NCAT's FULL SUITE OF TERTIARY STUDY OPTIONS

NCAT specialises in the arts and technologies and is unique in the schools sector as a senior secondary college that also hosts a number of vibrant tertiary study options.

Students can study:

• Certificate IV in Design
• Certificate IV in Visual Arts
• Certificate IV in Photography and Photo Imaging
• Certificate IV in Music Industry (Music and Sound Production)
• Certificate IV in Instrument Making and Repair (Guitar Making)
• Diploma in Visual Arts
• Diploma in Photography and Photo Imaging

Recently NCAT produced a series of videos to explain what we do and our applied approach to learning. The full suite of videos can be watched at NCAT Video on YouTube.

 

NCAT CREATE INFORMATION SESSION FOR 2021

 

NCAT Create is hosting an online Information session for its wonderful part-time Diploma of Visual Arts on Tuesday the 1st of September at 7pm. You must register on the NCAT website ncat.vic.edu.au and we will send you out a link to join us via Zoom. 

NCAT Create is a renowned art course designed for adults who are looking to study visual art part-time. Tune in to hear what it is all about with @lacontrapposto 
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#ncatcreate #ncatsuccess 
#artclassesforadults #portfolio#becomeanartist #artschoollife#artschool #emergingart#emergingartists #melbourneartists#discoverdarebin #darebinarts#makeart #diplomaofvisualarts#ncatcreate2020#parttimediplomaofvisualarts#ncatcreate2019 #ncatcreate2018#ncatcreate2017 #ncatcreate2016#ncatcreate2015 #ncatcreate2014#parttimeartcourse #creativedarebin#preston #melbourneartscene#mavacollective

NCAT CREATE OPENS AN EXCITING NEW CHAPTER!

It is with great excitement that we announce that NCAT Create is now offering a Diploma of Visual Arts! 

NCAT Create students have long wished that the course could run across two years. At the end of their year with us they very often felt that they wanted more time to extend specialised skills in order to further prepare for life as visual artists. This meant they often went on to complete Visual Arts Diplomas elsewhere (whilst lamenting that they could not be at Create). 

We listened and we acted. As of 2020, the course will run as a two-year, part-time course, after which students will attain the CUA51115 Diploma of Visual Arts. This will enable them to explore skills, techniques and ideas in the first year and then extend, refine and specialise in the second year! As previously, the course will run on Thursdays and Fridays with an optional open studio access day on Tuesdays. This enables mature aged students access to employment and other commitments whilst studying. Course hours remain family friendly: 9:30am - 3pm.

Subjects include:
Year One

• Art Studio
• Life Drawing
• Digital
• Art in Context

Year Two

• Art Studio
• Drawn from Life
• Digital
• Contemporary Art Practice

Create has been a hugely popular course and we are confident that these changes will see it go from strength to strength whilst still retaining the core of it's success - amazing skills development, accessibility and nurture. Stay tuned for an exciting year! #ncatcreate

More information and application details can be found on the NCAT website: 
https://ncat.vic.edu.au/ncat-create

NCAT is a Registered Training Organisation 6736. All trainers are qualified to deliver this qualification. Students may be eligible for a government subsidised position through Skills First funding and can access a VET Student Loan if required.

EX-NCAT CREATE STUDENT AYLSA McHUGH'S UPCOMING EXHIBITION

“Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have eyes to see them” - John Ruskin

We are thrilled to announce that 2017 NCAT Create student Aylsa McHugh has an upcoming show of her exquisite collage works 'On a Clear Day' at Neon Parlour. The exhibition will feature new work by Aylsa, alongside works by Daniella Ruffino & Sarah Lynch. 

'On a Clear Day' aims to provide a space in which to investigate and ruminate on relationships with external and internal environments. Informed by the cataclysmic and exponential changes happening upon familiar landscapes the artists are interested in the effect these changes have on psychological territory. Aylsa, Daniella and Sarah provide an artistic and historical documentation of what might seem to be viewed but is fundamentally overlooked. Exploring notions of destruction, transformation and regeneration the artists make the familiar strange and the strange awe inspiring.

"Most recently I have been appropriating images found in nature journals, architecture books & fashion magazines to create unsettling and elegant juxtapositions. This series of new work explores our connection and relationship to place and environment. Compelling and perverse, disjointed and harmonious, these assemblages are a celebration of the grotesque and strangely beautiful". Aylsa McHugh. 

