Professor Ryan Daniel
What a semester! It has been a fantastic year so far and which recently culminated in two significant public events. The first was the launch of the “BOSS”, the “Best of Student Show” exhibition, and which displayed in the new building and gallery the very best student work from both the Cairns and Townsville student bodies. The launch was a tremendous night with great art work on display, lots of food, many excited people and excellent entertainment. Congratulations to all those involved, and especially those students whose work was selected for display!
We also recently presented a concert in the outdoor performance area to raise funds for the Cancer Council and $2000 was raised for this very important charity.
We in the School are now working feverishly towards the new semester, and where we will welcome a cohort of new students on both the Cairns and Townsville campuses. Our numbers continue to grow indeed our mid year enrolment will increase about 15% on last year. I look forward to welcoming back our current students as well as all new students as they embark on their creative journey.
Finally, it is with a tinge of sadness that we farewell Associate Professor Michael Beresford, who leaves us at the end of the year to commence a new position at the University of Tasmania. Michael’s contribution to the community and the University over the last 17 years in Townsville initially and then Cairns has been extraordinary. He has now built a strong Performance program in Cairns, laid a wonderful foundation for growth, and established himself as a leading playwright and inspirational academic. On behalf of the School, I wish him every success in his new adventure, and look forward to continuing to work with Michael as he takes up an Adjunct position with the School early next year.
To all of our community and newsletter readers, I wish you well and hope to see you on campus at some point during the next semester.
Dr Salisbury’s music premiered at AFCM Launch 
School of Creative Arts lecturer in music, Dr David Salisbury will show off two of his compositions at the launch of the Australia Festival of Chamber Music early next month.
The musical pieces include an original composition Magnetic Reflections scored for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello, Marimba and Didgeridoo. As well as Suite Brolga which is a composition inspired by a traditional Aboriginal story of how the Brolga came to be. Printmaker Shirley Collin, a Pitta-Pitta woman will narrate the story. Both were composed for William Barton on didgeridoo. There are improvised sections integrated into the score, in which some of the instruments interpret characters in the story musically.
This will be a free concert on Sunday 2 Aug, 2pm at Umbrella Studio.
For information visit Umbrella or ph 47727109
McBurnie’s exhibition a must see
JCU’s Artist-in-Residence, Ron McBurnie has reason to celebrate. His current exhibition at the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery Metal as Anything showcases diverse and intricate etchings that he has created over the past thirty years!
McBurnie’s etchings are inspired by whatever he is exposed to at the time, “If I am marvelling at an old print, then that inspires me. If I hear an idiotic story about a corrupt politician then that story will inspire me. If I am playing a piece of music that takes me to an extraordinary place, then that is my inspiration. To me, inspiration for my work comes from a variety of different sources. Sometimes ideas and inspiration come from the weirdest of sources.”
The diversity of events, both large and small, that inspire McBurnie’s artworks are telling of the artist’s greatest strength – his ability to highlight the weird and wonderful events that occur in our ‘mundane’ suburban environment. It is so easy for these fleeting, humorous moments to be lost, buried underneath the drudgery and commitments of our daily grind. McBurnie, unlike most, captures these moments in his own life and ensures they are not misplaced.
A must see: Metal As Anything, showing until Sun 16 Aug, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery.
A mentor who will be missed by all
Associate Professor Michael Beresford bids his farewells to JCU and takes on new adventures in the cooler surroundings of Tassy later this year. As mentioned above, Michael has been teaching at the SoCA for 17 years at both campuses and has had much success as a playwright, including his performance Tiptoe at the Jute Theatre last year.
He will be missed, not only by staff and students but by the whole performing arts community in Far North Queensland.
Good luck Michael, the University of Tasmania is lucky to have such a great mentor!
New Student Association to Brings Life to Campus
The School of Creative Arts has been working with the students recently to improve campus life and bolster a sense of belonging and on-campus culture. The results of these discussions have proved very fruitful : a microwave and fridge have been supplied to the students to heat up those midnight snacks when the pressure is really on; a coordinated approach to communications between the school and the student body via email and Facebook; the establishment of a fund so students can organise their own events, bbqs and performances on campus; and most importantly of all, the establishment of the Creative Arts Student Association (CASA).
