Manawatu arts asked to help future of UCOL Art and Design

28 October 2011

Manawatu arts sector asked to help scope the future of Art and Design at UCOL

The arts and design sector has been invited to contribute to a wide-ranging UCOL initiative to determine the future of its Arts and Design portfolio.

The project follows identification by the UCOL Council of three preferred areas of specialisation for UCOL: Trades, Health and Arts and Design, with their revitalization as a goal. It will seek ideas and contributions from practitioners, experts and commentators, educators, secondary students and staff and UCOL staff, students and graduates, regionally, nationally and internationally.

UCOL Chief Executive Paul McElroy says the initiative, titled Prospective: Revitalisation of UCOL Art and Design, will be a ‘blue sky’, blank paper exercise based on the question: “If you were to assemble a portfolio from scratch with Arts and Design at the centre, given where industry, technology, and the arts are heading, what would that look like, and how would it hold a nationally and internationally competitive position?”

He says the aims include ensuring Arts and Design offerings at UCOL continue to reflect industry and professional requirements, and to grow student numbers in these areas. “It will be ‘blue sky’ in that there are no preconceptions or predetermined solutions. We want to take a broad, over the horizon view of the future of Arts and Design education, including Fine Arts, Fashion, Photography, Graphic Design, Visual Imaging, Fine Furniture, Performing Arts, Music and even perhaps other creative areas such as jewellery making,” he says.

“We want a wide range of views so we will seek to involve staff, students and alumni, and our partners and supporters in the arts and design community in Whanganui, Manawatu and the Wairarapa, as well as national and international experts. We will also look at other arts and design schools in New Zealand and internationally, and take a future focus by researching emerging and predicted trends in the arts and design sector.”

Two symposiums will be held in November 2011 and March 2012, bringing a diverse set of people and ideas together to discuss and debate the future of the arts and design field. Secondary school students will also have the opportunity to express their views on where they see art and design education heading as part of a $3,000 competition.
“It’s an exciting and rare opportunity to scope the future so that we can take our place as an internationally respected, leading Arts and Design teaching institution,” Mr McElroy says.

One of the first initiatives in Prospective will be a 10x10 symposium on November 12, held halfway between Wanganui and Palmerston North at Marton's Rangitikei College.

In it, an international line up of 10 people will each give 10-minute presentations, followed by discussion. They will be staff, students, graduates, designers, photographers, including Wellington-based consultant Anne Pattillo, who has given a substantial scholarship to a Whanganui UCOL arts student every year for five years.

Industry speakers Sue Bryce, Australian Institute of professional Photographers Portrait Photographer of the Year, Xoe Hall, artist and owner of Manky Chops Gallery, New York-based film and television editor Roger Schulte and Helen Baxter, owner of Mohawk Media and commentator on emerging technologies on The Big Idea and for the g33k show

For more speakers and more information on Prospective go to http://www.ucol.ac.nz/Pages/Prospective.aspx or www.facebook.com/prospectiveUCOL

ENDS

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