Creative and Performing Arts
The Creative and Performing Arts major as part of a Bachelor of Arts offers a range of exciting courses in drama and performance making, visual arts and multimedia. These courses are offered on our two campuses: Callaghan and Ourimbah. The CAPA courses embrace current trends towards innovation, interdisciplinary praxis and practical outcomes informed by theoretical concepts. The flexibility of these courses within the Bachelor of Arts program allows for a diverse range of career pathways, from community arts and cultural positions, to teaching in specific Creative and Performing Arts disciplines (such as Fine Art or Drama), to forming professional art/performance companies, to becoming practicing artists...to name just a few! Twenty-first century graduates are increasingly required to be both multi-skilled and capable of articulating their creative work. The Creative and Performing Arts courses are designed to deliver both the practical and theoretical skills needed for this.
Drama and Performance
The Drama and Performance courses aim to develop an understanding of performance as a phenomenon and theatre and drama as a medium in their social and cultural contexts. This involves the study of performance across a range of sites from theatres to the street, and includes theoretical and practical investigations, both of which we see as indispensable to a thorough knowledge of the discipline.
These investigations will be valuable to you even if your interest in drama is purely as a spectator or student rather than as a practitioner. However, our courses are particularly valuable to those of you who will become responsible for facilitating, organising and realising live performing arts projects within and for the community. Our definition of community is wide: it embraces youth (including schools), the disadvantaged or underprivileged, business, the indigenous community and the ad hoc 'communities' which participate at specific events as spectators or audiences. In this capacity you will be involved in the creative development of ideas, and the design and implementation of effective strategies through to completion and evaluation of performance.
We teach through lectures, seminars and practical workshops. Fundamental to our courses is a focus on creativity, collaboration and process. Our courses provide you with the foundational skills and experiences in drama, performance and production for the community or creative industries, as well as the application of drama and performance techniques for the primary and secondary teaching curricula.
Visual Arts and Multimedia
The visual arts and multimedia strand aim to develop a practical and theoretical understanding of contemporary visual culture and production. These courses focus on the process of creating image based works. The value of collaboration, technology and interdisciplinarity is particularly emphasized: from the study of visual cultures in traditional media such as painting, drawing and sculpture through to exciting new and emerging visual practices in digital, performative, and social environments. Whether you want to be an artist or someone who works in creative industries, our courses will help you to expand your visual literacy and creativity in new and exciting directions.