This association has already been very active in helping the school iron out any problems the students have been experiencing in the day-to-day running of the school; the efficient use of facilities and innovations related to subject delivery. Already on the cards are lunch time DJ sessions, BBQ fundraisers, studio exhibitions and peer to peer skills networking sessions.
This is a great move forward for both the school and SoCA campus life. All students who have participated in the process so far should be commended. Watch this space!
p.s/ CASA are also on facebook…
Students linked to LiNQ via the web
Students from subjects Web Authoring I (SoCA) and Multimedia Web Design (IT) created websites for LiNQ, one of the oldest North Queensland Literary Journals, as part of an assessable project last semester. This project was the first time a multidisciplinary collaborative learning and teaching environment was introduced between the two schools and the website outcomes exceeded the expectations of the LiNQ editors.
The winning team consists of the following students: 2nd year Bachelor of New Media Arts, Digital Media Design students Rachel Britton and Josh Dykgraaf, 2nd year Bachelor of IT student Ashley Sexton and 1st year Master of IT students Raghuveer Indla and Sree Ganesh Porselvam.
Visit here and click on the links for examples of the website creations.
Students wowed during SoCA visits
Bus loads of local and regional secondary school groups have come through the School of Creative Arts complex and been amazed by the facilities. Here is a word from Ange Venardos, Arts Coordinator of Ingham State High School:
“We wish to express our sincere appreciation for the tour for the Grade 10’s on June 18, 2009. The students were really impressed and I am sure it opened their eyes to possible career choices through the Arts….It is gratifying that three students actually came forward of their own accord, excited about the presentation, and stated their intention to pursue JCU as a career path even though it had not occurred to them before. I’m sure many more felt the same though not as vocal.”
If your senior secondary school students would like to do a workshop or tour of the SoCA please contact elly.murrell@jcu.edu.au or phone 4781 3142.
Uni Experience, Careers Expo and Open Day
It’s that time of the year again:
Townsville Uni Experience – Thurs 16 & Fri 17 July
Townsville Careers Expo – Mon 10 Aug, 10am – 1:30pm & 4pm – 7pm
Townsville Open Day – Sun 30 Aug, 10am – 2:30pm
Cairns Open Day – Sun 23 Aug, 10am – 2:30pm
For more information email openday@jcu.edu.au or phone 1800 246 446
Charity Concert A Success
A wonderful evening of entertainment was had by all that attended the Winter Music Compilation, a fundraising event that took place in the middle of last month.
Almost 100 guests were seated in the SoCA Outdoor Performance Space to be treated by the musical talents of local musicians including the wonderful girl’s choir from St Margaret Mary’s College, the Townsville Guitar Orchestra, the funky jazz sounds of Captain Nemo and highly accomplished piano performances by SoCA Masters of Music student Julia Bowden, special guest Richard Auvil and our Head of School, Professor Ryan Daniel.
From the event $2,000 was raised and given to the Cancer Council Queensland.
A word from the Fundraising Coordinator of the Cancer Council Qld, Heather Martin:
“Thank you to all associated with the Charity Concert held at the School of Creative Arts on June 12th 2009. Money raised from the evening will go towards the world class treatment facilities for cancer patients, research, support and assistance for patients and their families and funding for our educational programs for the prevention and early detection of cancer…. Thank you for your support and thoughtfulness in helping us with our cause. Cancer Council Queensland is a charity organisation that receives no government funding and relies solely on Queenslanders and organisations such as School of Creative Arts, JCU to support our vital anti cancer programs.”
BoSS Launch Reviewed
A huge turn out of staff and students celebrated the end of first semester in style at the launch of the BoSS – Best of Student Show in the SoCA Gallery. The BoSS highlights some of our high calibre talent within the creative arts students from all year levels and study areas.
Everyone who attended were entertained by traditional Cook Island drum beats and dancing from Sunset Rhythm and later in the evening by funky local outfits AUX and Chinchy. First year performance student gave a good taste test of their creations that they have worke
d on all semester and film screenings created by students were enjoyed as well.
