All media enquiries, announcements and interviews to
Lisa Montague, VCA Communications Manager
Phone: 03 9685 9371
Mobile: 0412 002 544
Email: montague[@]unimelb.edu.au

• A Time Like This at the VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery
  OPENING NIGHT WEDNESDAY 16 JULY 6pm-8pm
  Exhibition Dates 17 July to 16 August
  

This year Victoria is celebrating the centenary of women gaining the right to vote. To commemorate the anniversary the VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, in collaboration with the National Council of Women of Victoria, is presenting a stunning and thought-provoking exhibition and publication called A Time Like This.

A Time Like This aims to provide a context for, and promote dialogue around, some of the issues women face today: the status of women within human rights, equal opportunities and employment, health, migration, education and communication.

• $40 000 Metro 5 Art Award awarded to VCA Art Graduate
  
  The VCA congratulates Fergus Binns (Bachelor of Fine Art-Painting, graduated 2002) who was recently awarded Australia's richest prize for young painters - the prestigious Metro 5 Art Award...read more
  
  
  
• Inaugural $20, 000 Dobell Music Theatre Award marks the launch of a new Music Theatre Degree at VCA
  

• VCA Director and Dean Andrea Hull to step down after 14 years’ service.
  Director and Dean of the Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts at the University of Melbourne, Professor Andrea Hull AO, is to retire from the position in March next year after an impressive 14 years of service, it was announced today.
  Professor Hull, who has led the VCA through many changes since 1995, is leaving to pursue other interests. She will begin her transition by taking leave from mid-September to complete an MBA and represent the VCA at a number of important international events.
  VCA Head of Art, Associate Professor Su Baker, will be Acting Director until a new Director and Dean is appointed.
  Professor Hull said it had been an enormous privilege to lead the VCA, and she is proud of the many artistic successes of its staff, students and alumni, and the benefactors who have enabled over $40 million to be raised during her tenure for scholarships, new programs and building projects and master artists programs.
• VCA Film & Television graduate Julius Avery wins Cannes short film award.
  VCA Film & Television graduate Julius Avery was awarded the prestigious short film Jury Prize at the 61st Cannes Film Festival in France yesterday. Avery, 29, won the award for Jerrycan. Set in regional Victoria and using non-actors, the film is about a boy who risks everything after he is bullied into making a life and death decision.
  Avery completed a Graduate Diploma in Film and Television (Narrative) at the VCA in 2004 and did aMasters by Coursework (Narrative) in 2005. He was the recipient of the Emerging AustralianFilmmaker Award at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2006 and the winner of the Australian Directors Guild Directors Award for Best Direction in a Student Film for End of Town in 2007.
• What’s on this winter? VCA Short Courses 2008
  Explore / Discover / Create
  Over June and July the Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts opens its doors to the public with a broad
  selection of short courses. Regardless of your age, availability, experience or area of interest, VCA Short
  Courses has something for you. Close to the CBD and easily accessible by public transport, the VCA is
  located in Southbank within the heart of Melbourne's vibrant arts precinct. VCA short courses offer participants:
  • Australia's most talented and dedicated teachers
  • Access to the best arts training facilities
  • Professional and personal advancement opportunities by undertaking a course at Australia's most
  respected arts training institution
  
• VCA Dance 30th Anniversary Performance Season

Program 1
Forever Young; Excerpts, Fragments & Images
Friday 6, Saturday 7, Tuesday 10 - Saturday 14 June at 8pm
Saturday 7 and 14 June at 11.30am
in collaboration with VCA Production

Choreographed by Rebecca Hilton, one of the first graduates from VCA Dance, this new contemporary work traces the movement lineage of the past 30 years through the work of choreographers who have contributed to VCA Dance's innovative repertoire and celebrates the aesthetic, physicality and exuberance of current 2nd and 3rd year dance students.

Program 2
Moving Generations; Celebrating 30 Years of VCA Dance
Monday 16 – Thursday 19 June, 7.30pm
Saturday 21 June, 2pm and 7.30pm

Choroegraphy by Anne Woolliams, Jonathan Taylor, Robert Ray, Neil Adams, Rebecca Hilton. This program spans the three decades of VCA Dance and reflects the influence of each Head of VCA Dance - Anne Woolliams (founding Dean 1978–86), Jonathan Taylor (Dean 1988–97) and Jenny Kinder (Head 2000– present).

Cost - Programs 1 and 2: $27.50 / $17.50
Bookings & enquiries: 03 9685 9374

• VCA DRAMA and VCA PRODUCTION present:
  Two Classic Comedies
  The Fan by Carlo Goldoni & The Feigned Inconstancy by Marivaux
• CLUSTER by Plump: VCA MARGARET LAWRENCE GALLERY
  Marc Rogerson, Philip Samartzis and Dave Brown
  with projections by Marcia Jane
  Opening Thursday 24 April 6–8 pm
  Exhibition Dates Saturday 26 April to Saturday 3 May
• Wilin Week 2008 – Keep the Fire Burning
  Monday 21 –Thursday 24 April 2008
  Wilin Week is an annual Indigenous festival at the VCA hosted by the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development. Featuring music, dance, food, film, language and debate, this festival honours Indigenous students and artists on campus. All events are free.
  
