From creative hotbeds to cultural slums
July 4, 2005

“A dagger through the art” … Nick Vickers at the Sir Hermann Black Gallery.
Photo: Natalie Boog

Artists see a dire future if student union fees are made voluntary, writes Sunanda Creagh.

One day, in the mid-’60s, a young David Williamson stumbled across the Melbourne University drama society.

“My first degree was mechanical engineering,” the playwright says. “But here were drama societies doing productions on campus, very good ones, that made me feel that engineering was not my permanent future.”

Williamson credits his career change to his university theatre experiences but fears future artists might not be so lucky. If the Federal Government’s voluntary student unionism bill is passed, Williamson says, campus societies such as the one that changed his life will not have the funding to operate – and that will ripple through the arts community and affect generations to come.

Every year, students pay a compulsory union fee, which varies between $100 and $500, depending on the campus. Student-run bodies use the money to pay for services such as food and bar subsidies, sporting grounds, advocacy services, galleries and campus sport and arts clubs. A proportion is also used to fund political pursuits, including campaigns against higher university fees.

The Government says students who never use these services or don’t join campus clubs shouldn’t be forced to pay for them, and has drafted a bill to make the fee voluntary. The Coalition has pushed for this change for decades. Now it controls the Senate, it finally seems likely.

Williamson has signed a petition that labels voluntary unionism “a dagger through the art”. The petition was published in newspapers across Australia. Among the 200 signatories were Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush and Donald Horne.

The tone of the petition is sombre: “Our universities run the risk of becoming cultural slums and a national disgrace if financial support for arts and culture is removed. The impact will be dire now and into the future.”

John Bell, the founder of the Bell Shakespeare Company, also signed on. “It was fantastic, it was the making of me,” he says of his university drama society. He rattles off an impressive list of friends who flowered through union-funded clubs. Germaine Greer, Robert Hughes, Leo Schofield, Clive James and Laurie Oakes are among them.

“If it hadn’t been for [campus clubs], none of us would have realised our potential. It was that hothouse incubation that made us who we are.”

Penelope Benton, from the College of Fine Arts students association, says the visual arts will also suffer. Grants will dry up. Transport services to help students truck their work to and from galleries will go. And the campus gallery, Kudos, will probably lose its annual $69,000 funding, forcing students to exhibit off-campus. “The average cost for an external gallery varies between $400 and $1200 for artist-run spaces. They are the cheap ones, not including commercial spaces.”

Many artists hold their first exhibitions in campus galleries, which are stepping stones to bigger galleries. It’s a role Nick Vickers, the curator of Sydney University’s Sir Hermann Black gallery, has long recognised.

“One of our main collection policies is to support the work of emerging artists – those people who are between one and five years out of art school,” he says. “Ten years ago I put on exhibitions of work from people like Shaun Gladwell, Wendy Sharpe, Brett McMahon – people who have since gone on to win Samstag [scholarships] and other awards.”

If student union fees are made voluntary, Vickers expects the gallery will close and awards such as the Blake Prize for Religious Art and the Freedman Foundation Awards will go.

And it won’t affect just future artists, but Australia’s future art appreciators. “If students are used to living with artworks, it’s a demystification process. There has to be a provision for the future generation, not just of artists but also art collectors. If we lose these people, we will lose the art industry.”

The Federal Government, however, says this is panic over nothing – if students want to fund campus organisations, they will.

“What the Government is determined to do is to see that Australian university students have a choice about whether they join the student union when they enrol at university,” says the Education Minister, Brendan Nelson. “Under no circumstances will there be a law preventing that. I encourage students to join cultural, political and other organisations on campuses, but under no circumstances should they be forced.”

But Vickers says students won’t realise that, as with taxes, a little from everybody means a lot for everyone. “Who’s going to voluntarily pay for anything? You or I wouldn’t voluntarily pay our taxes but we might like our medical to be taken care of.”

Even within the Coalition there is concern over the effect of the voluntary student unionism legislation.

The Nationals’ Queensland Senator Barnaby Joyce expects only 10 per cent of students will elect to pay a fee, and sporting grounds and campus clubs will be the first to go.

“At a child-care facility, there’s a place where they learn and a place where they play,” he says. “At a school, there’s a place where they learn and a place where they can play. Why should university be different?”