A page from the Master Plan of 1973. While building did not follow the plan exactly, its influence on actual construction is clear.
The Educational Resources Centre from the courtyard
The library area of the ER.C.
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The Community Building must surely be among the better examples of its kind. It is admirably designed for its purposes, and is built on a site which complements its design - it is both built into a hillside and open to a wide view and the prevailing winds. Its facilities cater for a wide range of student and staff needs. The offices of the Unions of the two Colleges are convenient and ample for their purposes. There are chaplaincy, counselling, and medical services. Refreshments can be obtained and enjoyed in comfortable lounge spaces, while more active people can use a games room or one of the three squash courts. A member of the College can use the bank, buy books or sports equipment, or simply take time out from the academic or administrative work of the day to find peace and refreshment. Few colleges can be more fortunate in this regard.
The Community Building can also be used for organized social occasions such as concerts, dances, or even balls. It is available and often used for activities by outside organizations, which can arrange meetings, dinners, and even conventions with the building as a base. An interesting additional point, whether anticipated or not, is the fact that the cafeteria services are often used by students of both the Kelvin Grove High School, located next door, and the Evening Tutorial Classes which also operate in the High School area.
Building is also Ground Development
Buildings may be entirely functional and in them- selves very handsome, but without proper site development they can be stark and repellent. The problem increases when, as at Kelvin Grove, growth has been rather haphazard over a long period. When the Master Plan of 1 973 was prepared, strong emphasis was laid on the need to develop the grounds as well as the buildings. The plan also pointed out the need to remedy the unsympathetic treatment of grounds during the period of human use. The College Council took the point and set about both developing and redeveloping the site. This had the two purposes of making movement between buildings as efficient' as possible, and providing an environ- ment which would add some enjoyment to the movement and 'tie together' the elements of the built College. The result has been to surround the buildings with areas which offer, not only ease of movement, but also pleasure in the imaginative use of native plants which fringe the paths.
The rain forest area funded by the Bank of New South Wales, and the J.C. Greenhalgh Sculpture Court, named after a former Principal of the
College, are further examples of imaginative use of space.
One of the most admirable additions in recent years is the outdoor chapel, dedicated in September 1981. Built on a steep slope, it is insulated from roads and buildings by trees and shrubs, and offers an atmosphere which is unlikely in such a well-populated area. One need not profess any formal faith to gain refreshment from a visit to the chapel.
The Present Pause
Mention of a relatively peaceful environment draws attention to the fact that for the first time in years, the College at the end of 1981 is not the centre of any large-scale building project. This has restored to the atmosphere some sense of its being an academic institution and not a set of activities going on in a building site. The position, indeed, has been reached when the Director, in his annual report for 1 978, was able to say, 'The College ... now has most of its facilities of a standard commensurate with the vitally important work it does.' This is the first occasion when such a statement could have been made and must have been a most satisfying situation for Director, Council, and members of the College.
This does not mean that all the physical needs of the College have been met, that the Master Plan has been realised, or that all the functions are housed in adequate, purpose-designed areas. A walk round the campus will still show rooms being used for purposes for which they were not designed and others in which several functions are performed. This is inevitable. Purposes must change from time to time, and the means by which purposes are achieved also change. The radical review of teacher education courses of 1 979-80 shows that. What we can hope is that the view forward is now recognized as being just as important as the view on the spot; that planning will precede and not follow change; and that management will not again return to being what has been pungently called 'crisis management'.
REACHING OUT
The Open System concept
An open system is one which exchanges energy and information with its environment. Obviously, no system which involves human activity can remain closed, because it will no longer influence its environment or renew itself by drawing on environmental resources.
The Community Building - Main Entrance
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Schools and colleges have for generations drawn on the surrounding world for resou~ce material to use in study; there is nothing new in this. What is new, or at least new on a large scale, is the idea of using the schools and colleges as sources of enrichment for the communities around them.
This has been clearly recognized at Kelvin Grove, where the two-way process of reaching out - to bring energy and information in, and to send them out - has been developed in a wide variety of ways, from the broadly conventional to the quite start- lingly novel.
Outreach in Teacher Education
As the College has never had anything in the nature of a campus school, it has had to rely on schools around it to provide students with practical experience to illustrate and supplement the teaching given at the College. There was originally one Practising School, the Central Practising School on St Paul's Terrace, but very early in the history of the College other Brisbane schools had to be involved. Today nearly every school in the metropolitan area is associated with one or another of the colleges providing teacher education. Kelvin Grove has also developed a network of links with schools in other parts of Queensland which are regularly visited by students and also by staff who supervise the work of students.
This kind of interaction has been greatly extended during the forty years of Kelvin Grove's history. In earlier years it must be conceded that there was a degree of antagonism between some teachers and some College staff on such matters as the relative places of theory and practice in the teaching process, and the criteria on which students should be assessed. It would be too much to say that there is no antagonism today, but the process of developing teaching skills has become much more a matter of co-operation which has involved teachers, lecturers, and students on more equal and friendly bases.
Originally this kind of reaching out was for the benefit of the college, to provide something it could not provide for itself. As trust between College and school staff has grown, other forms have been developed. Staff are now used by schools as expert consultants in many areas of teacher development. In the reverse direction, the College has organised very many workshops and seminars on the campus, where the resources of the College can be used to demonstrate some aspeci of school work on which teachers have felt concern. Teachers consult individual staff
members of departments of the College on their individual problems. From these and many other activities, both sides have gained much. The College has even provided reliefteams of staff and students to enable school staffs to conduct a retreat.
