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DIVISION OF EDUCATION, ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SCHOOL OF ART
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Brief notes and actions from the meeting
30 October 2007 from 4:00pm in K3-25, Kaurna Building, City West campus
1.
Present
Mr Matthew Remphrey (Chair)
Ms Jane Cameron
Dr Melinda Rackham
Ms Anne Robertson
Mr Christopher Menz
Prof Kay Lawrence
In attendance
Ms Nici Cumpston
Ms Veronika Kelly
Ms Mary Knights
Prof Michael Rowan
Mr Julian Eitzen (Executive Officer)
2.
Apologies
Mr Melentie Pandilovski
Ms Tamara Watson
3.
Mr John Neylon
Hawke Building and the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art
Kay escorted the members on a thirty minute tour of the Hawke Building and Gallery receiving an enthusiastically positive response.
4.
Minutes
The minutes of the previous meeting held on 22 May 2007 were approved.
5.
Business arising
5.1
advisorycommittees@unisa.edu.au
Julian indicated that Divisional IT advice was that on consideration of the limited traffic
anticipated, it was recommended that members contact Kay or Julian directly for
matters regarding SASA Advisory Committee.
5.2
Indigenous Education Strategy follow-up
Nici indicated that she had been networking extensively to both contact Indigenous
Australians and to develop support systems to attract prospective students and nurture
participating students. Networking activities had been conducted:
 Within UniSA
 With Indigenous Australian communities
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 With other universities for networking and benchmarking
Nici suggested that potentially fruitful relationships were building with Ms Leanne
Buckskin and with SASA graduate Ms Yhonnie Scarce. She observed that major
Indigenous Australian publications such as the “Koori Mail” often featured
advertisements from universities seeking to attract Indigenous Australian students.
Nici recommended that some further consideration go into the link between UniSA
Foundation Studies and SASA. She advised that Indigenous Australian students were
not eligible for tutorial assistance (ATAS) in the Foundation Studies program. Overall,
she emphasised the importance of building a support network for Indigenous
Australian students within SASA.
Kay agreed, and observed that it would be key to the success of SASA’s Indigenous
Education Strategy to access prospective Indigenous Australian students in order to
start building self-supporting cohorts within the School. Matt queried the uptake of
suggestions from the previous meeting regarding creating contacts through regional
galleries. Nici acknowledged the earlier suggestions as very helpful and indicated they
were being followed-up. Michael advised that the David Unaipon College of
Indigenous Education and Research’s Indigenous Student Service team had a
mandate for community liaison and promotion/recruitment functions and he
recommended that SASA and DUCIER coordinate such activity. Kay also suggested
that new and less formal approaches, and events in collaboration with DUCIER, should
be employed to invite and welcome community people to the University.
5.3
Visual Communication intern program
Veronika reported that a model for internships was in place in the Visual Arts Honours
program. That model would require up to 100 long term student placements, which
was likely to be beyond the scope of studio capacity in Adelaide. Two alternative
approaches were under consideration:
 A short intensive course of two weeks in collaboration with around 15 larger
studios
 A project based service learning approach
Veronika indicated that it would be important for SASA to establish a robust placement
management structure to oversee the internships. There was also further
consideration as to whether the internships should be embedded in certain courses, or
offered as a specific elective course.
Kay encouraged using both alternative models and indicated the desirability of
including service learning approaches for internships. Anne noted that she would like
Craftsouth to become involved in project based work with interns. Melinda suggested
that the internships had good potential for cross discipline exchange. Matt queried
whether Veronika would look in to the programs offered at Swinburne and RMIT –
Veronika advised that visits to both were planned.
6.
New business
6.1
Nominated Review of SASA
Michael introduced this item by noting that a Nominated Review of school operations
was complimentary to Quality Improvement evaluations of specific programs.
Nominated Reviews are conducted by an expert external panel and usually occur
every five years or so. Michael indicated that he had maintained the Nominated
Review process as he believed that a serious peer review was a very good way to
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improve quality. He noted that excellent people had been engaged for the panel and
that feedback from the process had been very positive. A good report was anticipated.
Melinda queried whether industry and community people were included in the process
– which was affirmed as the case.
6.2
Program Evaluation Report of B Visual Communication
Veronika acknowledged that in her first year as Program Director, conducting the
evaluation had been somewhat of a baptism by fire – however, it had been a good and
useful process. She highlighted some of the key findings:
 Need to improve the students portfolio outcomes
 Need for skills courses in web and multimedia design to be included as core
courses
 Desirability for animation course to be offered as elective rather than a directed
study
 Acknowledgement of student identified ‘heavy’ workload issue, balanced by the
fact that it forms a valid preparation for industry
 Updating of courses to embed career management across the program
 Sharpening the meaning of the Graduate Qualities, particularly in terms of
career management
 Development of a double degree with the School of Communication was in
train, and the possibility of another double degree with the School of Marketing
is under consideration.
Kay queried the international benchmarking for the evaluation. Veronika advised that
she had conducted extensive benchmarking and highlighted that internationally,
Denmark ran five year programs, and the London College of Communication offered a
large variety of double degrees. Matt noted that AGDA was in the process of
reviewing the portfolio systems. Anne queried whether any double degrees were
under consideration for the Visual Arts.
Veronika tabled the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools “ACUADS
Research 07/08” document.
6.3
School Strategic Plan 2008
Kay highlighted some features of the Plan:
 The intention to bolster the service learning aspects of programs and to link
service learning with community engagement
 The desirability of creating scholarships for high achieving students, probably to
be awarded at the conclusion of the first year of undergraduate study
 The budget was tight, which constrained the School’s capacity to update
equipment and act quickly on development proposals
 The intention to increase the number and effectiveness of professional
(administrative) staff to better allow academic staff to focus on core business of
teaching and research
Anne noted that the Master program attracted international students and suggested
that it had the potential to generate income. Michael commended the plan, observing
that the School was well managed, had a significant national profile, and was an
important creative contributor to the Division.
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6.4
Gallery and exhibitions/research nexus
Mary tabled two exhibition catalogues:
 SASA Gallery “spill”
 SASA Gallery “The Ranger”
Mary indicated that a strong relationship had been developed between exhibitions and
research output. By aligning the Gallery program with the Research Quality
Framework principles and rigorous research artists, the less conventional approach
had worked well. A key to success was to work with artists that students could engage
with. Eight research based exhibitions have been planned for 2008, with a publishing
program associated with each exhibition. Two scholarly papers are included in each
exhibition catalogue, and Mary works with two different Honours students on the
production of each catalogue. Usually 500 catalogues are produced for each
exhibition, but if finances allow, a production run of 1,000 catalogues provides for
greater publicity options. The response to mail outs has been very positive.
Mary advised that she was looking in to developing a collaborative approach to
advertising the City West Arts precinct. Kay suggested that the University’s marketing
development unit would assist in focusing the promotion of the precinct. Mary also
noted that she was keen to increase the corporate sponsorship for the Gallery.
ACTION: Mary to check with HR for corporations that provide salary sacrifice vehicles
and seek sponsorship arrangements with them.
7.
Any other business
Anne tabled a copy of the “National education and the arts statement” from the
Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs
(MCEETYA).
The meeting closed at 6:00pm.
8.
Next meeting
The next meeting is TUESDAY 20 MAY 2008.
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