Queensland College of Art

The Queensland College of Art (QCA) is a specialist arts and design college located in South Bank, Brisbane, and Southport, Gold Coast Australia. It was founded in 1881 and is the oldest arts institution in Queensland.

Current enrolment is approximately 1,000 across in subjects including fine arts, animation, graphic and interior design, and photojournalism. The College is part of Griffith University.

History

19th century

The beginnings of the Queensland College of Art are not clearly defined. A School of Arts was established in Brisbane's Queen Street in 1849 but while drawing may have been taught there, there does not appear to have been a formal curriculum.

In 1879, Joseph Augustus Clarke enlisted the School of Arts President to lobby the Queensland Colonial Government to offer formal drawing classes. An accomplished artist from England, Clarke had come to Australia via India where he had taught topographical drawing at the Military Academy in Poona.

In 1881 Clarke began conducting drawing classes from the School of Arts, which was now situated in a refurbished Servants' Home in Ann Street.

In 1882 a public meeting was held to establish a Technical School of Visual Art. The idea won public support and in 1884 classrooms and a lecture room were added to the Ann Street premises. A professional teacher, formal classes and purpose built rooms all came together to form a recognisable art school.

When Clarke died in 1890, the position of Art Master was awarded to Godfrey Rivers — a graduate of the Slade School in London and a painter of international repute. The appointment saw significant developments take place at the Technical School of Visual Art.

In 1898, the Technical School of Visual Art was incorporated into the newly established Brisbane Technical College, creating its biggest department.

20th century

In 1908 the technical colleges that had sprung up around Brisbane were amalgamated into the Central Technical College. This College was given new premises in George Street between the Houses of Parliament and Old Government House.

A shift in emphasis from fine art to applied art saw Rivers resign in 1913. He was replaced by one of his former students - FJ Martyn-Roberts. By 1916 the Central Technical College had the dual role of training students in applied art and teachers in art subjects, particularly drawing.

Martyn-Roberts remained head of the Art Branch of the Central Technical College until his retirement in 1938. He was replaced by Cyril Gibbs - a painter, teacher and graphic designer from Ballarat.

After the War, Gibbs did much to expand the curriculum. Certificate and then Associate Diploma programs were established and photography and graphic design courses were added. A focus on "useful" as opposed to purely aesthetic art and design ensured that the Art Branch remained part of the technical education system.

In 1970 painter and critic Alan Warren was appointed Director and quickly established a dedicated library and a broader curriculum. In 1974 the College was relocated to its own premises at Morningside.

Under Warren, the curriculum grew to encompass new media such as printmaking, ceramics and gold and silversmithing. Film and television, and later animation were developed from electives to complete courses. The first Diploma of Arts qualification in Queensland was introduced in 1976.

With the resignation of Warren in 1979, leadership of the College passed into the hands of a series of administrators. The College premises were becoming cramped, with close to 1000 students studying in buildings designed for 300.

Despite this, Queensland's first degree courses in art and design were introduced in 1985, and the first postgraduate diploma in 1988. The College of Art became the only institution in the Queensland TAFE system to award degrees, and the only remaining TAFE institution in Australia specialising in art education. This set the scene for the separation of the College from the TAFE system, and its incorporation into Griffith University in 1991.

21st century

In 2001, the College relocated to a dedicated purpose-built facility at South Bank. The state-of-the-art facility comprises public exhibition spaces, cinema and conference facilities, a multimedia art gallery and the most modern and versatile studio facilities in Australia.

In 2006 the Queensland College of Art celebrated its 125th anniversary. The celebrations included two exhibitions "Colonial to Contemporary", covering 1884 to 1971, and from 1971 to the present, and The Staff Self-Portrait Project, as well as the publication "Colonial to Contemporary" on the history of the college.

Photographic Education at QCA

Photographic education at the Queensland College of Art originated from the photographic needs of Commercial Art students attending art studies conducted by the Art Branch of the Central Technical College in the early 1950s. Photography, as a subject in its own right, steadily grew to become a structured evening studies programme conducted by Jack Geddes, then a technical officer with Kodak Aust.

By the late 50's the need for formal vocational photographic education in Queensland began to emerge. This requirement was met with the introduction of a two-year part time Certificate in Photography course. The period from 1960 to 1970 saw the appointment of full time photography instructors, notably John McKay, and an increasing demand for education accompanied by a steady though painfully slow accumulation of photographic equipment.

The 1970s witnessed the appointment of a second full-time photography instructor and a move from two dark, sparse and ill-ventilated rooms in the old Central Technical College in George Street to spacious new custom-designed airconditioned premises at the Morningside campus. The fortuitous combination of this modern teaching facility, emerging industry support for photographic education and the extensive ground work undertaken by John McKay, who had travelled through Europe and America gathering information and visiting photographic teaching institutions, culminated with the introduction of Queensland's first full time professionally oriented photographic course of study. While previous courses relied entirely on vocational night schooling for employed students, this tradition was finally broken in 1978 with the development of a two year full time Certificate in Photography which included a provision for specialist training conducted at industrial locations.During the early 80's a three year full time Diploma of Arts (Photography) course was developed to complement the existing Certificate course which continued until 1987 when it was consolidated into an Associate Diploma (Applied Photography) Course. By 1984 the Diploma of Arts course was itself extensively revised, upgraded and accredited to become the Bachelor of Arts (Photography). During this period the Department of Photography expanded substantially, employing ten full time and eighteen part time staff and occupying two floor levels, while the student population grew steadily to stabilise at approximately the two hundred currently enrolled in Degree and Postgraduate programmes.

