very capable people perhaps being denied places in favour of people who fit the university’s academic outcomes.  The problem with tests, particularly academic tests, is that they don’t take into account emotional intelligence, which I have found is THE most important component in any endeavour.

Arrogance mixed with ignorance can be dangerous and is a barrier to learning, combined with greed and narcissitic (egotistical) decisions bring you things like black spots on our highways.  To cite an example building the turning lane of the Logan Motorway onto the right hand fast lane of the Ipswich Motorway, causing the Motorway to back up as people slow down to make the turn safely.  Duh …!  How come we spend so much money making mistakes, that with a bit more listening and a little bit more thinking, someone in authority would have noticed that that was a bad design idea?

Lets hope that 2010 is the beginning of the decade where we start to think a little more about the consequences of our actions.  The concept of universities was designed and supported by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle to teach thinking and wisdom, and finding wisdom through the arts, is one of the last bastions of the thinking mind.