Why cultural partnerships are a win-win

Volume 10 Number 8 August 11 - September 7 2014

NGV curator Ted Gott, NGV head of corporate partnerships Romina Calabro and University Vice-Principal of Engagement Adrian Collette at the NGV. Photo: Peter Casamento
NGV curator Ted Gott, NGV head of corporate partnerships Romina Calabro and University Vice-Principal of Engagement Adrian Collette at the NGV. Photo: Peter Casamento

 

The University and the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) have hosted a unique panel event to showcase their partnership. Zoe Nikakis talks to some of the panel members about their professional journeys and the importance of cultural partnerships for lifelong learning.

It’s unsurprising the University’s Vice-Principal of Engagement Adrian Collette believes cultural partnerships, such as the one that exists between the University and the NGV, are mutually beneficial.

What’s interesting is why: not particularly for the institutions themselves, but rather for the people for whom they exist, and to whom they belong: the people of Melbourne.

“We’re increasingly one of the world’s great city universities,” he says.

“Having campuses at Southbank and Parkville makes us part of the city, so it makes sense to take the cultural core of this University and form partnerships with the other great cultural institutions, such as the State Library of Victoria and the Melbourne Museum.

“The NGV is the foremost gallery of Australia by any measure, so this is a natural extension of the University’s aspirations.”

Mr Collette says the University needs to engage in such cultural partnerships partly because it has such rich cultural assets, and it is one of the great collecting institutions of Melbourne. 

“The cultural life of the University runs very deep, so sharing it is a natural extension of what we do,” he says.

And it seems there’s tremendous appetite for these kinds of learning experiences in Melbourne. The University’s engagement with the public through programs such as its monthly 10 Great Books lectures and Cultural Treasures Festival are proving incredibly popular with the public.

“We get tremendous engagement,” Mr Collette says. “Every free event our academics have led at the NGV has been completely full. Our scholars are in touch with a broader community and they’re having an exchange with that community, which is priceless.

“Melbourne is a deeply cultural city, and we’re part of that, so it offers us the opportunity for much deeper and broader engagement.”

The two institutions’ latest partner event featured a University-NGV staff panel including Arts alumnus and the NGV’s Senior Curator of International painting and Sculpture 1300-1980 Ted Gott.

Mr Gott says having studied French, Classics and also Art History at the University, he could have gone into teaching, but was drawn to the museum world.

 “I think both institutions benefit from this sort of partnership,” he says. “The staff of both institutions often approach similar subjects from quite different perspectives, and ideally, each can shed light on the other.”

Though this panel event was about University alumni moving into careers in the Arts and cultural sector, partnerships also encourage staff working in industry to study or work at the University.

Mr Collette’s own professional experience supports this. Prior to joining the University, he was the Chief Executive of Opera Australia.

“The thing about working in the arts industry is that you are usually compelled to engage a market, or an audience, so the quality of your work is being tested – constantly,” he says.

“When you come from that culture, you bring that attitude with you.

“You get a rich exchange in working with the very, very best, in my case in a performing arts company, and then coming to the University and working with the very best scholars and researchers.”

Mr Collette says having people with deep industry experience can also shape thinking around how students are prepared for professional life.

“I feel that this University thinks about careers rather than, simply, jobs,” he says.

“The deeper your education, the more curious you become.”

One such student is Simon Maidment, the NGV’s Contemporary Art Curator who is also a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of the VCA and Music. 

“My job is to reflect on where we are as a society and art’s role in shaping its past, present and future; to recognise those practitioners who are making, or have made, a contribution to those societal shifts, or their artform; and to communicate narratives, findings and intuitions through the form of exhibition, and through a range of associated communications,” he says. 

Mr Maidment agrees the partnership is a natural fit, because the people within the University and the NGV are concerned with scholarship, and finding appropriate ways in which to capture and disseminate the results.

 “We understand that we all make contributions to ideas, issues and conundrums (as well as institutions) that will outlast us,” he says. 

“There are many, many areas of overlap with the concerns of both institutions.

“They both exist to provide accessible pathways for people to learn, to grow as individuals and to understand, appreciate, and contribute to the collective: who we are; where we are; in the ways our context can be improved from every perspective.”

www.engagement.unimelb.edu.au

 

www.arts.unimelb.edu.au