The COFA Blog

A Creative Catalysts list - honouring and exposing 100 inspirational and innovative Sydneysiders who have made a unique contribution to the city’s creative culture, has been launched in conjunction with the Creative Sydney festival.

“The Creative Catalysts list shows that Sydney is a city full of amazing stories of inspiring creativity. It’s not about Sydney’s most influential people or the people with the best arts jobs or the people in the biggest institutions. It’s about people who have taken the initiative to make a creative Sydney. Some of them are well known and obvious, others have simply inspired others in their field or changed the way Sydney does things or sees itself. By highlighting their stories we celebrate their creativity and hope to inspire others to see their city as a place they too can shape and change” says Creative Sydney team member Marcus Westbury.

The Creative Catalysts for 2009 were selected from a list of over 700 people, and includes many COFA graduates and staff, who are listed below.

Andrew Frost, The Art Life - Creating a focal point for discussion about visual arts in Australia

Eddie Sharp, as part of the team who brings us Imperial Panda Festival - Giving Sydney’s theatre scene the closest thing to a fringe festival

Elke Kramer - Inspiring new designers and makers through her own distinctive aesthetic

Emma Price as part of the Kingpins - Performance artists with entertainment values

Liane Rossler, Dinosaur Designs, greenUps - A creative original, from her work with Dinosaur Designs to her commitment to sustainability

Penelope Benton, The Red Rattler - Leading the pack in the small bar movement and creating a new space for performance in Sydney

Trent Jansen, industrial designer - The future of industrial design with a conscience

Creative Sydeny is part of Vivid Sydney, a festival of music, light and ideas. For more information and a full list of Creative Sydney Creative Catalysts please visit: http://creativesydney.com.au/sydneys-creative-catalysts/

Do artists really need dealers? Ever wondered what an art dealer actually does? Three of Sydney’s prominent commercial art dealers discuss the sometimes fraught relationship between the people who make art and the people who sell it. Speakers: Melissa Collins, Stella Downer and Stuart Purves

Melissa Collins
Melissa Collins recently left her position as director of Hogarth Galleries, which specialises in Indigenous art, to pursue further postgraduate research in Aboriginal art. Prior to her five years at Hogarth she was gallery director of Blaxland Galleries.

Stella Downer
Stella Downer is a well respected art dealer, consultant and valuer. She has worked with leading contemporary galleries for over 25 years. Downer was the manager of the well known Roslyn Oxley 9 gallery, Macquarie Galleries and Australian Galleries before opening her own gallery, Stella Downer Fine Art, in 2001.

Stuart Purves
Stuart Purves, director of Australian Galleries in both Sydney and Melbourne, continues to strengthen and diversify the thriving enterprise started in 1956 by his parents Anne and Tam. From the beginning, Australian Galleries developed a reputation for representing prominent Australian artists and since joining the business in 1966, Purves has continued this tradition.

When: Tuesday 2 June 2009, 6:30pm
Where: COFA, Main Lecture Theatre (EG02)

FREE

For details on how to get to COFA and to navigate yourself around the campus, please visit: www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/about/location/

Creative Sydney is a fifteen day festival celebrating the Sydney’s creative talents. In its inaugural year, Creative Sydney features a series of talks and events at the Museum of Contemporary Art and a special event at The Roxy in Parramatta.

On Thursday the 11 June, at 8pm, the Museum of Contemporary Art will host Lo- Fi and Loving It: New dogs, Old Tricks, an event where radical thinkers breathe new life into old mediums in a celebration of lo- fi art, music and performance. Presented in asscociation with Das Superpaper. Atists include Cofa gaduate Kate Mitchell, as part of the duo Greedy Hen and COFA graduates the Brown Council.

Creative Sydney involves artists, practitioners and experts from the full range of Sydney’s creative sectors including music, design, architecture, gaming, photography, performance, writing, radio, film, TV, media arts, advertising and visual arts. The festival opens on Wednesday 27 May and runs till the 15 June 2009. For a full listing of events and more information on Creative Sydney please visit: http://creativesydney.com.au/

What: Lo- Fi and Loving It: New dogs, Old Tricks

When: Thursday 11 June, 8pm to 9pm

Where: Museum of Contemporary Art, The Rocks, Sydney

Presented as part of the Creative Sydney Festival, Wednesday 27 May till the 15 June 2009.

When: Wed, 20 May, ‘09 - Sun, 12 Jul, ‘09
Where: Rookwood cemetery site

Marilyn Schneider, Grass Tree (Richea Pandanifolia), foam and cement, 2009

Incubate issue #3, 2009

Incubate issue # 3 has hit the shelves. This issue of Incubate has devoted 16 pages to the Australian artists, curator and students participating in the Venice event.
This year in June, five Australian artists, a curator, five postgraduate students and four undergraduate students will head to Venice to participate in the oldest and one of the most significant visual arts events in the world – the Venice Biennale.
For Australia, this is an important achievement. But for one institution, to which each of these people can be connected, the achievement is even greater. Never in the history of Australia’s involvement in major international art biennales has one educational institution been so represented.
The 53rd Venice Biennale is COFA’s time to shine.
Incubate issue 3 also features articles about COFA students, staff and graduates exploring a range of issues and creative activity as well as an amazing graduate showcase of images.

INCUBATE can be picked up at various points at the Paddington campus, Object Gallery, Art Gallery of New South Wales or simply request your free copy by emailing your name, address, city and postcode to marketing@cofa.unsw.edu.au. Alternatively you can subscribe to the iTunes U Incubate podcast and automatically have each issue of the magazine downloaded. For more information on iTunes U click here, to be directed to the iTunes U site click here.

While the making of Aboriginal art predates modern definitions of art, in recent years Aboriginal artists have adapted their visual culture to suit the contemporary art market. In this they have been spectacularly successful. In the panel discussion The Survival of Aboriginal Art, both indigenous and non indigenous artists and curators explore the best ways of ensuring the continuity and the integrity of Aboriginal culture.

Djon Mundine
Originally from the Northern Rivers of NSW - his father is Bundjalang and his mother Ngaku - Djon Mundine is a curator and art historian. He is currently Indigenous Curator, Contemporary Art at Campbelltown Arts Centre. Mundine is well known as the concept curator of the permanent Aboriginal Memorial installation at the National Gallery of Australia and was awarded an OAM in 1993.

Vivien Johnson
Proffessor Vivien Johnson’s ongoing advocacy for contemporary Aboriginal art and Indigenous cultural and intellectual property rights has helped to revolutionise the Australian artistic landscape. She recently published, Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists (IAD Press, Alice Springs, 2008) Her curatorial credits include the Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri retrospective and Papunya Painting: Out of the Desert. Johnson is currently a Global Professor at UNSW.

Kelli Ryan
Kelli Ryan is a practising artist. In 1995, Ryan received an OAM for showing leadership to the youth of Australia. In 2007, she became CEO / Director of Boolarng Nangamai Aboriginal Corporation where she works towards empowering the Aboriginal community. Ryan has travelled extensively into remote Aboriginal communities and established links with regional art bodies including Arts NSW, Regional Arts NSW and Arts Law.

When: Tuesday 12 May, 6:30pm
Where: COFA, Main Lecture Theatre (EG02)

FREE

For details on how to get to COFA and to navigate yourself around the campus, please visit: www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/about/location/