Not only the BAs but also, I suspect, the BFAs (Bachelor of Fine Arts) are on their way out. For some years QUT has been running Bachelor of Creative Industries and Bachelor of Fine Arts degree courses. The former being the more vocationally oriented and probably easier to pitch to industry and government for funding.

I recently completed a BFA in Visual Arts and it was clear to my cohort that, towards the end of the course, the university had completely lost interest in this group. Resources were stripped to the absolute minimum, lecturers and tutors disappeared and the few that were left were overworked and probably feared for their jobs. No effort was made to get us to continue our studies into an honours year or anything beyond. There was a feeling of total abandonment and I felt like I had “done my dough” on this course.

One of the distinguishing features of the visual arts course is the studio practice element. This forms about 50% of the BFA and was a major part of the first three semesters of the BCI in visual arts until about two years ago when it was dropped from that course. The visual arts block, where the studio practice is concentrated, was poorly maintained and equipped and missed out on all the largesse lavished on the “cultural precinct” at Kelvin Grove. I recently heard that QUT is selling or giving away most, if not all, of its printmaking equipment and closing its printmaking facility.

Visual arts is now part of a school/department known as Communication Design and Visual Arts, Dance, Music & Sound. At best a clumsy title, but one that demonstrates the important position held by Communication Design, a shining star in the Creative Industries firmament.

To me it seems that the evidence points to a winding down of, at least, the BFA(Vis. Arts). If this is the case then QUT should be brave enough to kill it off rather than let it fade away and expose another group of trusting students to the same slow realisation and disappointment that I encountered.

"To allow the market mechanism to be the sole director of the fate of human beings and their natural environment...would result in the demolition of society". Karl Polanyi:The Great Transformation

"The most important consequence of the rule of technology is that, in a fundamental way, the whole society runs off track". Langdon Winner: Autonomous Technology

"There is the moral of all human tales;
'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past.
First freedom and then Glory---when that fails,
Wealth, vice, corruption,---barbarism at last".

Lord Byron: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.

"This time...the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing for quite some time".
Alasdair MacIntyre: After Virtue

These four quotes head two chapters in a book titled: Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire.
1. http://www.morrisberman.com

People on the "right" will loathe this book. Every one else will find it profoundly disturbing. Australia is not yet as far gone as America but it is going in the same direction courtesy of our lap dog Prime Minister and his bunch of smiling bovver boy hooligans.

We already have to many economist who fail consistently with predicting interest rates and mineral booms and busts. We have to many 'scientist' trying to make a quid out of fabrication (climate change) and to many counsellors whose lives are a total mess. I'm with Leigh on this one.

Q: What did the Arts graduate say to the Science graduate?

A: "Do you want fries with that?"

Ho Hum,

They've been predicting the decline and fall of the US for decades. Quoting lines from a book won't make it happen. In short, it's not going to happen.

We already have to many economist who fail consistently with predicting interest rates and mineral booms and busts. We have to many 'scientist' trying to make a quid out of fabrication (climate change) and to many counsellors whose lives are a total mess. I'm with Leigh on this one

We already have TOO many EconomistS who fail consistently IN predicting interest rates *and mineral booms and busts* (I ASSUME YOU ARE REFERRING TO SUPPLY AND DEMAND FACTORS WHICH DETERMINE THE PRICE OF THESE NATURALLY OCCURRING COMPOUNDS?). We have TOO many 'ScientistS' trying to make a quid out of *fabrication (climate change)*(these three words are not linked by any connecting words and therefore have no meaning!!) and TOO many CounseLors whose lives are a total mess??(THEY DON'T TAKE OUT THEIR GARBAGE, PERHAPS?). I'm with Leigh on this one (THIS SENTENCE HAS NO SUBJECT~WE ARE LEFT TO ASSUME WHAT YOU ARE "with" LEIGH ON.)

The distinction between 'to, two and too' is currently taught as part of the Queensland English Syllabus for Year Two students.

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