Abstract
As creative arts disciplines settled into the university sector, the numbers of staff and students engaged in research increased dramatically. The tertiary creative arts sector today displays diversity in both its creative genres and in the structures through which it is organised and managed. Creative disciplines are included in arts-only schools, faculties and departments as well in combination with a variety of other multi-disciplinary groupings, and the extent to which research or practice forms part of their workload varies from institution to institution. The university has provided, for many, a satisfactory home for their practice creating communities of practice, financial stability for arts employees, infrastructure to continue artistic practice and a supportive attitude towards new and experimental work. Yet locating artistic practice within the research agenda has introduced a framework which can challenge how artists approach and produce their work.
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Notes
- 1.
An academic organizational unit is defined by the Australian Government as ‘a unit formed by a higher education provider to undertake as their primary objective teaching-only, research-only or teaching-and-research functions, or which is used for statistical reporting purposes’. It can include schools, departments, faculties or divisions.
- 2.
Based on review of university Websites conducted in 2012.
- 3.
While there are questions about the accuracy of Commonwealth Government staffing data in relation to specific academic organizational units, it is presumed that inaccuracies in the overall numbers reported by universities would be less likely as total staffing data informs government funding allocations.
- 4.
Three respondents, who represented research groups rather than schools, were excluded from consideration.
- 5.
ERA specifically excludes ‘student work’ from consideration.
- 6.
Personal communication with CEO of Queensland Crafts Council in 2007 as part of commissioned project for Queensland College of Art into the future of its Gold, Silversmithing and Small Objects program.
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Wilson, J. (2018). The University as a Site for Artistic Practice. In: Artists in the University . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5774-8_3
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