Professor Barney Glover AO
Vice-Chancellor and President, Western Sydney University
Western Sydney University has a long, rich tradition of engagement with creative, intellectual and professional life. This includes a highly regarded arts program, closed some 12 years ago. That decision understandably engendered frustration in a community simultaneously coming to terms with the closure of the TAFE art school and several university art schools across the country. The positive legacy, however, of the former University of Western Sydney Fine Arts and Performing Arts schools continues to permeate and influence the art scene across the Western Sydney region, and nationally and internationally via acclaimed artists, writers, curators and arts administrators.
The University’s Visual Arts Program, in particular, developed a strong reputation for its innovative and interdisciplinary approach to arts practice. This was exemplified in the Foundation and Creative Strategies units, designed to provoke and creatively challenge students to think beyond conventional disciplinary paradigms. This cross pollination was seen as incredibly progressive by former students, such as Dr Stephen Little, who also believed the School’s impact extended arts culture and public awareness of the arts across the outer West and lower Blue Mountains region. This sentiment was reflected in the City of Blue Mountains 2006-2016 Cultural Strategy.
Other former students saw the Visual Arts Program as exposing them to new ideas and practices that expanded their thinking and enriched opportunities and pathways that had not been previously considered. They share real affection and respect for their former mentors and lecturers and the culture of creative talent that was nurtured by the School.
Some of the graduates of the Fine Arts program continue to be represented in Western Sydney University’s art collection, including Liam Benson, Karen Coull, Stephen Little, Luis Martinez, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn and Justene Williams. The support of the University for its students’ art practice is evident in its purchase of early works created by them, including works from their graduation exhibitions, as was the case with the acquisition of Karen Coull’s 1993 sculptures, Menopause, Sewing Box, Virgin and Crowning Glory, which are exhibited in Space YZ. Other works in the University’s collection were commissioned while the artist was still a student, such as the portraits of E.G Whitlam AC QC that the Whitlam Institute commissioned Luis Martinez to create in 2005.
A commitment to an early professional practice of exhibiting is something these artists have in common. Notably, galleries within Western Sydney, such as Campbelltown Arts Centre, Penrith Regional Gallery, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Blacktown Arts Centre and Fairfield City Museum & Gallery all supported exhibitions that featured either student work, or the work of our graduates.
In 2015 the University Archive received the Terry Hayes Collection, donated by former academic, Terry Hayes, who was associated with the Art School from 1985 to 2008. This archive documents the Visual Arts degree from its early inception on the Peachtree campus through to its final years as a Bachelor of Fine Arts within the School of Communication Arts on the Kingswood Campus.
Material in the Terry Hayes Collection includes past student exhibition catalogues, course outlines and course projects, of which Terry personally wrote 110 during his tenure. This comprehensive archive also documents student and staff lists who studied and taught at the art school. This archive has been utilised within the Space YZ website and is made accessible to the general public.
Acknowledging the significant achievements of the staff and alumni of the former fine arts and performing arts schools, the University builds on their considerable legacy and contributions to continue to grow and develop arts and culture in Western Sydney. In 2019, for example, the University published Western Sydney Creative – our decadal strategy for supporting arts and culture in the region.
In developing Western Sydney Creative, I was reminded of the University’s critical mass, reputation and existing cultural strengths, demonstrated across the School of Humanities and Communication Arts, the highly acclaimed Writing and Society Research Centre, the award-winning Giramondo Publishing Company, the Sydney Review of Books, the Whitlam Institute, the Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture and the Margot Hardy Gallery.
The University’s strengths and success across arts and culture is enriched and made meaningful through partnerships with artists and cultural institutions in Western Sydney, including with the Campbelltown Arts Centre. Together, we must continue to enhance the creative and cultural economy in our region. This pursuit is needed now, more than ever, as we emerge from the pandemic to collectively make meaning, purpose, and better futures.