DDCA
The Australian Council of Deans and Directors of Creative Arts
The Australian Council of Deans and Directors of Creative Arts is a representative body for the creative arts in Australian Universities. Our discipline base includes visual arts, design, theatre, dance, music, screen production, digital arts and writing.
What's Happening
Creative Arts in Australia—the decade ahead At this year’s annual DDCA Symposium we mark the 10-year anniversary of our Creative Matters journal by reflecting on the past decade of creative arts practice while looking ahead to the question: what do we want the next decade to look like? This year
Who Gets to Imagine the Future? The Faculty of Fine Arts and Music (University of Melbourne) in conjunction with The Australian Council of Deans and Directors of Creative Arts (DDCA) present a public lecture: Professor Wesley Enoch (Chair of Creative Australia, DVC Indigenous Australia at QUT and Co-Chair of Annamila
More about DDCA
The DDCA exists to inform, connect and amplify the voices of people and organisations responsible for scholarly and research leadership of the creative arts in higher education. Our role is to champion the effective leadership of teaching and research in our disciplines, enhancing understanding, promoting diversity, inclusion, excellence, collegiality and sustainability, and contributing to the challenges of our age.
The DDCA publishes NiTRO Creative Matters: perspectives on creative arts in higher education. This is an online platform for the discussion of matters relating to practice, research, teaching, policy and reporting relevant to the creative arts in the university sector.
current EDITION | JUL 2026
Researchers in the making 2: No Art
GUEST EDITORS JESSICA CARMODY, EMMA LIVESEY-GREEN AND SARAH MOULD
“The only way to grow healthy, robust social fibre is through building an independent and confident culture. And the only way to build a confident culture is through encouraging the arts, in all their forms, by creating the conditions to tell our own stories” – Ben Quilty (2026)
![Thomas Folber, Prompting Collapse [still], 2026. Image courtesy of the artist.](https://ddca.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/elementor/thumbs/Thomas-Folber_Prompting-Collapse_Still-2_2026_MP4-Video-with-stereo-audio_3m03s_Image-courtesy-of-the-artist-rq68rt1usvfxa8ruieyjjf1gqvkqbh9w6x9gyjy9ug.jpg "Thomas Folber, Prompting Collapse [still], 2026. Image courtesy of the artist.")
Since the publication of our call for submissions in 2025, the debate around art-making and arts research in Australia has only grown louder. As a guest editorial team made up of Higher Degree Researchers and creative practitioners in the arts and humanities, this was not surprising for us. The writing was on the metaphoric gallery wall even as we titled our edition: No Art.