Keep the art in Cooma

Protest outside the community cabinet lunch.

A country community is losing the only arts and craft training facilities left in the region.

By Peter de Graaff

TAFE teachers and members of the community lobbied the Monaro Community Cabinet meeting held at Cooma on February 12 over the proposed closure of arts and media courses at Cooma TAFE. Students and teachers also protested outside the Community Cabinet lunch held at Cooma RSL.

There is considerable anger in Cooma and across the Monaro at the decision of Illawarra Institute, without consultation, to close arts and media courses at Cooma TAFE from the end of 2008. This decision is viewed as a major blow to a rural community that is geographically, economically and culturally disadvantaged and lacks diversified education and training opportunities, especially for its young people. The courses provided at Cooma TAFE are the only arts and craft training facilities left in the region.

The Cooma TAFE art section has significantly contributed to the town over several decades. This includes the famous Time Walk mosaic in the heart of Cooma and young people's "Street Art" made in 2006. These courses have provided career opportunities and pathways for many local artists and crafts people, generating exhibitions and art sales. Outreach Programs for Youth at Risk have engaged participation through these art courses.

It is unfortunate that arts and media are not recognised by the Institute as industries that provide opportunities for artists in rural communities and which generate local business and income. Increasingly the justification for eliminating courses such as arts and media from communities is based on a notion that skills shortage needs and the training which will be delivered in places such as Cooma will be determined by far removed planners, rather than on the needs being expressed by communities.

The training needs determined for Cooma are for skills in hospitality and construction, to meet the requirements of the tourist industry in the snow fields. This utilitarian approach to training ignores the fabric of communities and the desire to have lives which are enriched by art and culture.

No wonder teachers and students demonstrating outside the Community Cabinet lunch held placards complaining that if art was at the heart of their community, then this decision was ripping it out.

Peter de Graaff is a TAFE Organiser.

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Last Modified: 07 Mar 2008