Farewell to Fine Art School
After three decades, a cornerstone of our art community closes down
ROBERT Drummond and Pattie Semmler have given so much of themselves to Geelong’s artistic community.
The couple have worked alongside each other since 1980, and have operated the Geelong Fine Art School for the past 30 years.
But the debilitating impacts of Alzheimer’s disease forced Semmler to step away from teaching two years ago.
Drummond has powered on, but the progressive worsening of Semmler’s condition has forced him to focus more heavily on his home life.
With a heavy heart, he has decided to close Geelong Fine Art School to focus on being the primary carer for his partner.
“It is very emotional for it to end the way it is, but I think it’s time,” he told the Geelong Advertiser yesterday.
“It’s a sad loss. I don’t think there will be anything like us again in Geelong.”
The school will shut its Bellerine St base in South Geelong by the end of July.
It has operated there for three years, after rising rent forced the couple from their long-term site in the former Albion Collins woollen mill.
The school has offered classes for all skill levels, aiming to make artistic activities more accessible to people from all walks of life. But it has also proven a fertile breeding ground for top-end talent.
Four alumni have established careers in New York and others work in Europe.
Drummond says another former student is a curator at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart.
While he will spend more quality time with his partner, Drummond said he was keen to continue creating.
“I will go back to being an exhibiting painter,” he said.
“I still have a couple of books I need to finish, and I am interested in learning how to write screenplays. I don’t feel like retiring ever.”
‘It’s a sad loss. I don’t think there will be anything like us again in Geelong.’ ROBERT DRUMMOND