The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...
in Australia. It is part of the university's
Faculty of Fine Arts and Music (FFAM). It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the
Southbank campus of the university. The VCA Film and Television School was founded in 1991, after it assumed ownership and management of the
Swinburne Film and Television School
Swinburne Film and Television School was a film school that was part of Swinburne Technical College from 1966 until 1991. The college offered the first tertiary course in filmmaking in Australia, and was founded and led for many years by filmma ...
.
Courses and training offered at the VCA cover seventeen discipline areas:
acting
Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode.
Acting involves a broad range of sk ...
and
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...
,
composition
Composition or Compositions may refer to:
Arts and literature
*Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography
* Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...
,
creative arts
The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive range of me ...
and
music therapy
Music therapy, an allied health profession, "is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music t ...
,
dance
Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
,
design and production,
ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...
,
film
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
and
television
Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
,
Indigenous arts and
culture
Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
, interactive composition,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
and
improvisation
Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...
,
music performance
Musical performance may refer to:
* Auditioning, a sampling of a performance
* Concert, the performance of multiple pieces by an ensemble or soloist.
** Recital, a performance which highlights a single performer, composer, or instrument.
** Conc ...
,
music psychology
The psychology of music, or music psychology, is a branch of psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and/or musicology. It aims to explain and understand musical behaviour and experience, including the processes through which music is pe ...
,
music theatre
Music theatre is a performance genre that emerged over the course of the 20th century, in opposition to more conventional genres like opera and musical theatre. The term came to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s to describe an avant-garde approach ...
,
musicology
Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, ...
, performance teaching,
visual art
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and texti ...
, and
writing
Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...
. The VCA is also home to the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development.
The library on the Southbank campus is known as the
Lenton Parr
Thomas Lenton Parr AM (11 September 1924 – 8 August 2003) was an Australian sculptor and teacher .
Sculptor
Born in East Coburg, Victoria, Lenton Parr spent eight years in the Royal Australian Air Force (Svc No. A33223) before enrolling to s ...
Music, Visual and Performing Arts Library.
History
1972: establishment
The
National Gallery of Victoria Art School
The National Gallery of Victoria Art School, associated with the National Gallery of Victoria, was a private fine arts college founded in 1867 and was Australia's leading art school of 50 years.
It is also referred to as the 'National Gallery S ...
, founded in 1867 to teach fine art, was the VCA's foundation school.
The Victorian College of the Arts was established in 1972 by a government order under the ''Victorian Institute of Colleges Act 1955'', initiated by the
Premier of Victoria
The premier of Victoria is the head of government of the state of Victoria in Australia. The premier leads the Cabinet of Victoria and selects its ministers. The premier is appointed by the governor of Victoria, must be a member of the Vic ...
and Minister for the Arts,
Rupert Hamer
Sir Rupert James "Dick" Hamer, (29 July 1916 – 23 March 2004) was an Australian politician who served as the 39th premier of Victoria from 1972 to 1981, and prior to that, the 18th deputy premier of Victoria from 1971 to 1972. He held offic ...
. Subsequently, in 1973 the VCA was affiliated as a college of advanced education with the Victorian Institute of Colleges. The School of Music was established in 1974, the School of Drama in 1976 and the School of Dance in 1978.

Also in 1978, the Victorian Education Department under the direction of the Deputy Premier and Minister of Education,
Lindsay Thompson
Lindsay Hamilton Simpson Thompson AO, CMG (15 October 1923 – 16 July 2008) was an Australian politician and army officer who served as the 40th premier of Victoria from 1981 to 1982. He previously served as the 19th deputy premier of Vict ...
, established the Victorian College of the Arts Technical School, a government secondary school for dancers and musicians (see
Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School
Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School (VCASS), is a government-funded co-educational selective and specialist secondary day school, with speciality in the performing and visual arts, located within the Melbourne Arts Precinct in S ...
) in close association with the VCA and located on the same campus.
1981: reconstitution
In March 1981, the Minister for the Arts and Minister for Educational Services,
Norman Lacy
Norman Henry Lacy (born 25 October 1941) is an Australian former politician, who was a Minister in the Hamer and Thompson Cabinets of the Victorian Government from May 1979 to April 1982.
He grew up in Richmond, Victoria and was educated at N ...
