Celebrating the creative and performing arts

A message from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Students, Learning and Teaching) Professor Anne Cummins:

With the 69^th Emmy awards celebrated in September honoring excellence in the television industry, ACU has also been celebrating our very own Creative and Performing Arts Showcase (CAPA).

Creative and Performing Arts Showcase

Each year the Student Enrichment team (part of the Office of Student Success) offers ACU students across all campuses the opportunity to be involved in a national creative and performing arts competition in the following categories:

• Drama/Dance
• Music
• Poetry/Spoken Word
• Visual Arts
• Short Film
• Photography

This year’s theme was ‘Inside Out. Make a Change. See Things Differently’.

Campus-specific CAPA showcases were held on each campus during week three and four of Semester 2. This year’s CAPA national finals were held on Monday 18 September, at the Peter Cosgrove Centre on our North Sydney Campus.

Over 200 ACU students registered nationally to participate in the competition. The final Performing Arts competition included 12 performances by 11 students while the Creative Arts competition included 16 creative art works.

Performance Category

The $1000 cash prize for first place was awarded to Warren Howden from Melbourne Campus. Warren won the Performing Arts competition for his original song for flute, voice, beatboxing and effects pedals titled, A Thousand Streams. This musical arrangement was cleverly created by Warren as he layered, recorded and looped sounds over each other to produce an amazing composition. The $500 cash prize for runner up was awarded to Daniel Ognenovski from Strathfield campus for his own spoken word piece titled ‘Wandering’. Daniel‘s ability to draw the audience into his poetic world was intriguing and commended by the judges.

Creative Art Category

The $1000 cash prize for first place was awarded to Ella-Rose Manning from Canberra Campus. Ella-Rose won the prize for her fine sculptural ceramic piece which showed a high level of technical and creative skill. The $500 cash prize for runner up was awarded to Efstratia Kotridis from Melbourne Campus for fine paper cutting techniques in her intricate work, Be Still.  Her art was inspired from time spent drawing her surroundings and reflecting upon biblical truth in Fitzroy Gardens. It speaks of having peace in the midst of a storm, just as the garden portrayed is a peaceful place in the midst of a busy city.

You are able to view the showcase here, through our Facebook live recording. The showcase was rich with diverse works, and all the performances were very captivating and unique.

A big thank you to this year’s judges who were:

• Michael Griffith - Associate Professor of Literature and Language in the Faculty of Education and Arts
• Dr. James Marland - Lecturer in Drama in the Faculty of Education and Arts
• Leighana Thornton - Academic Skills Team Coordinator, trained in vocal performance and performing member of Sydney Philharmonia

Art and society

The Arts give life to a message and give our students a voice to influence a broader conversation in our community. The Arts also spark creativity and innovation so it is important for us to support the Arts at ACU so that this voice is not silenced.

Student Elections

October marks the end of the elections period for the 2018 roles of Student Senator, President of ACUNSA and office holders of the Campus Student Associations. Thank you for helping raise awareness of the Student Elections and for encouraging the students to nominate. Over the coming weeks the voting process will conclude and these 2018 Student Leaders will be announced. Elections for the ACU Postgraduate Association will follow.

Student leadership at ACU provides an opportunity for our students to make a difference and to contribute to the development of ACU, enhance their graduate attributes and also enables them to demonstrate skills and attitudes that will make them more competitive in selection for employment.

With every good wish,

Professor Anne Cummins
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Students, Learning and Teaching)