The Arts Culture in Melbourne, the nation's Arts Capital, hangs in the balance, and we're set on saving it. If you love the Arts, and value its cultural contribution, read on, and join us in SAVING THE VCA.
The pedagogy of the college has for years been one of practice, following the belief that this is absolutely necessary to successfully training artists. Via this model, the VCA has produced some of the most recognized and celebrated artists ever to have been found on Australian shores.
Now, the University of Melbourne, who acquired the VCA in 2007 after the Federal Government decided to cut funding to the college, is planning to implement the Melbourne Model at the VCA in 2011. The Melbourne Model - with parallels to a failing European system - is a model geared towards academic, research-based subjects, a model which is unsuitable for the Victorian College of the Arts. The Melbourne Model, as it stands, can only lead to a dilution of arts training at the VCA. No more dancers, actors, singers, designers, painters, sculptors, stage managers, film makers, musicians and puppeteers; only arts academics.