Fine Arts at Monash

Since September 2006 Fine Arts staff have undertaken the task of transforming the physical organisation of the department’s staffing, studios and workshops. Perhaps more significantly we have also examined and redefined the way we approach teaching and research at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Our Artist Residency Program ensures that at least ten professionals per year come to Monash from all parts of the world to join our community here on campus, directly manifesting to students both the very high standards of commitment that a professional practice demands and a variety of cultural perspectives on the most recent developments in contemporary art.

New programs this year include ‘women in research’. Ten female artists (five per semester) whose practices range across a wide variety of disciplines have been offered a two-week residency. During these two weeks they have presented a public lecture on their practice, participated in a panel discussion on a subject pertinent to their research and have made contact with students working in all of the department’s studios.   

We have recently made five new academic appointments: Marian Crawford in Printmedia; Julie Rrap in Painting/Photomedia; Terri Bird in Sculpture/Drawing; Nick Mourtzakis in Drawing/Painting and Lily Hibberd in Painting. These appointments affirm both the excellent professional standing and the varied range of skills of our current staff.

Most art schools have over the years for various reasons reduced their commitment to the teaching of drawing; we believe that to understand both the role of drawing in the acquisition of perceptual knowledge and how it might be used most effectively is becoming increasingly more relevant as we move further and further towards the unquestioning acceptance that virtual experiences of the world constitute its true dimensions.

We believe that as sensory human beings the world must be experienced as directly as possible before we can comment with authority upon its make-up. By helping us to purposely focus on both the minutiae and the structure of the world around us the discipline of drawing greatly increases the confidence with which we can approach any creative pursuit, be it sculpture, painting, printmaking or any interdisciplinary project.