27/11/2014

VICTORIAN COLLEGE OF THE ARTS

Today my roommate Izzy (and undergraduate student in theatre production) took me to the annual exhibition of the undergraduates and graduates at the Victorian College of the Arts. These students are finally finished with their degree (I remember my joy very vividly!) and showing their last showcase of their academic career. After this, they are ready for the world of arts!

I had the opportunity to talk to a very of the students that were at the exhibition. I enjoyed talking about their opinions of the art world, sponsorship, funding and governmental regulations. It's interesting to hear how things work in other countries, and I was surprised to hear that in Australia there are a lot of private funders and businesses that are willing to invest. This is something we are still struggling with in the Netherlands, as we are currently still heavily funded by the government. Although I realize that the landscape of arts in Australia looks very different from the one we have in the Netherlands, it is still refreshing to see that there are a world of opportunities to keeping the arts alive.

We were able to see the exhibition of performing arts, including very talented pieces of costume design and production design. One day these talents will be creating the set of the new 'friends' series or create the costumes of another Shakespeare play. These are the new and upcoming talents and it feels wonderful to see how excited and enthusiastic they are about their future career in arts.

Another thing that surprised me, is how all types of art, from performing to visual, from sreenwriters to community cultural development are all located within the same school. Back home, we are utterly divided, and the university purpose is to give you a theoretical academic background, not to collaborate with the artists themselves. But how amazing it was to see that these students were able to collaborate on so many different levels, and how much they can learn from each other. There is something to think about Netherlands, maybe time to blur the lines?

WHO: Undergraduates & graduates from the VCA
WHAT: Annual graduation exhibition
WHERE: Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne


(Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so here are some shots taken from my phone)




My talented roommate Izzy

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