Opening of new Moss Vale Education Centre building

May 15, 2007

The Chancellor of the University of Wollongong, Mr Michael Codd, AC, will officially open the University’s new Moss Vale Education Centre building on Friday 18 May. The building has been designed by renowned architects Glenn Murcutt and Wendy Lewin.

Among guests attending the opening are the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wollongong, Professor Gerard Sutton; Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International), Professor Rob Castle; the Federal Member for Gilmore, Joanna Gash; the State Member for Goulburn, Pru Goward; Wingecarribee Shire Council Deputy Mayor, Cr Nick Campbell-Jones; Institute Director for Illawarra Institute of TAFE, Di Murray; and the Relieving Manager of District Operations (Highlands) for Illawarra Institute of TAFE, Wally Lawson. Architect, Wendy Lewin, will also be attending.

The Moss Vale Education Centre began operations in 2002 as a joint venture with TAFE NSW Illawarra Institute. Students at the Centre can now study a range of degrees including a Bachelor of Arts (Community and Environment), Bachelor of Business Administration, Bachelor of Commerce or Bachelor of Commerce (Accountancy) degrees.

Moss Vale is part of a network of centres employing innovative and varied technologies that allow staff in Wollongong to deliver materials and lectures relying on the support of a highly-skilled group of local tutors.

One of the speakers at the opening will be student Lisa Keith who is graduating this year with a Bachelor of Arts in Community and Environment. She is a mother of four who is the Secretary to the Wingecarribee Family Support Advisory Committee. She plans to use her degree to work within community welfare and social housing needs.

The Moss Vale Centre was designed by Glenn Murcutt and Wendy Lewin. Glen is the recipient of the Alvar Aalto Medal, the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture and the Pritzker Architecture Prize (equivalent to the art world’s Nobel Prize). He is the only Australian recipient of each of these international awards. Wendy received a Wilkinson Award for Residential Buildings and jointly shared with Glenn and Reg Larke the 1999 Sulman Award for the Arthur and Yvonne Boyd Education Centre at Riversdale, Illaroo, on the Shoalhaven River. Wendy also shared the Kenneth F.Brown International Award for Architectural Culture in the Asia Pacific Region, for the Boyd Centre, with Glenn and Reg Larke.

The major artwork hanging in the Common Room of the building is a piece entitled, Conference, painted in 1999 by Guy Warren. Guy is a prominent Australian painter whose work hangs in numerous public, private, university and corporate collections internationally.

MEDIA PLEASE NOTE

Opening time: 10am, Friday 18 May

Where: Moss Vale Education Centre, Kirkham Street, Moss Vale

Further information: Contact the Manager of UOW’s Education Centres, Anne Mitchell, on 4221 5668 or Moss Vale Education Centre Manager, Sonia Sense, on 4869 1888.

For more information, contact:

media@uow.edu.au
University of Wollongong
Ph: (02) 4221 5942; fax (02) 4221 3128