Aylsa's art works can be found on her Instagram account: @aylsamchugh

Image: The Pythia I ©Aylsa McHugh
Copy courtesy of the artist 

EXHIBITION: 24th October - 11th November 2018 | Free Entry
OPENING NIGHT: Fri 26th Oct | 6 - 9pm
NEON PARLOUR 
791 - 793 High St, Thornbury, Victoria, Australia

#ncatcreate #ncatcreate2017 

UPCOMING INFORMATION SESSIONS FOR FOLIO PREPARATION AND CREATE

If you would like more information about NCAT Folio Preparation or NCAT Create and a tour of our facilities, we have an information session coming up at the beginning of Term Three. Swing by and say hello!

NCAT FOLIO PREPARATION

and NCAT CREATE

INFORMATION SESSIONS

6 PM SHARP

TUESDAY 7th AUGUST 2018

NORTHERN COLLEGE OF THE ARTS & TECHNOLOGY

62 MURRAY ROAD, PRESTON

Due to building works,

entry is via Sheila St or Jensen Rd gates.

Sessions start promptly

Call 03 9478 1333 for further details or check the NCAT website ncat.vic.edu.au

NCAT ARTS AT THE MELBOURNE VCE and CAREERS EXPO

The VCE and Careers Expo is Australia's biggest education and careers expo and it is now in its 27th year!

NCAT Arts staff attend the Expo every year to help aspiring creatives find their way into the industry. NCAT is at stall 37 over the weekend at the VCE and Career Expo. Well done to this morning’s NCAT crew Ali, Tracy and Matt. Good luck to Zac, Irene and Anne who are doing the afternoon shift. Drop by and say hi! 

2018 Expo Times:
Thursday 2 May and Friday 3 May, 9am-3pm Saturday 4 May and Sunday 5 May, 10am-4pm
Station Street, Caulfield Racecourse, Caulfield

 

WELCOME TO A NEW NCAT CREATE GROUP

It is a brand new year and with it comes a brand new cohort of Create students, eager to immerse themselves into a big dose of creativity! Welcome on board everyone!

NCAT CREATE'S COUCHFEST COLLABORATIVE PROJECT

This year's Create students played a pivotal part in NCAT's premier annual event, Couchfest, a collaboration of music, visual arts and performing arts with key values centred around diversity and sustainability. 

The Create students were given the brief to work collaboratively to repurpose curb-side couches as art installations for the music and arts festival. Each group was given a couch or arm chair and a very short time line. They had to negotiate through inspiration, ideas, processes, obstacles and personal preferences to find a shared and sustainable vision for each couch.

The couches ranged from:

• The Silent Reviewer: a movie couch, replete with popcorn, videos and remote 
• A boat like couch called Imagination where children's stories come to life and wishes come true
• The Couch as nest: Branches, twigs, feathers and leaves formed around this snug couch
• The Deconstructed Armchair: An old armchair is completely dismantled and rebuilt into a sculpture
• The Love Hotel Couch: Based on Japanese Love Hotels, this couch investigates ideas around intimacy in our crowded world
• The Ai Wei Wei Column: Inspired by the installation work of Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei, three plastic Bunnings chairs in faux marble sit precariously atop a roman column
• The Desert Armchair: Eroding in the desert winds, this chair and side lamp are slowly disappearing

Initially the student's were unsure about working together, but they threw themselves into the project and discovered the joys of collaborative art installations.

One group decorated a tiny house, built by the college's Building pre-apprentices, as a very old school comfy lounge room! The Tiny House was used as a stage on the day for acoustic acts.

Special mention also goes to one student who went off on a side track to investigate emoticons and why there is never the right one for your mood. She explored as an interactive piece the possibilities of a series of NCAT emoticons.

All images ©NCAT

MID YEAR PORTFOLIO REVIEW FOR NCAT CREATE

AS A REQUIREMENT OF THEIR COURSE, THE NCAT CREATE STUDENTS PRESENT THEIR PORTFOLIOS AT MID AND FINAL REVIEWS. PORTFOLIO PRESENTATIONS GIVE STUDENTS AN OPPORTUNITY TO DISPLAY THEIR ARTWORK AND LOOK AT IT AS A BODY OF WORK.

Often a lack of space stifles the ability to look at all the artwork a student creates and therefore they miss out on seeing an overview of their emerging style, plus identifying strengths and areas for improvement. At mid and final portfolio reviews, Create students are able to lay out all their finished pieces in an allotted area and examine it as a body of work.

