Adelaide College of the Arts

Last updated

Adelaide College for the Arts
Established2001
Location
Light Square, Adelaide
,
South Australia
Website www.tafesa.edu.au/adelaide-college-of-the-arts

The Adelaide College of the Arts, also known as AC Arts and formerly known as Adelaide Centre for the Arts, is a campus of TAFE SA that specialises in education for the performing arts, visual arts, and filmmaking. It is located on Light Square, Adelaide, South Australia. Its predecessors were the Centre for the Performing Arts (CPA) and the North Adelaide School of Arts (NASA).

Contents

History

The predecessors of the Adelaide College of the Arts were: [1]

Centre for the Performing Arts

The Centre for the Performing Arts (CPA) was established in 1978 [1] on the site of the old Adelaide Girls High School, in Grote Street. [2] [3]

Set up by Barry Young, it initially offered courses in dance and technical production. An acting course was introduced in 1987, headed by David Kendall, [a] supported by two part-time instructors. Twelve students enrolled. The course was later expanded from one to two years, and later to three. In 1997 an introductory acting course was established, called Prologue. All lecturers were in the industry, and had useful industry contacts. As the centre expanded, transportable buildings were brought in to create more studio space. [1]

North Adelaide School of Arts

The North Adelaide School of Art (NASA) was established in 1979 in Stanley Street, North Adelaide, on a site vacated the previous year by the South Australian School of Art. The building was purpose-built as an art school in the late 1950s and opened in 1963. [1]

NASA was dedicated to practical studio-based studies in visual art, providing training in studio areas, such as photography and digital art, ceramics, sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, jewellery, and textiles. [1]

Rowley Richardson was principal of the school, which underwent a major renovation in 1984-85, and closed in 2000. [1]

New centre

In 2001, a new purpose-built centre, encompassing both visual arts and performing arts, was built to replace the two former colleges, the new complex being named the Adelaide Centre for the Arts. [1]

Building

AC Arts' purpose-built $30 million campus was designed by award-winning [4] architect Adrian Evans during his time with the Adelaide-based firm Hassell. [5]

Theatres

AC Arts has two main theatre spaces. These are used for in-house performances and also for professional productions, especially during the Adelaide Fringe and the Adelaide Festival.

The Main Theatre is a proscenium arch theatre that seats 220 and the X Space experimental theatre that seats 110. Both spaces are industry-standard, allowing students to learn in an environment as close as possible to the professional world. [6]

Acting and dance studios

On the third floor of the building there are four dance studios with mirrors and bars, four acting studios and a music room. Two of the acting studios (The Stables and the David Kendall Studio) double as performance spaces with easy black out ability.

Courses and teachers

All staff either continue to work or have worked in the industry, and both local and international theatre directors assist with the student productions. [7]

Identified major study areas of the centre are:

The Advanced Diploma of Arts (Acting) is an actor-training program that covers four broad disciplines: acting; movement and voice; performance/production; and contextual studies, and takes three years of full-time study to complete. As of 2016, the head of acting was Terence Crawford. [3]

Notable alumni

Artists

Well-known artists who studied at NASA include:

Performers

Actors who studied at CPA and the current college include:

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Father of actress Kate Kendall.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts</span> Performing arts school of Edith Cowan University

The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University (ECU) is a performing arts school in Perth, Western Australia. Established in 1980, it is notable for being the most comprehensive performing arts school in Australia by disciplines of study and has produced some of Australia's most prominent graduates in the field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Queensland University</span> Public university in Australia

Central Queensland University is an Australian public university based in central Queensland. CQUniversity is the only Australian university with a campus presence in every mainland state. Its main campus is at Norman Gardens in Rockhampton, however, it also has campuses in Adelaide (Wayville), Brisbane, Bundaberg (Branyan), Cairns, Emerald, Gladstone, Mackay, Melbourne, Noosa, Perth, Rockhampton City, Sydney and Townsville. CQUniversity also partners with university centres in several regional areas across Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elder Conservatorium of Music</span> Australian conservatorium of music


The Elder Conservatorium of Music, also known as "The Con", is Australia's senior academy of music and is located in the centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It is named in honour of its benefactor, Sir Thomas Elder (1818–1897). Dating in its earliest form from 1883, it has a history in professional training for musical performance, musical composition, research in all fields of music, and music education. The Elder Conservatorium of Music and its forerunners have been parts of the University of Adelaide since the early 1880s. The current Director is Professor Anna Goldsworthy.

TAFE NSW is an Australian vocational education and training provider. Annually, the network trains over 500,000 students in campus, workplace, online, or distance education methods of education. It was established as an independent statutory body under the TAFE Commission Act 1990. The Minister for Regional Development, Skills and Small Business is responsible for TAFE NSW.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BRIT School</span> City technology college in Croydon, England

The BRIT School is a British performing and creative arts school located in Selhurst, Croydon, England, with a mandate to provide education and vocational training for the performing arts, music, music technology, theatre, musical theatre, dance, applied theatre, production arts and the creative arts film and media production, interactive digital design, visual arts and design. Selective in its intake but free to attend, the school is notable for its celebrity alumni.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drama school</span>

A drama school, stage school or theatre school is an undergraduate and/or graduate school or department at a college or university, or a free-standing institution that specializes in the pre-professional training in drama and theatre arts, such as acting, design and technical theatre, arts administration, and related subjects. If the drama school is part of a degree-granting institution, undergraduates typically take an Associate degree, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, or, occasionally, Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Design. Graduate students may take a Master of Arts, Master of Acting, Master of Science, Master of Fine Arts, Doctor of Arts, Doctor of Fine Arts, or Doctor of Philosophy degree.

