Taking a stand for arts’ future
A GROUP of students are taking the future of local arts into their own hands, with one of Townsville’s last remaining creative arts degrees set to be cancelled at the end of this year.
The Creative Townsville Collective is made up of Bachelor of Visual Arts students Rob Douma, Bronte Perry, Neil Binnie and Sonia Ward. They are all studying via a University of Canberra course through Pimlico’s TAFE campus.
This is the final year the course will be available through the TAFE campus.
Mr Douma said once the four had completed their de- gree at the end of this year, there would be no similar degrees on offer in the region.
“The Bachelor of Creative Media course at James Cook University has suffered the same fate, leaving Townsville with no creative arts degrees in 2019 and an uncertain future for arts education,” Mr Douma said.
The collective is hosting a community forum to push for new opportunities in arts education, and said arts was undervalued in Townsville.
“There have been attempts to get plans for better arts precinct here and they never get approved, but anything to do with V8s, football stadiums, Adani? Sure, no worries,” Mr Douma said.
“You love football? That football jersey was designed by an artist.
“There’s more than enough people to make an arts practice financially sustainable. We just have to raise public opinion about the value of arts and culture and in doing so create opportunities for emerging artists now and long term.”
New director of Umbrella Gallery Kellie Williams said the influence of arts and culture on the region would increase liveability and employment opportunities in Townsville.
Ms Williams said major projects, including the North Queensland Stadium, could benefit from sourcing local creatives to contribute to the production.
“People think because we’re smaller than a metropolitan city that arts aren’t needed here on a practical level, but just take a walk around,” Ms Williams said.
“It’s graphic design, signage, there are so many career paths coming out of an art degree.
“It would be really sad to think that we couldn’t recruit those people locally, that we had to bring in people from elsewhere around Australia.”
The ‘ Bringing Home the Bacon’ forum will be held over Sunday brunch on September 23 from 10am to 12pm at Tonoirs Espresso Bar in Flinders St.