Welcome to the second edition of QCA’s ‘e-newsletter’. As a relatively new Director, having been in the role for a little over 18 months, I would like to take the opportunity to invite you to consider the QCA’s vision: past, current and future. The various reports within this newsletter sample just some of the numerous recent initiatives and events underway at the QCA.
The QCA is one of Australia’s foremost institutions of Art, Design and Film. It is also one of the country’s longest running (135 years) and largest creative academies. Comprised of a rich and diverse community of creative thinkers and practitioners, QCA staff are among the most accomplished artists, designers, filmmakers, photographers, digital creators, scholars and cultural critics currently working in Queensland.
Under the guidance of such researchers and teachers, equally diverse and gifted students learn to weave together different modes of thinking and expression, and potentially radically rethink their disciplines. Cutting edge, creative processes and productions that challenge the way we perceive and understand the world are vigorously encouraged at QCA. We want to ensure that each of our students has access to transformative learning experiences that enable them to reach their full potential.
Never before has there been such a thirst for creative input and collaboration across key areas of social and economic development. The digital revolution has thoroughly infiltrated our lives. Such change has brought with it an increasing realisation that the creative talents of artists, designers and filmmakers can be the initiators and drivers in the successful development and application of such technologies.
Critical enquiry, expression of ‘hard to grasp’ humanness, ‘wicked problem’ solving agility, and entrepreneurial spirit has historically underpinned all areas of artistic endeavour. Such characteristics are now a vital ingredient in those businesses reliant on effective communication and the orienting of advanced technologies.
The creative thinkers and designers graduating from the QCA are today finding themselves involved with an expanding range of industries both at home and abroad. Their imagination in combination with their hands-on practical knowledge of the innovative application of traditional and new technologies, define QCA graduates as invaluable contributors to the development of our futures.
The QCA is Queensland’s home of art, design and filmmaking. From both of our campuses, at South Bank in Brisbane and Griffith University’s largest campus at Southport on Queensland’s amazing Gold Coast, the QCA continues to produce some of Australia’s leading creative graduates.
Professor Derrick Cherrie
Director, Queensland College of Art (QCA)
Griffith University