We have already seen the large scale outreach which followed the introduction of in-service education in 1974, with its subsequent growth in both evening and external modes. Although the Department of In-Service and Continuing Edu- cation is largely concerned with providing approved courses for credit, it also offers a much wider range of experiences to teachers seeking some form of professional renewal. As teachers in future come to recognize more clearly the advan- tages of this kind of renewal, the Department is likely to grow rather than to diminish.
An interesting small example of outreach is the location within the modern facilities of the College of the former Loganholme State School. This school, which was opened at Loganholme in 1873, had been left vacant when a new school was built there in 1974. The College acquired the century old building, which was still in reasonable condition, and had it transported to its present location, where it was set up as a museum depicting education in Queensland country areas in about 1900, and showing typical furniture, teaching material, records, etc. The museum is used as part of the education studies of the College and is also available to groups from outside the College as a place to visit and study Queensland's educational past. It was officially opened for its present purpose in April 1976.
Finally, there is the former canteen building which, unlike the one-teacher school, was taken out of College use. When the canteen service moved to the Community Building in 1979, the old canteen was made available to the Asthma Foundation as a home for its Asthma Education Unit. The unit is staffed and maintained by the Asthma Foundation, and uses the resources of the College only for the maintenance of the building and the recruitment of physical education students as tutors for children using the unit. Apart from a building grant from the Utah Foundation, the Asthma Foundation is solely responsible for the financial continuance of the Unit.
Outreach in the Arts
In recent years, Kelvin Grove has gained a reputation for quality in the arts, especially since facilities have been adequately provided and the
Associate Diploma courses have been introduced.
Courses in the arts are not only a matter of learning about the arts; they are also involved in practising an art. The staff of the College have developed many ways in which this practice can be obtained.
There are some on campus: the Music Building for recitals, the Woodward Theatre for drama and the College Art Gallery for exhibitions. These are not only used by students and staff, but also by many visiting artists in many fields. As well, the College takes its art to the community in a variety of ways.
There is the century-old Presbyterian Church in Brookes Street, Fortitude Valley, which the College uses for dramatic and musical presen- tations. Students of theatre and dance have taken performances to many parts of the State, often on tours to a number of centres. Frequently, these performances have been for charitable purposes, for financial as well as enrichment of the life of the community. It is true that from some of these activities the College has been able to recoup some of its expenses, while various grants for these purposes can be obtained; but this is not the purpose of the exercise. It is the view of the College that it gains as much from these activities as does the community, and it regards the costs as a legitimate charge against its budget.
Homes for Other Organizations
At times, the College has found that, at little expense to itself, or with marked gains to its program, it has been able to offer accommodation to organisations which, while not part of the
College, have aims or carry on activities which are congruent with those of the College.
One such organization is the listener-supported radio station 4MBS-FM. This station with very limited funds obtained from subscribers, had great difficulty in getting started and finding a home. Its aim of supplying fine music by a medium giving fine reproduction was certainly congruent with the goals of the College in the field of music. The College was able to provide the station with studio, library, and administrative space on a modest scale, which has played a large part in making the station a viable operation. The cost to the College has been minimal, and the gains to the community have been great.
The Australian Flying Arts School became associated in 1978. It was founded in 1971 by Queensland artist Mervyn Moriarty. He and his wife sank all their resources in the venture to bring art to the outback, and he acted as pilot and teacher of painting on his trips. At first the school was financed by fees for tuition and membership fees in the school. Later grants were received from agencies supporting art and crafts, but by the mid- Seventies the project was getting beyond a one- man level to manage, especially when additional courses in crafts were added and other tutors had to be found.
The Head of the Division of Creative and Perform- ing Arts at the College, Jeff Shaw, was at the time Chairman of the Craft Board. As the College was also running courses like those of the Flying Arts
The One-Teacher School Museum - formerly Loganholme State School
43
School in centres outside Brisbane, he saw economy and efficiency in a joint operation. After negotiation between the College and the School, the School took up residence at the College. It is now run by a Board partly elected from its members, and partly appointed from interested agencies, with Jeff Shaw as President, but Moriarty still flies and teaches, while the College provides accommodation and services through the Department of In-Service and Continuing Education. Tutors in the School provide part-time service in the college between their tours round the State, which now service about 1 ,500 students and are likely to extend.
This was not a 'take-over' by the College. Rather, it was an interlocking of services to provide a rationalization which is perhaps a little more rational than some.
Extending Use of Facilities
One frequent criticism of education is that the facilities provided at great expense are used. for only a small part of the week and are not used during vacations. The criticism has point, but Kelvin Grove has gone a long way to reducing it.
As the College facilities have been improved, new uses have been sought for them which involve opening the College for longer periods.
As already noted, the College has become the venue for a large number of part-time evening courses. There have also been many week-end and vacation schools and workshops in fields in which the College has skill to mount them. As well, there have been very many performances and exhibitions in the performing and visual arts which have brought large numbers of people from outside the College community into its space.
As well as activities in which the College has been actively involved, there are those for which it provides a venue without being more than the physical host. Since the Community Building has been brought into use, there has been an increasing demand for the College as a place for conferences, conventions, and meetings of societies. Spaces for this kind of activity are not always easy to find. The ability of the College to offer well-appointed meeting spaces and the comfort of a fine area for meals, refreshment, and relaxation, has done much to justify the provision of the Community Building, if indeed that were necessary.
Conclusion
The foregoing represents only a sample of the many ways in which Kelvin Grove C.A.E. has
reached out into the world outside its boundaries to bring enrichment to the community and to enrich its own staff and students by the contacts made. In concluding this chapter, we may look at the College statement 'Purposes, Goals, and Objectives', prepared in 1 977. One of the pur- poses stated there is 'to broaden its sphere of activities beyond the on-campus community'.
Undeniably, this purpose has been amply realised.