Ceremonial dancing has a very important place in the Indigenous cultures of Australia. They vary from place to place, but most ceremonies combine dance, song, rituals and often elaborate body decorations and costumes. The different body paintings indicate the type of ceremony being performed. They play an important role in marriage ceremonies, in the education of Indigenous children, as well as storytelling and oral history. The term corroboree is commonly used to refer to Australian Aboriginal dances, although this term has its origins among the people of the Sydney region. In some places, Aboriginal people perform corroborees for tourists. In the latter part of the 20th century the influence of Indigenous Australian dance traditions has been seen with the development of concert dance, with the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA) providing training in contemporary dance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Kendall</span> Australian actress and director (born 1973)

Kate Kendall is a British-born Australian actress and director. She played Angie Piper in the long-running Nine Network Australian drama Stingers from 1998 to 2004. Kendall has appeared in television series The Librarians (2007), Rush (2010) and Conspiracy 365. She joined the cast of television soap opera Neighbours in 2013 as Lauren Turner. After leaving the role in 2017, Kendall became a director, and later producer, on the serial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Art School</span> Art school in Sydney, Australia

The National Art School (NAS) is a tertiary level art school, located in Darlinghurst, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school is an independent accredited higher education provider offering specialised study in studio arts practice across various disciplines.

The Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, usually referred to as Tandanya, is an art museum located on Grenfell Street in Adelaide, South Australia. It specialises in promoting Indigenous Australian art, including visual art, music and storytelling. It is the oldest Aboriginal-owned and -run cultural centre in Australia. It has been closed for building repairs since May 2023 and is due to reopen sometime in 2025.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oslo National Academy of the Arts</span> University college in Oslo, Norway

The Oslo National Academy of the Arts is a tertiary institution in Oslo, Norway, that provides education in visual arts, design and performing arts. It is one of two public institutes of higher learning in Norway that teaches in visual arts and design, the other being the Bergen National Academy of the Arts in Bergen.

Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts) is a public four–year college preparatory visual and performing arts high school located in the West Town community area, in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Operated by the Chicago Public Schools district, The school opened for the 2009–10 school year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greer Honeywill</span> Australian conceptual artist

Greer Honeywill is an Australian conceptual artist. Her work covers sculptural conventions, autobiography and critical thinking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grote Street</span> Street in Adelaide, South Australia

Grote Street is a major street running east to west in the western half of Adelaide city centre, South Australia. It is on the northern border of Chinatown and the Adelaide Central Market, and is a lively centre for shopping and restaurants. The historic Her Majesty's Theatre is located here.

Nathan Page is an Australian actor. He is best known for his commercial voice-over work and his role as Detective Inspector Jack Robinson in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.

Terence Michael Crawford is an Australian actor, author, theatre director, academic and songwriter. He graduated from the acting course at National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1984, and went on to gain additional academic qualifications as well as writing and performing plays. He has also been head of acting at several drama schools in Australia and Singapore, and taught courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. He is also a musician, playing in his band Almost Evelyn.

Chris Tugwell is an Australian dramatist, screenwriter, and author. Best known as a playwright, his most successful play was X-Ray, which he also produced.

Kate Beynon is an Australian contemporary artist based in Melbourne.

Gail Mabo is an Australian visual artist who has had her work exhibited across Australia. She is the daughter of land rights campaigner Eddie Mabo and educator and activist Bonita Mabo. She was formerly a dancer and choreographer.

Independent Theatre (IT) is an Australian theatre company based in Adelaide, South Australia. It has strong links to American theatre and culture, frequently producing plays by American playwrights, but also produces classical and contemporary theatre, as well as adaptations from novels.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "History". TAFE SA. Archived from the original on 21 July 2008.
  2. ↑ "Centre for the Performing Arts" (photo + text). State Library of South Australia. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Crawford, Terence (August–September 2016). "Adelaide College of the Arts: Acting, privilege and legacy". RealTime Arts (134). Interviewed by Brooker, Ben. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  4. ↑ "South Australian Architecture Awards".
  5. ↑ "Postcards". Archived from the original on 19 June 2005.
  6. ↑ "AC Arts Website - Performing Arts Facilities".
  7. 1 2 3 4 On, Thuy (4 October 2023). "A multi-hatted educator, actor and director takes on his next challenge". ArtsHub Australia. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  8. ↑ "Australian Television: Stingers: profiles: Kate Kendall". Australian Television Information Archive. 30 October 1998. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  9. ↑ "Nathan Page". Showcast. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  10. ↑ De Nadai, Natalie (10 July 2013). "Poster boy jumps in to Shakespeare comedy". adelaidenow. Retrieved 24 November 2024.

34°55′28″S138°35′31″E / 34.924560°S 138.592080°E / -34.924560; 138.592080

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.