Western Sydney University: Kick-starting creative success

08 Jun 2017

“Art, freedom and creativity will change society faster than politics.” – Victor Pinchuk

Each year the Creative Arts industries contribute around $90.19 billion to the Australian economy, adding almost $45.89 billion in GDP while generating annual exports worth $3.2 billion.

Defined as businesses that “have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property”, students with a drive to hone their unique creative flair are well on the way to impacting the world through a long and successful career.

In 2011 in Australia alone, 2,132,411 people were employed across these sectors, highlighting a demand for qualified artistic visionaries that continues to sweep the region. The industry’s expansion is in fact so great that the Department of Employment projects a yearly growth of 10.8 percent in all national Arts and Recreation Services.

Source: Western Sydney University

“Australian’s value the arts,” notes a report titled Arts Nation: An Overview of Australian Arts by the Australian Council for the Arts. “[We] believe that the arts make for a richer and more meaningful life; they influence how we express ourselves, our creative thinking and new ideas,” it adds.

“Nearly all Australians consume at least one form of art and half participate in arts creation each year…New analysis on subjective wellbeing suggests that engagement with the arts correlates with higher life satisfaction,” the report explains, highlighting how an exploratory analysis of results from a previous Arts Participation Survey showed the arts to be worth as much as $66 million in terms of Australia’s national wellbeing.

If you’re looking to make waves in one of Australia’s – and the world’s – most profitable fields, honing your talent and expertise with the help of a world-class education, the Bachelor of Creative Industries degree program at the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University could be the ideal path for you.

Ranked in the Top 150 Universities Under 50 by Times Higher Education, Western Sydney University’s arts-focused programs are comprehensive and versatile, each one opening doors to a wide range of career options. Here, a hands-on approach and an interdisciplinary learning environment means students can be moulded into innovative thinkers, social change makers, and community pioneers.

Source: Western Sydney University

The institution’s brand-new, interdisciplinary program perfectly combines a number of core creative subjects, including journalism, design, literature, creative writing, and media production. Blending first-rate academics with real-life professional training, the course is designed to instil graduates with the artistic and critical knowledge base needed to pursue virtually any career in life long after graduation.

While the 2011 census revealed 347,744 people to be working within clear creative roles, it also unveiled the 263,563 professionals working artistic occupations in seemingly unrelated realms, including banking, manufacturing and government, emphasising the value and relevance of a program that takes every professional aspect of creativity into account.

This is exactly what Western Sydney’s program aims to achieve, teaching students all about the legal- and business-focused facets of a career in the arts. Key concepts explored on the course include Advertising, Law in the Creative Sector, Innovation in Enterprise, and Digital Cultures.

Knowledge and experience gained throughout the program will be critical for anyone looking to make change in the world, maximising their potential lifetime earnings at the same time. The program prepares as many artistes as it does creative entrepreneurs, who are just as likely to start their own businesses as to be employed in existing firms.

Throughout your time at Western Sydney University, you’ll select your preferred study routes out of 12 major units, including Advertising, Creative Writing, Digital Cultures, Graphic Design, and PR. But you’ll also be expected to pursue a number of set courses from the Creative Industries portfolio, including: Writing Ecologies; Data, Mediation, Power; Media Law and Ethics; and Financing.

In this fresh, industry-aligned program, Western Sydney University has trailblazed the field of international arts education. The Bachelor of Creative Industries degree means students are now able to flex the logical left and creative right sections of their brains in equal measure, fulfilling the industry’s pressing demand for versatile graduates who are impassioned by the arts.

As Stuart Cunningham and John Hartley conclude in their paper to the Humanities and Social Sciences Summit: “The moment has come when creativity, artistic talent and ‘culture’ are assuming a central position in economic and therefore government thinking.

“Educational institutions also need to get their minds across the implications of these changes, in order to orient their programs, research and graduates toward the exciting opportunities involved,” the paper adds. “Instead of seeing culture as the antidote to contemporary commercial democracy, creativity becomes an input into all sorts of enterprises.”

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