STUDENTSTUDENT HANDBOOKHANDBOOK 1 CONTENTS GENERAL INFORMATION 2 BACHELOR OF FINE ART Mission 2 SUBJECT OUTLINES 59 History of the National Art School 2 1st Year Units 59 Organisation and Governance of the School 4 2nd Year Units 68 NAS Leadership Responsibilities 5 3rd Year Units 77 Important contacts 5 AHT Electives 85 Staff of the National Art School 6 MASTER OF FINE ART 96 STUDYING AT THE Course Overview 96 NATIONAL ART SCHOOL 10 Course Structure 96 Student Resources 10 Course Requirements 96 Attendance 12 Student ID Card 13 Personal Electrical Equipment 13 MASTER OF FINE ART Management of Risk of Harm to COURSE OUTLINES 98 Students and Staff 14 MFA Stage 1 / GDFA 98 Copyright 14 MFA Stage 2 107 STUDENT POLICIES WORKPLACE HEALTH AND AND PROCEDURES 15 SAFETY STUDIO GUIDELINES Ethics Policy 15 116 The Process 16 All Departments 116 Student Code of Conduct 17 Ceramics 116 Discipline Policy 25 D r aw i n g 118 Overview of Nas Student Misconduct Procedures 30 Painting 118 Student Grievance Policy and Procedures for Students Photomedia 119 and those Seeking to Enrol 31 Printmaking 120 Informal Grievance 32 Sculpture 121 Enrolment Policy 35 Fee Policy 37 International Student Visas 41 Teaching and Learning Policy 41 Assessment Policy 43 COURSE INFORMATION BACHELOR OF FINE ART 57 Course Rationale 57 Course Structure 57 2 GENERAL INFORMATION MISSION The first instructor in the art department was the Frenchman Lucien Henry, who had trained at the Ecole The principal mission of the National Art School is to des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and brought many elements be a centre of excellence for the provision of higher of the curriculum of this institution to the art school in education and research, scholarship and professional Sydney, where he taught freehand drawing, design and practice in the visual arts and related fields. modelling. In 1883, the Technical and Working Men’s The National Art School utilises its independent College was taken over by the government-appointed identity and distinctive teaching & learning methods Board of Technical Education. It came to be known to realise this mission through the development of as the Sydney Technical College, and in 1892 the art creativity and visual and cultural awareness in an department moved to the College’s new premises in international context. Ultimo. After the First World War, Sydney Technical College The aims and objectives of the National Art School are: expanded its courses and began to look for another site • To be a centre of excellence for the delivery of a close to the city. In 1919, James Nangle, Superintendent high quality specialist education in studio-based of Technical Education, and Thomas Mutch, Minister visual arts and related fields. for Public Instruction, lobbied to convert the disused • To be at the forefront of learning, creativity Darlinghurst Gaol buildings to an annexe of Sydney and practice in the visual arts, nationally and Technical College, and in 1922, the Department of Art internationally. was moved from Ultimo to the Darlinghurst Gaol site • To provide high quality education that fosters the (then called East Sydney Technical College), occupying acquisition and interrelationship of technical skills five buildings alongside other departments from Sydney with creative invention. Technical College. • To ensure that practice, research and scholarship With the arrival of the flamboyant and influential in drawing is a core visual language and underpins English sculptor G Rayner Hoff in 1923, the art creative development in all aspects of provision. department at East Sydney gained a new impetus, and • To situate all programs of study within the art Hoff helped to establish a five year Diploma course historical, theoretical, cultural and professional in 1926. It was in this year that the name ‘National contexts appropriate to the development of Art School’ was first mentioned in the catalogue for knowledge and understanding of the studio arts. an Exhibition of Art by the students of East Sydney • To promote the widest possible participation and Technical College. Hoff continued as a teacher of diversity of students by recruiting locally, nationally, modelling and sculpture, and set up a large studio in and internationally. one of the converted gaol buildings, until his untimely • To ensure that all academic staff are distinguished death in 1937. in their field as actively practicing artists, scholars The 1950s and 1960s saw a period of consolidation and/or researchers, recognise nationally and at the art school, with swelling numbers of Diploma internationally. students and an enormous influx of evening students. Life-long friendships were formed, and the social life HISTORY OF THE of the school included student revues, group painting NATIONAL ART SCHOOL trips and the legendary art student balls. The opening of The National Art School has been at the centre of the Cell Block Theatre in 1958 saw students become Sydney’s art scene for almost a century, and has involved