  

• VCA Puppetry Lands in Perth at UNIMA
  Staff, students and alumni from VCA Puppetry will be in Perth this month for the 20th UNIMA Congress and World Puppetry Festival. Talented VCA graduates, Men of Steel and Sixpack, will be performing at the festival. Current puppetry students and Course Coordinator Gilly McInnes will also be travelling to Perth to learn from the world’s best, a trip made possible by the support of the Friends of the VCA. Peter Wilson, Head of VCA Puppetry and UNIMA member, will be involved in several panel discussions.

other snippets...

• VCA Film & TV graduate wins Sony Tropfest 2008
  
• 6/7 empty choreographed and performed by Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal
• Kristy Edmunds announced as the new head of VCA Performing Arts.

other snippets...

• Kids in Berlin - owned by Jennifer Sabine, former Head of VCA Film and Television recently launched their window insallation Dressed for Adventure, created by 3rd year VCA students Mischa Baka (Film) and Rachel Ang (Art) as part of the Cultural Program for L'oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. Mischa and Rachel met during their Centre for Ideas studies. The exhibition runs 26 February to 11 March.
• Miwako Abe, Associate Professor of Violin, Head of Strings, VCA Music will be giving a violin and piano recital with outstanding Australian pianist Michael Kieran Harvey at the Perth International Festival on February 22. They will be premiering new pieces specially written for them by Mark Pollard, Head of the Composition Department at the VCA and a talented Japanese composer, Kanako Okamoto. They will also perform standard repertoire such as Sonatas by Claude Debussy and Richard Strauss. http://www.perthfestival.com.au/1
• Great news of conductor Alan Cook, who graduated from the VCA with a Graduate Diploma (Opera) in 2003. He and his wife Michelle (who has principal contracts at the renowned Teatro Liceu in Barcelona) now live in Barcelona. These You Tube links show Alan conducting the Poltava Symphony orchestra in the Ukraine. They were wonderful performances of Dvorak (New World Symphony) and Rossini (from Semiramide). At the end of the performance, the Head conductor appointed Alan (the title) Principal Guest Conductor. Congratulations Alan!
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJKAsWhSd60
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju1NA3KPeFg

• WHERE IN THE WOODS? Features new works by four Melbourne-based artists: Richard Grigg, Siri Hayes, Amanda Marburg and Mark Rodda.
  VCA MARGARET LAWRENCE GALLERY
  Opening Thursday 7 February 6–8 pm Exhibition Dates Friday 8 February to Saturday 15 March
  

• Helen Herbertson, choreographer and Head Postgraduate Studies in VCA Dance, has won Victoria's top performing arts prize. The Arts Centre this week awarded the 2007 Kenneth Myer Medallion to Herbertson for her long career as a dance-maker, director and teacher.
• On Wednesday 5 December, VCA Film and TV announced the award-winners from the 2007 Grad Show currently screening at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Please follow this link for media release headed FTV07 award-winners:
  http://www.vca.unimelb.edu.au/announcements/
• VCA Film & TV alumni win top AFI Awards!
  VCA Film and TV congratulates alumni winning four major awards at the L'Oréal Paris 2007 AFI Awards, announced recently.
  AFI AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTION
  The Home Song Stories - Tony Ayres, VCA graduate 1985
  MACQUARIE PRIVATE WEALTH AFI AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY (ORIGINAL)
  The Home Song Stories - Tony Ayres, VCA graduate 1985
  AFI INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN FILMMAKING
  Jill Bilcock, VCA graduate 1969
  AFI AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTION IN TELEVISION
  The King - Matthew Saville, VCA graduate 1995
  www.afi.org.au/awards/generalinfo.asp
• In a coup for Australia the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Program features five Australian short films – Advantage, Crossbow, Dugong, I Love Sarah Jane and Spider.
  Dugong was written and directed by VCA FTV graduate ERIN WHITE
  VCA FTV graduate POLLY STANIFORD is the co-producer of Crossbow
  Click here for more information.
• Congratulations to 2007 Australian Idol winner, Natalie Gauci. A wild card Idol finalist, Natalie wowed the audience and earnt the Judges praise for her treatment of Bryan Adams’ Here I Am, Rihanna's Umbrella, Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush, and Crazy by Gnarls Barkley.
  In 1997 and 1998, Natalie studied at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, we salute her fantastic achievement and look forward to her new single, due for release in January, 2008.
  http://www.australianidol.com.au/
• VCA Film & TV lecturer Steve Thomas's documentary ‘Hope’, about Amal Basry and the SIEV X, will be screening at the inaugural Human Rights Arts and Film Festival at the Capitol Cinema, Swanston St, Melb on Sunday 2 December at 3.40pm.
  http://www.hraff.org.au/
  http://www.greentix.com.au/evinfo.php?eventid=20362&sid=
• Two of the six winners of the 2007 Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards are graduates of the VCA. Winner of the Visual Arts category was VCA Art alumna Danielle Freakley who graduated from the Master of Fine Art in 2002. Winner of the Moving Image category was VCA Film & TV alumnus Dustin Feneley who completed the Graduate Diploma and Masters of Film and Television in Narrative Directing in 2005.
  http://www.soya.com.au/