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Pat paints a positive picture of visual arts training since CQU merger with TAFE

03 July 2024
A montage image of a man and a woman standing in an art studio
CQU TAFE Visual Arts Teachers Carmen Gray and Pat Connor

By Greg Chapman
In the 10 years since CQUniversity merged with TAFE, Visual Arts training in Central Queensland has blossomed, and teacher Pat Connor is one of many educators who has carefully curated its success.

Mr Connor came over from the TAFE to CQU when the two institutions merged in 2014, something he says was most welcome at the time.

“For visual arts, the merger provided a critical opportunity. The Vice-Chancellor and the Dean of the School of Education and the Arts at the time, were supportive and CQU came with distance learning capabilities, the likes of which TAFE had not developed,” he said.

“The pivot to offering both on-campus and online classes was quite swift. The powerhouse behind this shift was my colleague, Carmen Gray. "Many regional TAFE visual art departments expired as a result of the government reforms occurring at the time. 

“Carmen and the CQU executive ensured that visual art training continues in Central Queensland. Students now study visual arts at the University from all over Australia.”

One of the key enhancements to CQU Visual Arts training was the creation of a visual arts major, which Pat played an instrumental part in.

“Shortly after the merge, the VC championed a CQU Fine Art degree as market intelligence suggested viability in the concept. A draft degree was sketched out, but ultimately it was decided that a visual art major would be a smart first step,” Mr Connor said.

“The visual art major is now offered as a discipline within CQU’s Bachelor of Arts. It is a great degree and I’m fortunate to work with some really amazing people.”

He said CQU would always strive to ensure visual arts training stays relevant.

“There will always be diverse approaches to visual art practice. It will also always be impacted by changing technologies (like AI-generated-art),” he said.

“I’m not that concerned about whether tools may mimic the qualities of hand-generated artefacts. It will be of interest, however, where visual art practices incorporate AI in ways that help us reflect on its impacts. Maybe, AI will help us understand the nature of the visual arts and humanities in new ways.

“Visual art students expect different things from their lecturers and their courses. We will strive to ensure that visual art training at CQU is balanced, offering broad approaches to making things. This will involve the use of traditional media as well as the use of new media. 

“It is a challenge doing justice to this precept, but it is important to our philosophical approach. Potentially, it is what separates us from other institutions, with some focusing on the use of traditional media, whilst others focus on the use of new media and related methods. I’m convinced that the balanced approach will increasingly become the norm.” 

Looking back over the years since the merger Mr Connor said he was still enamoured by his role and the successes of his students.

“I love it when students come back to visit us in the studios and note that the world is bigger to them, more brilliant, more colourful as a result of studying visual arts with us. I get this. Even though I wear glasses, I see the world better thanks to studying the visual arts – and it is indeed brilliant,” he said. 

“This response does not point to vocational outcomes but acknowledges the transformative nature of education. CQU Visual Art graduates have started and owned their own galleries, become successful artists in their own right, developed long-lived artist collectives, completed higher degrees, worked in impactful roles in arts infrastructure and administration. I love seeing all graduates achieve in their own way.

“I feel really lucky. I love being an artist. I love being a visual art educator. I love universities and working with my colleagues at CQU. Every term there is a bunch of new, fresh faces in our studios and Zoom classrooms. I love the possibilities that that brings. It still gets me excited."

Read more inspiring 10 years of TAFE stories:


An image of a man and a woman standing in an art studio environment