Overall the eighties were a time when traditions and activities such as the trade show, conducted at the beginning of each academic year, the (now defunct) annual Birdsville Races excursion, and the combined Graduating Students Exhibition and Awards Presentation Night were established.

The Queensland College of Art was the last major tertiary institution to amalgamate in accordance with the Dawkins reform of higher education in Australia. The amalgamation with Griffith University in 1991 which has ensured a continuation of long-standing traditions and the existence of the Queensland College of Art and its constituent departments only resulted as a consequence of intense lobbying and repeated street demonstrations by committed staff and students.

The Australian Photojournalists Association, formed by graduates in 1994, continues to grow. The Australian Photojournalist, originally a quarterly newsletter, is now a full-colour journal, published yearly. The journal is brought out by an editorial board consisting of photojournalism students under the guidance of David Lloyd and Earle Bridger. The Australian Photojournalists Association also organised and co-sponsored the Hurley Awards for Suburban and Regional Photojournalists. The Hurley Awards were a national photographic competition organised by the APA which ran annually from 1995 until 2000, when they were mothballed due to the move to South Bank, and lack of a sponsor.

In 1995 the Department established its first Digital Imaging room equipped with the latest in scanners, computers and printers swung. The equipping of the Digital Imaging room would not have been possible without the generous support of Kodak and the use of funds generated from Commercial Services activities run by Departmental staff.

The Bachelor of Visual Arts (Photography) Programme was completely re-written in 1996 and became the Bachelor of Photography, incorporating a foundation year followed by studies in one of four major areas. Students studying photography could now major in Applied Photography (which became Commercial Photography in 2001), Creative Advertising Photography, Photo Art Practice or Photo Journalism.

In 1996 the Department of Photography also embarked on a successful campaign to internationalise its programme, becoming the first non-Chinese educational unit permitted to offer a Master of Arts in Visual Arts Photography course from the Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA), in Beijing, China. The Department now runs exchange programmes with Miami University and Ohio University in the United States and supports a strong international student contingent, in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

The Department also has a long history of involvement in community-based projects, which have benefitted both the students involved and the organisations sponsoring the projects. Projects which students have collaborated on include:

* the Back O' Bourke Project with the Back 'o Bourke Tourist Centre, documented the region over five years, with yearly exhibitions
* Creative Advertising and Design students collaborated on a campaign for Sirromet Wines
* image resource for websitge and large image displays with Creative Advertising students photographing for Santos Corporation
* Social Documentary students have photographed and exhibited images for the Annual Art Exhibition as part of Schizophrenia Awareness Week in conjunction with the Schizophrenia Fellowship
* Photojournalism students produced an exhibition on refugees living in Brisbane with the assistance of Austcare as part of Refugee Week
* Photographic Art Practice students worked with South Bank Corporation to produce art works for the Arbour Exhibition
* in collaboration with the Brisbane City Council, photography students were involved with both photographing, and working with high school students to produce an exhibition of Women of Brisbane, Holding Up the Sky
* Photojournalism students produced an exhibition, Enlighten, and catalogue for Wesley Mission Brisbane on the lives of people with disabilities
* Creative Advertising students produced images for the 2004 Doggett Calendar
* Photographic Art Practice students, working with Architecture students from QUT, produced art works for the South Bank Parklands as part of the Art + Architecture project.
* News and Creative Advertising students worked with the Stanwell Corporation to produce a website highlighting their corporate activities and community-centred activities
* News students have worked with the Queensland Government as part of the International Conference on Engaging Communities
* The Queensland Arts Council, through their QAC Photographer for a Year Scholarship, offers work to an honours student in Photography photographing artists and events throughout Queensland for their publications

Other areas of involvement include support for the Queensland Centre for Photography, a non-profit organisation formed in 2002 by graduates of the Department of Photography who identified the need for a Queensland-based organisation similar to the Centre for Contemporary Photography (Melbourne) and the Australian Centre for Photography (Sydney) to cater to the needs of both photographers and a photographic exhibition-hungry public. The QCP, who are now based at Bulimba, offer exhibition spaces for photographers, artist talks, slide nights, and other photography-related events. In addition, staff of the Department of Photography are actively involved in producing work for exhibitions and publications as well as ongoing involvement with industry.

Notable Alumni

*Davida Allen
*Anthony Bennett
*Gordon Bennett
*Ben Frost
*Tracey Moffatt
*William Robinson

External links

* [http://www.gu.edu.au/faculty/qca/home.html The QCA Official Website]
* [http://kali.qcas.gu.edu.au/~photo/HISTORY/01history.htmlThe QCA Photography Website]