Barry Humphries has added his voice to those protesting the loss of art history at La Trobe and has kindly allowed us to publish his letter to the Vice Chancellor.
Dear Vice Chancellor,
I am at present in Australia presenting a series of one-man plays which is rumoured to be my last. While in Melbourne, my home town, I have heard disturbing rumours from La Trobe University that the art history programme may be closed down. I was astonished to hear this, as were a number of distinguished friends of mine in the Arts both here, America and the UK and I would greatly welcome a reassurance from you that this decision is not irreversible. Considering the quality of our museums now in all major and provincial cities and Australia’s position of high international esteem in the Arts, for a major university to abolish art history would be turning the clock back to an age of barbarism.
At present we live in a culture where sport has moved from the back page of our newspapers to the front page and where school libraries are called resource centres. I am aware that university politics is a brutal and bloody affair and your position must always be a difficult one but I would beg you to get your board, whatever the special interests of its members, to reconsider this drastic and, if I may say so, philistine and retrograde action.
Warmest good wishes,
Barry Humphries
I want to concur with Barry Humphries and the other messages of protest I have read on this subject. My Art History major has enriched my life and career. It was always my understanding that the La Trobe Art History department was a fine very one and I am saddened that it is to be lost. It is a decision which I think will be a loss for future students of the university. It sells them short.
Good on your Barry,
As a practicing artist for six decades I am saddened, angered and confused about the planned closure of such important programme. I consider it a regressive move, which is threatening the very fabric of our culture.
Social studies reveal, that when global political and financial instabilities shake the world, people remain nourished by other aspects of life and one of them is Art, which is not as shifting and uncertain in its values as the aforementioned criteria.
Art – be it music, visual art, architecture or literature – was always able to offer people freedom from the daily search for security and had the uplifting force which many generations found necessary to sustain themselves.
By abolishing the art history programme at tertiary level the academic authorities undermine the ability of younger generations to construct their futures on a sound basis.
John Howley, Artist