Writing our piece on the National Art School/UNSW College of Fine Arts stoush [see below] has been like throwing a hand grenade. The heat coming off those comments is red hot and, as you can see by the poll at right, it looks as though the NAS will soon be selling spicy chicken if our readers have any say in it. Meanwhile, Crikey has run two stories on its web pages, one on the background to how the NAS came to be in its current predicament, the other covers much of the same ground but has some entertaining speculation of what The Esteemed Critic might hope to gain from the art school being consumed by Macquarie University.
The first story, written by Hugo Kelly, had the temerity to describe the NAS as a virtual “finishing school for rich kiddies”. Enraged, The Esteemed Critic fired off a letter to Crikey:
I was amazed by Hugo Kelly’s piece (yesterday) about my “ranting” on behalf of the National Art School. I was perfectly up front about where I stand on this issue, but I’m at a loss to imagine what stands behind Mr. Kelly’s sarcastic – and frankly ignorant – comments. His tone is neither clever nor witty – it’s nasty. To call the art school a “finishing school for rich kids” is a stupid and insulting thing to say. Mr. Kelly has obviously never had a good look at the place – “terminally down-at-heel” would be a better description.[…] I can only assume this piece was meant to shore up support for CoFA’s bid – which is, by all accounts, far inferior to the Macquarie offer. If CoFA does take over, it will mean a lessening of choice for Sydney’s art students and a decline in the quality of art education. […] I always thought Crikey was a good idea, but if this is an example of the kind of comment you see fit to print, you are no better than the tabloids at their worst.
You’ve got to hand it to McDonald, on the one hand he’s enraged by abuse, yet there he is throwing it right back out. For example, when McDonald says he’s up front, what he means is that that he was forthright in expressing his opinion from the soapbox of his SMH column, not upfront about stating his vested interest in keeping his job at NAS; when McDonald says that “by all accounts [CoFA’s bid is] far inferior to the Macquarie offer” what he means is that based on unsubstantiated rumour his version of facts is the correct one; when McDonald says that Kelly’s “tone is neither clever nor witty – it’s nasty” and then turns around and says that if COFA “does take over, it will mean a lessening of choice for Sydney’s art students and a decline in the quality of art education” what he means is that he understands a deeper shade of irony than most mortals can begin to comprehend.
CAD Horror: Is this the future for The National Art School?
Another slight fudging of facts has also come to light. When McDonald said last Saturday that he had read about COFA’s post-takeover plans for NAS on “cyberspace” what he had meant was that he read something about in an email. Thanks to a vigilant Art Life reader, we now know that these “Woodstock whisperings” had come not come from official COFA sources – and who are bound by commercial confidentiality agreements since they are in the middle of a tendering process and cannot comment – but from COFA’s student council email newsletter. We had speculated that, from the fragments quoted by The Esteemed Critic, either he was deliberately misrepresenting what had been said or had been duped by an obvious piss take. It turns out that it was a little of both. The email was sent out following Verghis’s first article for the SMH and sets out to explain some of the background and, from the point of view of students at COFA, what they might gain from a merger:
If you read the paper yesterday you would have seen the scandal written about UNSW COFA taking over National Art School and shipping us all over to Kensington! Well we have to tell you THIS IS CRAZY UNTRUE!
Earlier this year, the Federal Govt. opened submissions for Universities to run the National Art School located in the old Darlinghurst Gaol at Taylor Square. UNSW COFA have made a bid to merge with NAS to become one huge arts and design institution over two campuses in this cultural precinct of Paddington and Darlinghurst. We would be a huge Faculty of UNSW, the largest arts and design institution of its kind in the country, and it appears the vision is that National Art School would of course keep its name and be the art school of the Faculty, whilst COFA would become the National School of Design or something to that effect and we’d all fall under the same banner.
The exciting thing for us students is that in this merger, we would all have more choice, more space and more facilities. There’d be room for more cross programs, you could choose between their existing system of longer teaching hours or COFA’s existing teaching system for the same number of credit points. They’d be so many more opportunities for collaborative initiatives and networks. They’re going to set up a bike trail and there’ll be a number of bicycles for students to borrow to ride between campuses. It’d be a whole new creative vibe happening down Oxford St!
This proposal to merge two arts schools has emerged out of a vision for an amazing ‘conservatorium’ of the arts and design, equivalent to the status of NIDA, the Conservatorium of Music, or VCA. It’s quite exciting really. The concern that has come out in yesterday’s SMH is a result of some staff worried about their jobs, so they’ve spread rumors and convinced students that its a bad idea, COFA will squish NAS, close it down and send us all off to Kensington campus. As we understand it at the Students’ Association, there is no real threat of job loss to any staff at COFA or NAS, COFA will not ‘take over’ NAS, this is a merger, a sharing caring beautiful thing, and moving to Kensington is not realistic and is definitely not going to happen.
Some anti-COFA/NAS merge people have organised an action against the idea this coming Monday 14 November at 12.30pm. If you know anyone at NAS, tell them that merging with us is way better than becoming part of Macquarie University. Becoming one big school with us can only be a good thing for the arts, design and culture in Sydney. Tell everyone, share the love, and if you can, go and visit NAS on Monday
morning, look at how beautiful it is and picture what it would be like to have some of your classes there, or the option to have some of your classes there. We’re going to go there as a group at 11am, tell them all how exciting this idea is, make friends, and squash these claims that COFA will ‘negate’ them. This claim may only ring true if they don’t merge with us, it doesn’t make sense to have rival University arts campuses across the road from each other… that’s just weird! We already share so many common areas; it makes so much sense to merge with us!Share the love!
Students’ Association
College of Fine Arts, UNSW
