About Gippsland Centre for Art & Design

The Centre's popular Bachelor of Visual and Media Arts degree provides a broader range of studio options than traditional fine arts studies. The aim is to produce well-rounded art practitioners who can play a part in shaping Australia's visual arts industry. The new Digital Media Stream of the BVMA allows students to focus on digital media such as web design or animation while exploring a personal visual vocabulary.

Centre lecturers are practicing artists who encourage students to take a rigorous, professional approach to their art practice. Studios in specialist areas of painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography and digital media are located around two courtyards that provide natural meeting places for students and staff.
The Centre fosters a strong sense of community by encouraging interaction among year levels, studio disciplines, the greater university and the Gippsland community. The Switchback Gallery is a popular cultural resource and a focus for community events such as the highly successful visit by indigenous artists from the Narran Lakes area of the Murray-Darling Basin, whose work explored environmental and cultural aspects of water use in their region. Students from the Centre regularly exhibit at Latrobe Regional Gallery, Cowwarr Art Space and ARC Yinnar, the first artist-run space in Victoria.

Centre facilities include well-equipped studio workshops, photographic darkrooms and digital imaging resources.

For practicing artists, there are a range of options. The Centre's Master of Visual Arts by coursework is a convenient way to extend their qualifications while studying off-campus. The flexible delivery mode means they can continue to work while benefiting from the guidance of experienced practitioners, whom they can meet face-to-face at an annual intensive mid-year symposium on the campus.

Like all Monash students, they are encouraged to push the boundaries of current practice and theory through research, exploration and peer publication. Masters by research and doctoral degree studies are also available.