BoSS images above kindly supplied by Digital Imaging student John Sharples.
Student Performances Reviewed
Written by Us: Tales from the Cowshed 2009 featured 13 short performance texts as live performed readings over two evenings facilitated by Townsville’s Performance curriculum coordinator in Performance Debra Thomas. Texts were diverse and directed toward audiences as young as eight years of age intended for future animation through to texts for mature audiences for stage and screen.
Beckett and Beyond offered an entertaining and informative introduction to a number of playwrights and theatre practitioners whose theatrical praxis is essentially Imagist. Using a combination of live performance, video projection, lighting and sound, the five 3rd year Performance students lead the audience on a journey through the theatrical landscape of the Imagists. Performance lecturer Brian Kneipp facilitated the first of many student productions in the Court House Theatre
Painting Workshop Review- Winter in the Tropics
The aim of this painting intensive was to acquire the fundamentals of painting, and in this process a lot of paint was mixed! Geoff Dupree presented a sequence of increasingly complex painting problems with a range of palettes that allowed different translations of light/dark, warm/cool and more/less intensity from observed subjects in a range of spatial contexts. Artists selected sections to paint from a 10 x 1 metre colourful, still life created from fabrics and painted objects. The emphasis was always to learn from observation, to use a systematic approach to colour mixing, and to paint the space not the individual parts. A measure of the commitment to this process was that after day one participants (and Geoff) arrived early and left late. 
Geoff trained at the City and Guilds of London Art School and St Martin’s School of Art, London. He is a well known representational painter, with a considerable reputation as a drawing and painting teacher. He designed a highly successful drawing program in the Faculty of Art and Design at Monash University and was until recently, an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Fine Arts, supervising a number of Masters and Doctoral researchers who specialise in the drawing discipline. Geoff now devotes his time to painting and running workshops to provide others with the assistance and practical knowledge to improve their drawing and painting skills.
The workshop was well subscribed with artists from Cairns, Melbourne, Northern NSW, Sunshine Coast, and Orange participating, some of whom had previously attended Geoff’s drawing intensive at the Cairns campus of SoCA in 2008, and was organized by Laurel McKenzie, MCA candidate at JCU and Margaret Genever.
The artists acknowledge and appreciate the support of SoCA / JCU for the workshop.
Last chance to apply for JCU’s inaugural NMA Award
The deadline is fast approaching to be in the chance to win up to $2,000! Application deadline for the Screengrab New Media Arts Award, organised by the School of Creative Arts, JCU is Mon 13 July
If you want to be considered for this highly innovative screen-based exhibition and award please refer to the guidelines here and send your application form here by the deadline. Please ensure you address the theme of INTERVENTION in your artist statement.
For more information contact screengrab@jcu.edu.auor phone 4781 3142
FNQ’s best contemporary arts festival now on
Russell Milledge, coordinator and lecturer of the Bachelor of Creative Industries at the SoCA Cairns campus has been busy co-producing the 5th On Edge Festival.
On Edge Contemporary Media + Performance is an annual program of contemporary arts which strives to produce a Nationally and Internationally relevant program of independent new work, that traverses the various disciplines of performance, sound, screen, new media and installation.
Dr Steven Campbell , music lecturer at the SoCA Townsville Campus, has also been busy putting the digital sound together for one of the festival performances Whispering Limbs, where he has worked collaboratively with Russell Milledge and Bonemap.
The On Edge Festival runs from Fri 3 – Sat 18 July at various venues in Cairns. See here for program.
Tickets can be purchased at http://www.ticketlink.com.au/ or phone 4031 9555
Opportunity to Exhibit in Cairns
Exhibition applications are now open to exhibit in Cell Art Space in 2010. Applications will be accepted from individual artists, art groups and curators living in North Queensland.
Cell art space encourages emerging visual artists to apply. Applicants are encouraged to visit Cell Art Space, 109 Lake St to see its full potential.
Applications are due by 5pm on the Wed 30 Sept 2009, for more information and to obtain an application please contact the Cell Art Space management committee members via email at info@cellartspace.com or visit www.cellartspace.com
