Joanna Mendelsshon (Program Director, Art Administration, School of Art History and Art Education at University of New South Wales) has written a fantastic article for The Conversation in which she succinctly lays out the reasons why universities, like La Trobe, need to teach art history.
La Trobe university’s art history department is set to be abolished, with a consultation period over the changes to the university’s humanities program to end this month.
While one art history department might not seem like much, the repercussions will be felt throughout academia and the art world. If it is cut, it will leave only one fully fledged art history department left in Victoria, limiting the choice for students and affecting the future of Australian galleries and museums.
The Art Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ) and the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) have both written in protest about the national implications of this destruction. And many of those who support the department have signed an online petition protesting the cuts.
But when the department is thriving with good student retention rates and staff with high research output – the question is, why close it down at all?… Read the entire article on The Conversation.