While it may seem that arts education in Australia is in a state of crisis, with educational facilities closing or courses amalgamating across the country, there is one institution that is bucking the trend and expanding in significant ways.
Next year the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) will be moving to ECU City – a brand new campus in the Perth CBD that is a physical embodiment of Edith Cowan University’s determination to invest in the future.
Partly supported by a $30 million philanthropic partnership with the Minderoo Foundation, the facility will offer state-of-the-art performance spaces, including a recital hall, dance theatre and playhouse theatre.
Executive Dean of WAAPA, Professor David Shirley believes the move is testament to an educational institution that genuinely lives by its values. “If you think about the transformative power of education, then there is nothing quite like the arts to nurture the imagination, to generate a sense of empathy and to encourage a sense of community,” he says.
“ECU values education and training in the arts and the many benefits this brings to the wider community, which is why it seeks to play a leading role in supporting the growth and development of performing arts. The ECU City represents the embodiment of this ambition.”
For WAAPA students, the new facilities will offer unprecedented opportunities for intensive learning, innovative and exciting collaboration, and plenty of live performance. In addition, the new facilities afford tremendous scope for engagement with the world outside the academy.
“The training on offer enables our students not just to realise their individual potential, but also to understand how this empowers them to play a valued role in wider society, and bring benefit to the varied communities of which we are all a part,” says Shirley.
“We have students and graduates engaged in really important community projects such as addressing suicide prevention, aged care and living with degenerative diseases etc. It is important for WAAPA students to understand the ways in which their talents can be used to bring comfort to others. So, while WAAPA provides an excellent gateway through which to nurture individual talent and potential, it is important to locate this experience in such a way as it serves a greater social good.”
Cross collaboration
The new location will also offer significant possibilities for cross collaboration within the institution, says Shirley. For example, “our Arts and Cultural Management students are going to have the opportunity to exchange with and work alongside students from our Business School, affording a valuable exchange between creativity and business management,” he explains.
WAAPA’s traditional ties with other WA arts organisations will also benefit from the move. “We are fundementally a training institution, but our partnerships with Black Swan or The Blue Room or the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra or the WA Ballet, for example, will continue to be as strong as they ever were, but the exchange will be much easier because of our location in the city,” says Shirley.
But none of this would have been possible without that tremendous injection of funds from the Minderoo Foundation. “It’s enabled us to deliver something that is truly state-of-the-art, that is truly world-class,” says Shirley. “Many, many expert consultants, from whom we have sought advice and who have visited the new facilities, have been amazed and say that they haven’t seen performance training facilities like this anywhere in the world.”
Minderoo support also means WAAPA is able to fund some wonderfully exciting projects, such as “a Premier Visiting Artists initiative, which enables us to invite the world’s leading performing artists to come and work with our students,” says Shirley.
“That may be world-class musicians, directors, choreographers or dramatists. It may involve a residency program where we commission an internationally celebrated company to work with us over three or four years, or it may facilitate exciting exchanges and student tours, so that we are literally taking WAAPA out into the world in projects that are led by some of the most accomplished artists across the globe.
“And, as we get the very best of the industry coming into WAAPA, our students are inspired by them and learning from them.”
Above all, Shirley says, this move opens the door to WAAPA enhancing its position at the vanguard of the sector. “I’m keen for WAAPA to become a creative hub for the industry,” he says. “We’re helping to shape [the future] in a digital way, in a technological way, in a professionally innovative way – in writing new musicals, in creating new understandings of dramaturgy or plays, or the integration of multimedia experiences. We can be at the very cutting-edge of new developments in teaching and learning, in rehearsal and performance practice, in new forms of creativity and artistry. The University of which we are part enables us to do that. The city campus enables us to do that. And the future relationship with industry will enable us to do that.”
Apply now for 2026. Check the WAAPA website for application closing deadlines for your preferred course.
