THE SCHISM

 

Somehow in the scurry to win some sort of credibility and likewise maintain some sort of 'ownership', the Governors of Winifred West Schools (AKA Frensham Schools now) having "paused" STURT they were apparently disinclined to look to STURT's history/ies to garner an understanding of THEplace's purposefulness.

Winifred West was crystal clear on that matter and importantly she was not wedded to STURT being geographically fixed to the land it was founded upon. That is the land was devastated by Mittagong's 1939 bush fire [ 1 - 2 - 3 ] on the corner of Waverly Pde and Range Rd Mittagong [Link] and where Phoenix like STURT rose from its ashes

In a 21st C context new/different understandings of 'place' are now in operation and CYBRspace affords expansive perceptions of placedness which by extension affords new/different /divergent understandings of 'purposefulness'.

Nonetheless, even in current thinking, and in current English, "foster and promote" might well include "education" but "foster and promote", by deliberate intent, is expansive and moreover it affords experiment and research. Which has been a feature of the operation's reality and very much a part of Winifred West's STURTnarrative .

Looking to the proposed "Objects of the Company" for "Constitution of Sturt Gallery & Studios Limited ACN" arguably there is a significant (enormous?) schism between STURT's original raison d'etre and the Winifred West Schools' (WWS) invocation of the STURTnarrative albeit that there is significant utility in the proposed constitution.

Quote ... "The objects of the Company are to undertake public charitable activities in Australia for the promotion and advancement of the arts and culture in the manner the directors determine and, in particular, without limitation, by:

(a) delivering high-quality, accessible arts, craft and design education for people of all ages and skill levels, including ..... "

In the minds of many that indicates that there is some necessity for intending members to promote a critical discourse in order that STURT's Community of Ownership and Interest may have their layered aspiration for the "company" and its "purposefulness" reflected in the "Constitution of Sturt Gallery & Studios Limited ACN" (SGSLtd) going forward beyond the point where it becomes a legal entity to which its members et al can be a part of SGSLtd's Community of Ownership and Interest.

There is time for that and there are mechanisms to afford the 'new company's', SGSLtd's , independence and its opportunities to flourish as an expansive network of networks that foster and promote 'making' and CULTURALproduction with an aim to 'make making matter' in the context of the CULTURALlandscape of its time going forward that is at least mindful of the STURTnarrative and its histories.