, had the ''Victorian College of the Arts Act'' passed through the
Victorian Parliament
The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria that follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the King, represented by the governor of Victoria, the Legislative Assembly ...
. Its purpose was the reconstitution of the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) made necessary by the repeal in 1980 of the ''Victorian Institute of Colleges Act'' and to make it "better able to provide for the preparation of young people to enter upon careers as professional artists. It also represented a significant development for the Victorian Arts Centre."
[The Victorian College of the Arts Bill Explanatory Second Reading Speech by the Hon. Norman Lacy, M.P. Minister for the Arts in the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Victoria on 19 March 1981.]
Lacy laid out a rationale for the re-constitution of the college under a VCA specific act which was derived firstly "from the quite specific demands and circumstances of preparing young artists for professional practise." He asserted that "the basic concept upon which the college is built is that young artists intending to enter careers as practitioners in their various fields are best assisted to achieve their ambitions in a milieu of continuous artistic activity and endeavour of a fully professional nature. To the extent that artistic education is separated from normal professional practice it is so much less effective." Secondly, the rationale related to the adjacent location of the VCA campus to the
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...
and the
Victorian Arts Centre
Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as the Victorian Arts Centre and briefly called the Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the central M ...
. He said that this "Greater Arts Centre concept is central to the government's decision to reconstitute the college by separate statute as well as to the development of the arts in general. It represents a simple, readily achievable and highly effective means of creating a substantial milieu of continuous professional activity of the highest standards. It also has ramifications which extend far beyond the college and its partner institutions. Its implementation will shape and invigorate the arts in many ways and lead to a dynamic, cultural and social facility without peer in Australia" and that it "afforded an unparalleled opportunity and challenge to present total programmes in the arts which should encourage creative exchanges between the art forms, give inspiration to students of the arts and provide for the public an experience which few places in the world can match". The government therefore believed that the VCA's role was substantially different from other educational institutions.
1990s: film school and further expansion
Film and Television School
From January 1991,
[ the ownership and management of the ]Swinburne Film and Television School
Swinburne Film and Television School was a film school that was part of Swinburne Technical College from 1966 until 1991. The college offered the first tertiary course in filmmaking in Australia, and was founded and led for many years by filmma ...
(founded 1966) was handed over to VCA, becoming the VCA Film and Television School. Per an announcement in ''Filmnews
''Filmnews'' was a monthly newspaper that covered independent film production, distribution and exhibition in Australia and the federal and state government policies and practices that supported them. Produced in Sydney, it was distributed around ...
'' in August 1990, the Swinburne Film and Television School was officially transferred to the VCA from January 1991, but would stay at Swinburne until it was able to move to a new building in South Melbourne
South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at the 2021 ...
(funded by $12m from the federal government) in 1993. VCA would merge with Melbourne University
The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state of Victoria. Its ...
during 1991.[ ] The VCA's School of Film and Television remained at Hawthorn until 1 July 1994, when it moved into a purpose-built federally funded building on the VCA campus at Southbank.
In April 2002, the congress of the CILECT
The International Association of Film and Television Schools (French: ''Centre international de liaison des écoles de cinéma et de télévision'', CILECT) is the association of the world's major film and television schools.
History
CILECT wa ...
(Centre International de Liaison des Ecoles de Cinema et de Television), the international association of the world's major film and television schools, was held at VCA.
the VCA Film and Television Archive holds holds around 1,700 short film
A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...
s dating from 1967, which includes the work produced by graduating students of Swinburne Film and Television School students as well as students and faculty of the VCA School of Film and Television School and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music
The Melbourne Conservatorium of Music is the music school at the University of Melbourne and part of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. It is located near the Melbourne City Centre on the S ...
.
Victoria College fine arts
On 1 January 1992 further expansion of the college took place when the fine arts programs of the former Faculty of Art and Design, Victoria College (formerly Prahran College of Advanced Education), were incorporated into the School of Art.
2006: University of Melbourne affiliation
In 2006 the VCA became an affiliated college of the University of Melbourne, and on 1 January 2007 the VCA became known as the Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. In April 2009 the school became part of the new Faculty of the VCA and Music (VCAM). The School of Music was amalgamated with the University of Melbourne's Faculty of Music and the VCA Secondary School was separated and given a new campus.