Portfolio review also allows students to be actively involved in group-based critiques. Critiquing each other's portfolios helps students to explore the creative process and their experience as a developing artist. The process of group critiquing is about finding their creative voice and a balance between compliment & constructive criticism. Students learn that the criticism is never personal – It is about the portfolio of artworks not the artist. Critiquing should always be balanced, neutral and constructive. Group critiques enable students to build skills by being exposed to different styles, options and approaches. It also assists students to push their responses to art beyond the initial "I like it", to questions of 'why?' and 'how?, articulated using art based visual literacy.

The Portfolio review whilst initially potentially challenging to some, is an excellent opportunity to build creative confidence.The review process brings together the artworks produced in NCAT Create students' Studio, Digital and Life Drawing classes.

Some students come to us blocked by years of self doubt. After initially letting their inner critic run rampant, they discover when they stand back after setting up their work, that there is a distinct style emerging and that they have come so far. It is often the first time that they begin to consider themselves as an emerging artist - and we are lucky enough to observe that realisation!

Accompanying their portfolio is a written Artist's Statement and in the final review, a creative resume. 

Our congratulations go out to all our students. It really is an incredibly impressive sight!

All images ©NCAT Create

STAFF PROFILE: NCAT CREATE'S TRACY PATERSON

Tracy Paterson, artist and art educator, NCAT. ©Image Tracy Paterson

Tracy Paterson has been heading up the NCAT Create course, a part time visual art course for adults, at The Northern College of the Arts & Technology, since the course's inception in 2014.

For Tracy, designing the Create program came out of a desire to give adults an opportunity to learn to build art into their everyday lives. "Practising art is a discipline and as such needs to be learnt. There are so many people out there who dream of being an artist but simply don't know where to start nor how to make art fit into their life. We work with them to build their creative confidence as emerging artists." she says. Students also build a substantial body of work which can be used as a portfolio for entry into further education.

Tracy, who has been an art educator for over 25 years, is a practising artist herself. Her main discipline is Life Drawing. "I have had an ongoing love affair with life drawing for many years. For me the human form provides constant challenges and is as much about a celebration of difference as a drawing style. Life drawing is about a dialogue between myself and the model; It is collaborative. I love that when I draw I am so totally in the moment. It is about the process and as such, the output is of far less significance to me than the doing."

Life Drawing Pastel on paper ©Tracy Paterson

Life Drawing Charcoal on paper ©Tracy Paterson

Life Drawing Charcoal and Pitt Crayon on Paper
©Tracy Paterson

Life Drawing Charcoal and Pitt Crayon on Paper 
©Tracy Paterson

21 Landscapes Watercolour on individual wood panels
©Tracy Paterson

In addition to life drawing, Tracy is also a painter - previously specialising in portraiture - but now exploring landscape. She grew up in outback New South Wales where the landscape of the flat Hay Plain has a low horizon and huge skies. These brooding and potent skies appear as a regular force in her art. "The landscape of my childhood has informed much of my work and is something I am continually drawn to."

As an art educator, Tracy has built wide ranging skills in drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, illustration, photography and graphic design. She has worked as a freelance photographer and is rarely without a camera in hand. "At NCAT and in my life generally, I am the documenter. I am comfortable behind a camera and I enjoy searching for that elusive moment."

The Create staff skill their students in three broad subjects. Studio, taught by Tracy and Ali McCann, explores art practises such as drawing, painting, mixed media and printmaking, and pushes students to think conceptually and thematically. Digital Media, taught by Mark Russell and Bei Janetzki, focusses on digital photography and the Adobe Suite's Photoshop and Illustrator. Life Drawing, tutored by Tracy, gives the students valuable underpinning drawing and observation skills. Students also explore the creative arts industries, delving into social media and possible future creative pathways. They also learn how to write an effective artist's statement and art based resume.

5 fast Life Drawings. Willow Charcoal on Paper
©Tracy Paterson

Over the years Tracy has supported many ex Folio Preparation students as they have transitioned into the creative industries. An avid social networker, she has enjoyed helping them build and publicise businesses, find jobs, advertise exhibitions and welcome new websites. Tracy sees herself as having a responsibility to support these upcoming generations of talent long after their time at NCAT is over.

More recently, the Create students have gone on to Fine Art, Visual Arts, Illustration, Textile Design, Creative Arts Industries and Graphic Design courses (Post Graduate, Degree and Diploma). Others have moved into studio spaces together, applied for and attained arts grants, exhibited and built freelance businesses. For Tracy and her staff it is thrilling to see their dreams begin to take shape. 

The popular NCAT Create course runs on Thursdays and Fridays with a single intake per year. Applications are now open for next year.

All images: 

© Copyright Tracy Paterson

@lacontrapposto