ACUADS Newsletter

November 2005 – March 2006

The ACUADS Newsletter is an ad hoc publication from the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools. It aims to communicate information about activities of the Council Executive, research interests and events and activities related to the visual art and design sector.

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1. ACUADS Chair's Report

Su Baker, Head, School of Art, Victorian College of the Arts
The ACUADS Executive is charged with representing the interests of the sector and as such concentrates attention on the pressing issues confronting university art and design schools. The record of the meetings below is a guide as to the range of issues that are discussed.

Since the early 1990s when art schools entered the University domain, through the National Unified System, there have been many and varied outcomes, with each art school forging its own relationship within the new institutional arrangement, with a variety of degrees of success. While art schools as part of CAE's were focused on teaching and university generally focused on research the Dawkins 'marriages' forced both sectors into new ways of working.

For the art schools, the shift was towards defining our professional engagement and advances of knowledge in our disciplines into the research mode familiar to the University sector. This is a long and familiar history to the membership of ACUADS and we continue to press for inclusion in the 'research club'. It seems that after much effort by a number of people, the forthcoming RQF process will give a form to the assessment of research activities in the creative arts of which art and design is a part.

The Universities, on the other hand, were expected to re-focus on the undergraduate student experience and the quality of teaching. Fifteen years on these two fields of reform are now pressing on all of us in the higher education sector.

In 2003 the Australian Government announced it would develop a new institute to provide a national focus for the enhancement of learning and teaching in Australian higher education institutions and to be a flagship for acknowledging excellence in learning and teaching. The Carrick Institute was launched in August 2004.

Earlier in the 1990s ACUADS took a lead role in defining the terms for evaluating research in creative arts of publication, etc.

This earlier work has set the scene for the current engagement with the RQF process to be visited on us in 2008. As part of this process ACUADS is again contributing to this process as an invited member in the consultation process.

These issues will form the focus for the 2006 annual conference in Melbourne.

As a sector we are entering into a new phase of professionalization. This may be regretted by some as a loss or welcomed as a new set of opportunities. Perhaps both are true. However, it is in fact the reality of our times and this conference can be an occasion to set out these ambitions and take control of our future.

In ACUADS' 25th year we have the opportunity to take stock of its history and the best strategies for the future.

The conference in Melbourne this year will outline and speculate on the new challenges facing the tertiary art and design sector. The ACUADS Executive looks forward to welcoming all to Melbourne in September and to 'think the future' together.

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Obituary
ACUADS sadly announces the death of artist Noel Sheridan.

Born in Dublin in 1936, Noel Sheridan was a painter, writer, video and performance artist and was deeply committed to the development and promotion of contemporary arts through his roles as eminent educator and gallery director.

He practised as an artist in New York from 1963-1972 and then taught in Sydney University's Tin Sheds for a year.

He was invited to take up the Inaugural Directorship of Adelaide's Experimental Art Foundation in 1973, where he championed new possibilities for contemporary art.

In 1979 he was appointed Director of the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, where he remained until 2003, apart from the 4 years (1989 - 1994) he spent as the Inaugural Director of Perth's Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA).

Through his twenty years at NCAD in Dublin he nurtured an entire generation of Irish artists who are currently practicing internationally.

In four short years as Inaugural Director Noel was able to bring to PICA an international profile through the programs he initiated and the extraordinary artists and performers he invited to Perth.

One of his initiatives still currently thriving is 'Hatched', the national review of the work of graduate artists from most Australian art schools annually exhibited at PICA.

He is remembered for many of his remarkable and ambitious projects, his tireless championing of artists, his vast knowledge of the breadth of contemporary arts and his indefatigable wit, humour and charm.

ACUADS delegates were fortunate to see Noel perform brilliantly as our featured guest at the ACUADS Conference Dinner at AGWA in Perth last year.

On the 12th of July 2006 Noel passed away at his home in Perth, in the company of his loving family.

Congratulations
Diana Wood Conroy, of the University of Wollongong, has been promoted to Professor in recognition of her outstanding blend of research, creative and educational contributions to the university, tertiary art and design sector nationally and her fields of archaeology and textiles.

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ACUADS Executive Meetings
ACUADS holds four Executive meetings and an Annual General Meeting each year. Following is a summary of the topics discussed at those Executive meetings since the previous newsletter: 12 December 2005 and 3 March 2006. The meetings are listed in reverse chronological order.

2. ACUADS Executive Meeting 12 December 2005

The ACUADS Executive Meeting held at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne on 12 December 2005 considered the following items:

Executive Membership
Following discussion, the meeting noted that as there were a number of organisational changes occurring in some states, the decision on an eighth member of the Executive would be deferred until the March Executive.

DEST: Update Reseach Project: Strand Report
It was agreed to approach CHASS with this proposal.

CNZ Report: Professor Elizabeth Grierson
The meeting considered Professor Grierson's advice noting that representatives of the group of four New Zealand Art and Design Schools will attend the ACUADS Melbourne conference.

