Applied aspirations : design and applied art at the Ballarat Technical Art School during the early twentieth century
- Authors: Whetter, Elise
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Applied art and design schools operate at the nexus of art, industry, and education. During the early decades of the twentieth century, the regionally located Ballarat Technical Art School (BTAS) was the leading institution of its kind in Victoria, Australia, amid shifting economic, cultural, and pedagogical conditions. Emerging from a 1907 amalgamation of institutions, and subsequently administrated by the School of Mines Ballarat (SMB), BTAS was equipped with the assets, experience, and historic reputation necessary to surpass its provincial and metropolitan rivals. This micro-historical case-study employs qualitative analysis of primary sources to investigate the aims, outputs, and importance of BTAS, contextualised by the expectations and influences it operated under during the inaugural principalship of artist and educator, Herbert Henry Smith. Smith oversaw the training of designers, craftspeople, artists, and teachers from 1907 until his retirement in early 1940—a period of tumultuous events, fiscal obstacles, and social and cultural debate. The institution was accountable to diverse stakeholders and arbiters of taste, and successive cohorts learned in a contested space between tradition, origination, and modernisation. Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural theory serves to navigate this web of hierarchies, assumptions, and tensions, while secondary sources help contextualise findings. This thesis also discusses the suite of drawing, design and material-based disciplines delivered at BTAS as single subjects, full courses, and supplementary art-trade training. Throughout, featured students provide examples of regionally trained, Australian designer-maker and artist-teacher experiences. BTAS students learned from ambitious and skilled men and women, benefited from strong professional networks, and fostered a notable esprit-de-corps. The school was significant for its contribution to female technical training. The school’s pre-eminent position was modified during the late 1920s, when much art and art-teacher training was re-centred in Melbourne. Yet, the valuable, compelling, and widespread influence of Ballarat Technical Art School graduates resonated for decades.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Whetter, Elise
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Applied art and design schools operate at the nexus of art, industry, and education. During the early decades of the twentieth century, the regionally located Ballarat Technical Art School (BTAS) was the leading institution of its kind in Victoria, Australia, amid shifting economic, cultural, and pedagogical conditions. Emerging from a 1907 amalgamation of institutions, and subsequently administrated by the School of Mines Ballarat (SMB), BTAS was equipped with the assets, experience, and historic reputation necessary to surpass its provincial and metropolitan rivals. This micro-historical case-study employs qualitative analysis of primary sources to investigate the aims, outputs, and importance of BTAS, contextualised by the expectations and influences it operated under during the inaugural principalship of artist and educator, Herbert Henry Smith. Smith oversaw the training of designers, craftspeople, artists, and teachers from 1907 until his retirement in early 1940—a period of tumultuous events, fiscal obstacles, and social and cultural debate. The institution was accountable to diverse stakeholders and arbiters of taste, and successive cohorts learned in a contested space between tradition, origination, and modernisation. Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural theory serves to navigate this web of hierarchies, assumptions, and tensions, while secondary sources help contextualise findings. This thesis also discusses the suite of drawing, design and material-based disciplines delivered at BTAS as single subjects, full courses, and supplementary art-trade training. Throughout, featured students provide examples of regionally trained, Australian designer-maker and artist-teacher experiences. BTAS students learned from ambitious and skilled men and women, benefited from strong professional networks, and fostered a notable esprit-de-corps. The school was significant for its contribution to female technical training. The school’s pre-eminent position was modified during the late 1920s, when much art and art-teacher training was re-centred in Melbourne. Yet, the valuable, compelling, and widespread influence of Ballarat Technical Art School graduates resonated for decades.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
A public want and a public duty [manuscript] : The role of the Mechanics' Institute in the cultural, social and educational development of Ballarat from 1851 to 1880
- Authors: Hazelwood, Jennifer
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Mechanics’ Institutes were an integral element of the nineteenth-century British adult education movement, which was itself part of an on-going radicalisation of the working class. Such was the popularity of Mechanics’ Institutes, and so reflective of contemporary British cultural philosophy, that they were copied throughout the British Empire. The Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute, established in 1859, instilled a powerful, male-gendered British middle-class influence over the cultural, social and educational development of the Ballarat city. The focus of this study is to identify and analyse the significance of the contribution made by the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute to the evolving cultural development of the wider Ballarat community, with a particular emphasis on the gender and class dimensions of this influence. This is done within the context of debates about ‘radical fragments’ and ‘egalitarianism’. Utilizing a methodology based on an extensive review of archival records, contemporary newspapers held at the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute, and previously published research, this study was able to show that, during the period from its inception in 1859 to 1880, the Institute became a focal point for numerous cultural, social and educational activities. As one of the few institutions open to all classes, it was in a position to provide a significant influence over the developing culture of the Ballarat community. The study has also identified the use made of the Institute’s School of Design by women and the contribution of these educational classes to preparing women for employment outside their traditional roles of wives and mothers. The thesis argues that despite some early radical elements, the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute initially espoused liberal egalitarian values. By 1880, however, the Institute was more readily identifiable as reflecting British, male, middle-class values.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Hazelwood, Jennifer
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: Mechanics’ Institutes were an integral element of the nineteenth-century British adult education movement, which was itself part of an on-going radicalisation of the working class. Such was the popularity of Mechanics’ Institutes, and so reflective of contemporary British cultural philosophy, that they were copied throughout the British Empire. The Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute, established in 1859, instilled a powerful, male-gendered British middle-class influence over the cultural, social and educational development of the Ballarat city. The focus of this study is to identify and analyse the significance of the contribution made by the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute to the evolving cultural development of the wider Ballarat community, with a particular emphasis on the gender and class dimensions of this influence. This is done within the context of debates about ‘radical fragments’ and ‘egalitarianism’. Utilizing a methodology based on an extensive review of archival records, contemporary newspapers held at the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute, and previously published research, this study was able to show that, during the period from its inception in 1859 to 1880, the Institute became a focal point for numerous cultural, social and educational activities. As one of the few institutions open to all classes, it was in a position to provide a significant influence over the developing culture of the Ballarat community. The study has also identified the use made of the Institute’s School of Design by women and the contribution of these educational classes to preparing women for employment outside their traditional roles of wives and mothers. The thesis argues that despite some early radical elements, the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute initially espoused liberal egalitarian values. By 1880, however, the Institute was more readily identifiable as reflecting British, male, middle-class values.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
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