With the university requiring the VCA to introduce its Melbourne Model
The Melbourne Model is a standardised academic degree structure which was introduced at the University of Melbourne in 2008. The Melbourne Model is designed to align itself "''with the best of European and Asian practice and North American trad ...
course structure, necessitating a reduction in the amount of hands-on arts training that students receive, critics feared that future students might be unable to find employment upon graduation. Staff of the former VCA accused the dean, Sharman Pretty, of having "little or no recognition of the need for focused arts training, or any esteem for the arts themselves", and the University of Melbourne of trying to mislead the public about the effects. Students were also fearful a reduction in the quality of education and programs on offer whilst the school remained under the University of Melbourne.
2014: further expansion
In 2014 a $42.5 million project to expand and improve the VCA was announced. Supported chiefly by the Victorian Government and the University of Melbourne, the initiative aimed to both "ensure that the VCA maintains its high standards in arts training and research" and "open up the campus to the wider community". A portion of the funding was to be spent acquiring and redeveloping the nearby Dodds Street Stables of the Victoria Police
Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the Australian States and territories of Australia, state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It was formed in 1853 and currently operates under the ''Victoria Police Act 2013''.
, Victor ...
mounted branch. Major contributors included the Myer Foundation
The Myer Foundation is a major Australian philanthropic organisation.
History
The Sidney Myer Charitable Trust was established by the will of Sidney Myer, who died in 1934, leaving a portion of his estate for the benefit of the community. Myer's ...
, the Ian Potter Foundation
Sir William Ian Potter (25 August 190224 October 1994), known as Ian Potter, was an Australian stockbroker, businessman and philanthropist. Potter was knighted in 1962. The Ian Potter Foundation, which he established in 1964, has made grants to ...
, and Martyn and Louise Myer.
Deans or heads
The policy of the VCA has always been to enrol only those students who demonstrate the talent and dedication essential for courses as practising artists and performers. Similarly, members of the academic staff, including the director and the dean of each school, have themselves been accomplished and practising artists.[Pascoe, Joseph (Ed.), ''Creating the Victorian College of the Arts'', Palgrave Macmillan Australia, 2000.]
*Lenton Parr
Thomas Lenton Parr AM (11 September 1924 – 8 August 2003) was an Australian sculptor and teacher .
Sculptor
Born in East Coburg, Victoria, Lenton Parr spent eight years in the Royal Australian Air Force (Svc No. A33223) before enrolling to s ...
AM, founding dean, 1972–1975
* William Kelly, 1975–1982
*John Walker, 1982–1985
*Gareth Sansom
Gareth Sansom (born 19 November 1939) is an Australian artist, painter, printmaker and collagist and winner of the 2008 John McCaughey Memorial Prize of $100,000.
Best known for introducing new themes and subject-matter into Australian art a ...
, 1986–1991
*Norman Baggaley, 1991–1997
*Mostyn Bramley-Moore, 1997–1999
*Su Baker, 2000–2010
*Barry Conyngham
Barry Ernest Conyngham (born 27 August 1944) is an Australian composer and academic. He has over 70 published works and over 30 recordings featuring his compositions, and his works have been premiered or performed in Australia, Japan, North and ...
, 2010–2021
*Marie Sierra, 2021–present
Directors
*Lenton Parr
Thomas Lenton Parr AM (11 September 1924 – 8 August 2003) was an Australian sculptor and teacher .
Sculptor
Born in East Coburg, Victoria, Lenton Parr spent eight years in the Royal Australian Air Force (Svc No. A33223) before enrolling to s ...
, 1972–1984 (Victorian College of the Arts proclaimed 30 November 1972)
*Lionel Lawrence, 1985–1988
*Alwynne Mackie, 1989–1995
*Andrea Hull, 1995–2009
*Su Baker, 2010–2017
* Jon Cattapan, 2017–2020
*Barbara Bolt
Barbara Bolt is an Australian academic and artist. She is the current director of the Victorian College of the Arts which is part of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Melbourne. She is a research theorist her research investi ...
, 2020–2021
*Emma Redding, 2022–present
Notable alumni
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Art schools in Australia
University of Melbourne
Educational institutions established in 1972
1972 establishments in Australia
Buildings and structures in the City of Melbourne (LGA)
Southbank, Victoria