DASSH Group Application: Art/Museum Collections
Professor Williams reported that the Dean of the ANU Faculty of Arts has been elected Chair of this group, which now also includes New Zealand (DASSHNZ) and that the project has still to be considered.

web site Presentation - Ms. Kirsten Muir, IT Consultant
Ms.Muir presented the updated web site on a wall screen and outlined the various changes to content and format. Members were very supportive of the changes and noted the impressive web site usage statistics. The meeting agreed the web site was a valuable information, research and archive centre.

It was agreed that the web site should reflect both the past and the future and therefore Professor Williams' proposed paper on ACUADS' 25^th Anniversary should be included and that the Constitution be added with restricted access.

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Treasurer's Report
The Treasurer, Professor Williams, tabled the current account summary and noted that the financial position was good. He noted that Members' travel claims should be submitted as soon as possible so that the accounts always reflect the actual current position.

Associate Professor De Clario advised that he would forward the final report on the 2005 Perth Conference as soon as possible and noted that the financial position was positive as they had achieved a small profit.

Annual Conference: Melbourne, September 2006
The Chair, Associate Professor Su Baker, reported that she had had preliminary discussions with both Professors Hoffert (Monash) and Grierson (RMIT) who are co-hosts with the Victorian College of the Arts, of the 2006 Conference.

The meeting discussed timing and noted the possible dates as 27–29 September 2006.

Professor Hoffert advised that it had been agreed that the conference would focus on Research and that the over-arching theme would be Shaping the Future with papers having an emphasis on forward thinking. Associate Professor Baker noted that there would be an emphasis on higher degrees by research scheduling parallel sessions as necessary on days two and three with the pre-conference (Wednesday) addressing broader issues. It was agreed that a tentative program would be written and presented to the Executive for comment at the March 2006 meeting.

The meeting discussed a list of possible Keynote Speakers to be approached once the program was settled.

ACUADS 25^th Anniversary
The meeting agreed that the proposal of Professor Williams to present a paper commemorating the 25^th anniversary of ACUADS as part of the 2006 Conference program should be accepted. It was also agreed that all former Fellowship recipients should be invited to attend.

Annual Conference, Perth, 2005
The meeting commended Associate Professors De Clario and Baker in having the conference papers posted on the ACUADS web site so quickly. It was agreed that the Keynote papers should be published also and biographical details included.

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Visual Art & Design Metrics – Research Quality Framework
The meeting discussed whether they should be contributing to the formulation of appropriate metrics. The Executive understands that the assessment panels have been formed, but the composition of the panels at this stage was unknown.

Possible Projects – arising from Perth Conference
The meeting discussed various research projects currently underway: Professor Noel Frankham's Current State of Art & Design Schools and Australia Council's The Creative Innovation Strategy. Professor Williams tabled a copy of the Australia Council paper as well as the Agenda for the Planning Group Meeting, which is CHASS' Third Research Project: The Relationships between the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and the Science, Technology, Engineering and Medical Sectors.

Proposed ACUADS Policies
The Chair advised the meeting that this paper had been prepared for inclusion on the ACUADS web site and invited Executive Members to forward comments for consideration at the March Executive meeting.

Associate Membership of ACUADS
The meeting discussed Associate Membership which is defined in the Constitution, but not yet included on the web site. It was agreed that the definition should now be added to the web site and that a policy be adopted setting the rate at 30% of the lowest membership group: Under 250 EFTSU – currently set at $654.50. The fee therefore would be $196.35 for 2005/6.

Peak Arts Group Meeting, 2 March 2006
Professor Williams informed the meeting that this second meeting of the peak arts groups, to be held in Adelaide, had arisen from the initial meeting held at the Victorian College of the Arts 10-11 October 2005.

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3. ACUADS Executive Meeting 3 March 2006

The ACUADS Executive Meeting held at the University of South Australia, Adelaide on 3 March 2006 considered the following items:

Welcome by the Chair & Report
The Chair, Su Baker, welcomed Executive members and Guests and reported that the Conference Planning Committee had met 13 February, and Professor Bernard Hoffert advised that the Dean, John Redman, had offered the services of an administrator to run the Melbourne Conference. The Chair noted that the ACUADS web site had been amended and added to as per the 12 December Executive Committee Minutes and that the ACUADS Email Address Book now consists of approximately 400 names divided into five lists: Executive, Heads of School, University Staff, Peak Groups and Organisations and that each would now be uploaded to the Confidential Section for Executive members' use.

Executive Membership
Professor de Clario advised the meeting that he would be leaving Edith Cowan in May, having been appointed to Monash University. The Meeting therefore agreed that to maintain state representation in the interim, Associate Professor Clive Barstow of Edith Cowan be co-opted until the AGM in September.

Professor David Williams advised the meeting that he would be resigning as Head, ANU School of Art in July and taking up a position as Senior Fellow, but was invited to maintain his position as ACUADS Treasurer until the AGM in September.

In light of these changes, the meeting therefore agreed that no further changes be made to the Executive Committee at this time.

