The full picture: New focus for School of Creative Arts

Students at the University of Southern Queensland’s (UniSQ) School of Creative Arts are set for deeper community connection and interdisciplinary learning.

That’s the vision of Head of School and Dean (Creative Arts) Associate Professor Kyle Jenkins as he marks his one-year anniversary on the job.

Since stepping into the role last year, Associate Professor Jenkins has set himself some aspiring goals, which he says will create much-needed synergy.

“My vision is to really strengthen the ties between our work here in the School of Creative Arts and the wider community,” Associate Professor Kyle Jenkins said.

“We often see creative arts as their own entity, when we forget just how crucial they are to supporting and enriching the community around us.

“The impact made by our students and researchers is so vital to bringing the community together and progressing it forward.”

With a PhD from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, Associate Professor Jenkins’ research focuses on conceptual-based painting, incorporating hard-edge and organic abstraction, and the monochrome.

And with his work exhibited nationally and collected throughout Europe, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia, it’s no wonder his aspirations for the School stretch further than the campus boundaries.

As for the future of creative arts, Associate Professor Jenkins is enthusiastic about how multi-disciplinary learning will inform a new generation of students.

“I see creative and critical thinking being complementary of each other,” he said.

“Artists are demanded to think more critically about their work today than they ever have, and the ways in which it can be adapted to other career paths,” he said.

“We’re also seeing critical thinkers like healthcare workers and engineers having to adopt a more creative mindset, which I find really exciting.”

Learn more about the University of Southern Queensland’s School of Creative Arts.

The School of Creative Arts can help you develop your expertise and set up patterns of lifelong curiosity, learning and transformative creative production, offering disciplines in Creative Arts and Community Wellbeing, Design and Interactive Technologies, Editing and Publishing, Film, Television and Radio, Music, Theatre and Visuals.