Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

A distinguished Professor who spoke last year said that, after sitting through some fifty graduation ceremonies, he could remember few of the occasional addresses to which he had been subjected. He went on to say, with due academic humility, that he was therefore not optimistic that anyone would remember his. I, on the other hand, with the arrogance of a non-academic, hope against all the odds that someone will remember mine. Since this is the first time that students from the Brisbane College of Art have received their testamurs under the aegis of Griffith University, today must be regarded as a very special occasion-an occasion which celebrates not only the graduation of 21 I students, but also the merger of two institutions of higher learning. The coming together of the College and the University is one of the last of the celebrated Dawkins Plan mergers, not all of which have been greeted with 'joy unconfined' by those concerned. Arranged mergers, like arranged marriages, are not always successful, especially if one party feels that it is giving away too much of its own individuality. But, in the case of this merger, I am confident that each party will be happy and satisfied. The College will retain relative independence in operation, function, staffing, and teaching; it will retain its name and links with its proud tradition; it will spread its influence more widely throughout Brisbane and the Gold Coast region; and its students will have access to increased options for study through other Griffith disciplines. The University will expand its academic profile and have a greater ability to offer to its students the highest standards of education in visual arts and design. I believe that the merger will be good for the College, good for the University, and good for the arts. Both institutions occupy unique places in the cultural history of Queensland. The college is not only the oldest art school-its origins go back to 1881-but it has, over the years, remained the principal institution for the training of visual artists and designers. In 1982 an arts journalist wrote, rather poetically: 'Very much a slumbering muse that for too long lay dreaming under the sub-tropical sun, the Brisbane College of Art has at last awakened and is full of vigorous activity'. That was a decade ago and, since then, the College has gone from strength to strength, until today its disciplines cover a wide range of activities, including painting, print making, sculpture, ceramics, gold- and silver-smithing, graphic design, illustration, film and television, animation, photography, dress designing, jewellery and interior decoration. Many of its alumni have gone on to successful careers in one or other of these areas of endeavour. The other party to the merger, Griffith University, is, by contrast, one of the youngest tertiary institutions in Queensland, but, from its inception in 1975, it has emphasised the importance of the arts, in the widest sense of the word, to society. Arts activities on campus include the Film and Drama Centre, Griffith Artworks, an Arts Committee, the Institute of Cultural Policy Studies, and studies in the history of art itself. It seems highly appropriate, therefore, that the Bachelor of Visual Arts Degree offered by the College-which was, indeed, the first College of Technical and Further Education to offer such a degree-should now be given University status by the merger with Griffith. 151