Proposed Application: Art/Museum Collections to Deans of Arts Social Sciences and Humanities (DASSH) Group
Professor David Williams reported that he and the Chair had held discussions with Mr. Toss Gascoigne of the Council for the Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences (CHASS) and agreed that an application for a grant would best be directed to the Australian Vice Chancellors' Committee (AVCC) and not to DASSH given the larger scope of the project.

Proposed ACUADS Policies
The meeting considered the paper and, subject to proposed changes, approved its inclusion on the ACUADS web site.

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Visual Art & Design Metrics – Research Quality Framework
The Chair reported that on 9 February, she had attended a Scoping Workshop on Developing the RQF Guidelines at which all major Peak Groups were represented. She noted that the attached two working papers, presented for discussion, were the outcome of this meeting.

The meeting discussed the papers and also the possibility of using the UK system as a basis and refining that rather than starting from scratch. It was agreed that members would download the UK paper and use this to assist them in fleshing out the two Work Sheet papers.

The meeting also discussed making the RQF Metrics a subject of one of the parrallel sessions at the Conference, but agreed that the various Peak Groups may need to be consulted earlier than September. The meeting agreed to wait on the DEST one-day event.

Annual Conference: Melbourne 2006
The meeting discussed the Draft Program, noting that an administrator would be provided by Monash to run the conference and also noting that Professor de Clario, who organised the recent Perth conference, would now be on the Monash staff.

Following further discussion, the meeting agreed on the Conference dates proposed and that: the Preliminary Day (Tuesday) be optional for ACUADS members; a Roundtable session of Educators be held; a Heads of Schools Dinner be held on Day 1 (Wednesday); the Non-University staff and the Administrators be asked to propose their own program to run parallel to the conference. The meeting noted that a further Conference Planning Meeting was to be held on 30 March.

National Review of Visual Education
The Chair tabled a flyer from Art Education Australia and advised the meeting that they had advised it was critical that a numerically strong response to the National Review of Visual Education be achieved and asked members to consider making a submission.

Treasurer's Report
Professor David Williams tabled his Report and spoke to the contents. The meeting agreed that the Annual Subscription fees for 2006 are:

• Schools with less than 250 EFTSU: $660 ($630 – 2005)
• Schools with more than 250 but less than 1000 EFTSU: $935 ($892 – 2005)
• Schools with more than 1000 EFTSU: $1,100 ($1050 – 2005)

The meeting ratified the expenditure on Travel, Web Administrator and Executive Officer Salary, Travel and Expenses since the last meeting.

Expanding Horizons Project
The meeting discussed this CHASS project to be held 28-29 March and agreed to pay $2,000 for the Silver level of sponsorship. The meeting then discussed representation at the event and Professor Frankham nominated Mr. Martin Walch and Professor Lawrence nominated Mr. Andrew Best. Following further discussion it was agreed to invite the two nominees and that their proposers would contact them to brief them on the project. It was further agreed that they would be accompanied by Professor David Williams.

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Sponsorship for ACUADS Web
The Executive Committee approved the Chair's proposal to raise sponsorship for the Web, noting that this would necessitate some form of acknowledgement in the form of company name and logo.

Creative Arts Roundtable, 2 March 2006
Professor Williams reported that he and the Chair attended the second meeting of this Peak Group organised by CHASS.

Professor Williams advised that the Australia Council's Creative Arts Strategy had been discussed but that the main item had been the formulation of a Cultural Policy. Professor David Throsby had addressed the meeting and had outlined a four point framework and had asked for comments to be forwarded on this framework:

• Creativity
• Access and Participation
• Status and Sustainability
• Education and Research

Professor Williams advised the meeting that in the near future, CHASS (Council for the Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences) will need to be funded, possibly by levy, as is ACUADS, and that there had been discussion on which groups were part of their constituency and whether the Arts 'Peak' groups should be defined as all groups who receive grants. However it was noted that this would exclude education-based groups and the matter was unresolved.

Craft Australia
Ms. Catrina Vignando, General Manager of Craft Australia, addressed the meeting outlining the organisation's role and spoke in particular on their Youth @ Craft Project. She advised that she hoped that members of ACUADS would endorse the project and noted that it was live from August to October, 2006.

Research: Art School Heads' attitudes and trends in Australian Art Schools
Professor Noel Frankham tabled a summary of his research and spoke to the paper. The meeting agreed that the responses were interesting and as only a limited number of Art Schools had responded, it was suggested to Professor Frankham that additional questions could be added and the questionnaire re-sent.

PhD. Benchmark Project
Associate Professor Baker spoke of the need to have standardised benchmarks Australia-wide and noted that three overseas art schools had possible suitable models: School of the Arts, Institute of Chicago (SAIC); Rhodes Island School of Design (RISD); and the Californian Institute of the Arts (Calarts).

ACUADS Awards Nominations
The meeting noted that it was now time to promote the Awards by inviting nominations and asked that the Heads of School be contacted.

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