in the music, dance and theatre productions nurtured the talents of generations of artists, who have which were regularly performed there. studied and worked in studios within the walls of the The focus of the School on the ‘atelier method’ of old Darlinghurst Gaol. teaching, which had evolved during Rayner Hoff’s time, The development of the art school can be traced was reinforced during this period. Drawing formed the back to the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, where core of the program and small classes were taught by the first lecture on the principles of drawing, by John practising artists who were leaders in their fields. Skinner Prout, took place in 1843. In 1854, Joseph The survival of the art school was threatened in Fowles was engaged as a drawing teacher, and in 1873 1974, when a proposal to move the school from the East the Department of Art was set up in the School of Arts Sydney campus was put forward by the Department of building in Pitt Street, offering courses in technical Technical and Further Education (TAFE). An intense and and fine art drawing, as well as training in drawing for heart-felt fight was put up by students and staff, and primary school teachers. marches on Parliament House were organised, but by 3 the beginning of 1975, the School had been decimated, with the Division of Fine Art taken under the umbrella of ORGANISATION AND a new College of Advanced Education called Alexander GOVERNANCE OF THE SCHOOL Mackie College in Paddington (later known as the City Art Institute and now the College of Fine Arts or COFA). Although it appeared that the fight to stay on the site GOVERNANCE had been lost, the art course continued to run at East The National Art School is nationally registered and Sydney as a very diminished ‘School of Art and Design’, accredited as a Higher Education Provider and is which offered a two year certificate - a far cry from the recognized under the Higher Education Support Act heady days of the 1960s. Due to the determination of 2003. The Academic Board is responsible for the the teachers who had stayed on at East Sydney, and the maintenance of academic standards in accordance forming of FONAS (Friends of the National Art School), with the accreditation requirements. the School was gradually rebuilt, and a three year The National Art School is a public company limited Diploma was offered in 1988. by guarantee, with two members, the NSW Ministers This was not enough for the supporters of the for the Arts and for Education. The members appoint National Art School, who believed that independence a Board of Directors with responsibility for the School from TAFE was essential, especially with the and oversight of the leadership of the School. The introduction of the inappropriate ‘competency-based’ Board of Directors operates four sub-committees, training standards in the mid-1990s. Indeed the more the Finance and Audit Committee, the Properties and vocational emphasis of TAFE had been at odds with the Assets Committee, the Performance and Remuneration ethos of the art school for some time. Committee and the National Art School Foundation. After intense lobbying by many well-known figures The National Art School (ABN 89 140 179 111) from the art world, separation from TAFE was finally is recognized by the Australian Taxation Office as a achieved in 1996, when Bob Carr became Labor Charitable Institution, and is endorsed as a Deductible Premier and honoured his promise of independence Gift Recipient under Item 1 for the following funds: for the National Art School. The NAS Bachelor of Fine • National Art School General Fund Art Degree was accredited in 1998, and classes for • National Art School Gallery the new three year course began in 1999. The School • National Art School Library was the only state funded institution to offer a degree The National Art School Gallery and the National Art in fine art. School Library are also endorsed under Item 4, and Bob Carr’s promise included funds for refurbishment of may receive gifts of property under the Cultural Gifts the buildings, and when the other TAFE departments Program. moved off site in 2005, the art school was finally the sole occupant. With input from the NSW Government, PRINCIPAL COMMITTEES many of the buildings were upgraded to include a state- The National Art School operates academically through of-the-art gallery in a converted cell wing, a new library two principal committees: the Academic Board, and in the old gaol hospital, and refurbishment of many of The Executive. Each has its own sub-committees the old studios and the Cell Block Theatre. responsible for key operations within the School. Sub A form of independence had been achieved, but the committee’s of The Executive have responsibility for art school was still funded by the NSW Department of the oversight of WHS; Space planning and Facilities; Education and Training (DET), and as such could not Exhibitions, Collections & Acquisitions; and Personnel claim full freedom to manage itself.