VCA 50th – Director’s Dialogue Series

The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) at the University of Melbourne celebrates its 50th anniversary with the launch of a new VCA Director’s Dialogue Series.

In a series of four public forums, new Director of the VCA, Professor Emma Redding will lead discussions  with some of Australia’s most prominent artists and thinkers.

Held across September and November at the University of Melbourne’s Southbank campus, the talks will provide a platform for critical discourse and the sharing of ideas around four key themes: arts and wellbeing, the globalisation and digitisation of arts practice, inclusion and diversity in the sector, and new approaches to training an artist in the pandemic decade.

The four talks in the VCA Director’s Dialogue Series are:

• Arts for wellbeing and wellbeing for artists: Renowned arts practitioners and educators will consider the role that art can play in the broader community, and Country, as well as the importance of enhancing the wellbeing of artists through science and education.

Speakers: Patricia Piccinini, Tiriki Onus, Jane Davidson, Sue Mayes and Kat McFerran

• Celebrating intersectionality and inclusion in the arts: This panel examines and critiques the normative, Western ideologies which have dominated our arts sector, and discusses the role that non-normative and marginalised approaches can play in challenging them.

Speakers: Derrick Brown, Chris Mead, Alyson Campbell and Anthea Skinner

• Creative technologies and intertwined innovation: A panel of distinguished artists consider the ways that technology co-exists with the human body and how we build and predict futures through art.

Speakers: Stelarc, Robert Walton, Adam Sutardy and Carol Brown

• Future forward: Emerging artists now: Panellists consider the university as a site where speculation, curiosity and failure are valued, and where inspired learning and unlearning is fostered.

Speakers: Natalie King, Sally Smart, Simone Slee and Tiriki Onus

Professor Emma Redding, who joined the VCA earlier this year:

She was excited to be launching the new VCA Director’s Dialogue Series.

It’s an incredible privilege to be able to bring some of the nation’s leading artists and thinkers together to discuss key areas of focus for the VCA, as well as the many challenges and opportunities facing the arts sector during the pandemic decade.

I look forward to welcoming our students, alumni, and sector peers to the Southbank campus as we come together in recognition of the VCA’s 50th birthday this year, and position ourselves for the next half-century.

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For more information click HERE