NiTRO + Creative Matters

Perspectives on creative arts in higher education

Edition 26, 2020 – Plus ca change Plus c’est la même chose?

Plus ca change Plus c’est la même chose?
By Dr Jenny Wilson — “Change” is defined as the act of transforming or making something different from what would have been if left alone. In academia we are in a constant state of change. Things are always transforming – small wins here, steps back there – like a giant snakes and ladders board that can mask the bigger longitudinal picture.
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Cultural leadership versus ‘business as usual’
By Associate Professor Lizzie Muller — It will be “business as usual” for arts policy and funding, said Paul Fletcher[1] Federal Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, commenting on the disappearance of the word “arts” from the title of his government department. A statement that anyone interested in the quality of life in Australia should not find reassuring.
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An Art School of the 21st Century
By Steven Alderton — In 2022, the National Art School in Sydney will celebrate 100 years on the site of the former Darlinghurst Gaol, where the tall, convict-built stone walls date from 1822 and the first prisoners arrived in 1841.
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Art Schools for Fire Relief raises more than $100,000 for recovery charities
By Paul Dalgarno — Artists and art lovers flocked to the Art Schools for Fire Relief opening night at the Margaret Lawrence Gallery on 30 January, 2019. More than $100,000 has been raised for Wildlife Victoria and the Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund in an art exhibition hosted by the Victorian College of the Arts at the Margaret Lawrence Gallery.
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Changing Rooms: revisiting the essential idea of ‘studio’
By Professor Paul Gough — I’m back in the UK, back here after a really memorable and innovative time at RMIT University; six deeply enjoyable and action-filled years as head of a college crammed with all the creative industries including the oldest School of Art in Australia, with its exquisite studio-based activities in gold and silversmithing, and innovative research and galleries that stand comparison with anything on the global stage.
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Working with Change: culture, complexity and counter-action
By Associate Professor James Oliver
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A response to the Bushfires of 2019-20
By Associate Professor Kim Cunio — In Canberra no-one is saying Happy New Year. It is not that we have lost our manners but that it seems somehow immoral to talk so lightly when we have been encircled by the suffering of others in a never ending Summer of bushfire. There was more.
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Artistic Research and Film Practice in Europe: Stockholm University of the Arts, 22 January 2020 – A Report
by Professor Herman Van Eyken — In the Scandinavian countries, Artistic Research is often defined as the creation of an original work of art in combination with a critical reflection on the process of creation, and publication is when the art work meets an audience and the critical reflection is disseminated to the broader community of artists in the field.
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Ch-ch-ch-ch—Changes…
Dr Julia Prendergast and Professor Craig Batty — We are thrilled to contribute to this NiTRO edition focusing the theme of Change. In this article we consider the theme as it relates to the activities of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP), the peak academic body representing the discipline of creative and professional writing in Australasia.
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Some predictions about the future of research in Australia’s Higher Education Sector
By Dr Tim Cahill — It is accepted that Australian universities run research at a loss, with research cross-subsidised from student fees. Across the sector this results in around a $4.1b difference between research revenue and research expenditure, or about 42 per cent of research which is funded from non-research revenue.[1]
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