Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology 

As a part of CCW ‘s  encouragement of  international cooperative endeavours, The Centre For Drawing: Wimbledon has for the past three years been working to construct  a cross disciplinary  drawing network  based  in the virtual space that exists  between Melbourne and London. The Network’s focus  has been on developing a better understanding of drawing as a cross disciplinary subject, then through that understanding, engaging with curriculum development directed towards improving the curriculum on offer in drawing classes, followed by undergraduate students in the sciences and in UK the secondary schools.

The network is funded by an AHRC Network Grant awarded in 2011 to facilitate the development of a better understanding of the relationship between writing and drawing and drawing and general literacy. The network is led by Simon Betts, Dean of Wimbledon College of Art, and Stephen Farthing RA The Rootstein Hopkins Professor of Drawing. Farthing and Betts presented their interim findings as Keynote speakers in November 2011 at Thinking through Drawing:  Practice into Knowledge, a conference organized by The Department of Arts & Humanities at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.

In April 2012 the second Drawing Out conference was held in London, in collaboration with The National Gallery. Speakers included artists: Michael Craig-Martin, Grayson Perry and Kelly Chorpening. In addition Georg Gartner, President of the International Cartographic Association from the Institute of Geoinformation and Cartography at Vienna University of Technology spoke on ‘Emotional Mapping’ and   Dr Janet McKenzie, Research Fellow at the University of Dundee delivered a keynote speech on  contemporary Australian drawing ‘Drawing as Discovery’.  Images of the exhibition can be found at: http://thecentrefordrawingual.wordpress.com

In April 2013 RMIT will host and The Centre for Drawing: Wimbledon at their third conference in Melbourne. The network will conclude this first stage of collaboration by publishing their findings during December 2013.    

Image: Stephen Farthing 'Drawing Out 2012', part of The Centre for Drawing. Material: Crayon on paper. 2011