Graduate Exhibition 22 - 27 November
Masters Exhibition 6 - 11 December

This is your opportunity to delve into the creative explorations from the School of Art. The Graduate Exhibition comprises work by graduating students from Drawing, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture and Spatial Practice. The Masters Exhibition presents 33 individual shows from the Master of Fine Art and Master of Visual Art graduating students.

22 - 23 November

The performance spotlight will shine on backstage talent next week when Production graduates from the School of Performing Arts showcase their work in set design, costume, workshop, sound, lighting and stage management. The Production Graduate Exhibition is an opportunity for the public and industry professionals to explore the skillful work that goes on behind the scenes in creative and backstage roles.

8 - 17 December

Over two weeks in December you can see the cinematic creations from our fresh filmmaking talent in the annual VCA Film and Television Graduate Screenings at ACMI. The program showcases an absorbing selection of short films across a variety of genres; see them now before they hit the international festival circuit. Screening details released here soon.

Tuesday 22 November, 7.30pm

For almost 10 years, the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts has been a vibrant presence within the Southbank arts precinct, dedicated to Indigenous arts, artists, communities and career development. The Wilin Showcase will feature performances by current staff, students and alumni as well as guest artists from the Dhungala Children’s Choir and a performance of Lu’arn by Idja Dance Theatre.

Friday 25 November, 6.00pm – 9.00pm

Theatre for Change is a community-based developmental program of theatre workshops and presentations, run by the Centre for Cultural Partnerships, engaging two Horn of Africa refugee communities in outer metropolitan regions of Victoria. This Forum Theatre Performance will show ‘cultural storytelling’ through theatre, letting participants explore cultural diversity and issues of settlement.

Thursday 8 December, 6.00 – 7.00pm

Alumna Jennifer Higgie (MFA, 1991) is now co-editor and staff writer of frieze magazine and lives in London. She was a Turner Prize judge in 2008 and is on the Art Council of Great Britain Acquisitions Committee for 2011–12. She returns to the VCA in December, during the Masters Exhibition, to give a public lecture asking the question: ‘Why haven’t jokes, humour, wordplay and satire in the art of the last century been taken seriously?’ Full details.

Dr Bianca Hester, lecturer in Sculpture and Spatial Practice at the VCA School of Art, was awarded the $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture 2011 for her work a world, fully accessible by no living being. Alumni Isaac Greener & Lucas Maddock are the recipients of the Professional Development award, for their work Apostle No. 2. Read full story and see photos.

Composer and Dean of our Faculty, Professor Barry Conyngham’s symphonic tribute to the former Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO), Hiroyuki Iwaki (1932-2006), will have its World Premiere by the MSO at the Melbourne Town Hall on Friday 18 November. The memorial symphony, entitled Gardener of Time (Toki no entei) (2010), celebrates the vibrancy of Iwaki’s life and career, and reflects the intense influence of Japanese culture on Prof Conyngham's own career. Read full story.

Seven final year composition students from the School of Contemporary Music travelled to Vancouver in October with Associate Professor Mark Pollard to create site-specific sound works at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA), University of British Columbia. During a two week residency the students chose different locations within the Museum and composed works to resonate these locations. The works have become a Resonating Spaces sound catalogue of podcasts to be to be listened to and experienced by MOA visitors in the future. Read full story and see photos.

Pianist Deborah Ng was awarded the Dean’s Medal as the most outstanding student from the 2010 New Generation Bachelor of Music. Currently studying with Anna Goldsworthy and having previously learnt with Ronald Farren-Price, she achieved the highest grade point average of her entire 2010 graduating cohort. Miss Ng said she is motivated by the creativity and energy of her teachers and peers. Read full story.

Thursday 24 November, 6.30 – 8.30 pm

The VCA invites you to presentations by Stuart Thompson and Dean Merlino that will consider future movements in community-based arts practice. The evening is also an opportunity to learn more about our new Master of Community Cultural Development. See event details.

Experimental, provocative and utterly compelling. Discover German modernism from 1910 to 1937, when amidst an era of chaos came an explosion of creativity, this is the most comprehensive exhibition of German modernism to be seen in Australia.

For your chance to win one of three double passes to The Mad Square: Modernity in German Art 1910–37 , email vcam-enews@unimelb.edu.au with your name and postal address.

25 Nov - 4 March, open 10am – 5pm (closed Tues)  
$10 student entry every Thursday
ngv.vic.gov.au

MTC's Cybec Readings are designed to road-test new plays to aid and enrich their progress. At this year’s readings, accomplished actors and directors will read three diverse stories by Melbourne based playwrights; a thrilling world chess championship, a hilarious comedy set in a Chinese massage joint, and a satire dealing with eating disorders.

22 Nov - Reykjavik by Paul Galloway, directed by
Matt Scholten
23 Nov - Happy Ending by Melissa Reeves, directed by by Aidan Fennessy
24 Nov - Eating Alone by Robert Reid, directed by Adena Jacobs

For your chance to win one of three double passes to one of the three play readings, simply email your name, address, phone number and your preferred play reading to vcam-enews@unimelb.edu.au.

MTC Theatre, Lawler Studio from 22 to 24 Nov
www.mtc.com.au

An Oscar nominee for Best Documentary, renowned artist Vik Muniz journeys from his studio in Brooklyn to the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro in his native Brazil. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores” - self-designated sorters of recyclable materials. 

For your chance to win one of ten double passes to a preview screening at Cinema Nova on Wednesday 30 November at 6.45pm, email vcam-enews@unimelb.edu.au.

Screening from 1 December
www.cinemanova.com.au

Restless is a powerful coming of age story, told with honesty and originality. From director Gus Van Sant, one of the most astute observers of people living life on the edge, comes a take on friendship and young love as engaging and true as it is provocative and stirring.

For your chance to win one of five double in-season passes, valid at Cinema Nova and Palace Como Cinemas, email vcam-enews@unimelb.edu.au.

Only at the movies! From 1 December
www.restlessmovie.com.au