Val Johnstone is a big believer in paying it forward. A social worker by training, she's served on numerous boards and committees, including the Victorian Disability Advisory Council and Women with Disabilities Victoria. Val is also a passionate philanthropist and has supported multiple charities focused on the elderly, underprivileged and socially disadvantaged.
A few years ago, Val decided to bring forward the already stated bequests in her Will. Education and the arts were two of her focus areas.
In 2024, Val was drawn to the Deakin Achieving Potential Scholarship Fund, a long-standing program that helps students overcome the barriers to accessing a university education. By endowing a major gift to the fund, Val has ensured her support will have a lasting impact.
She also decided to endow support Deakin’s postgraduate programs in arts and cultural management. A new Graduate Certificate of Business (Arts and Cultural Management) is aimed at supporting emerging arts leaders, especially Indigenous Australian practitioners, with flexible study completed online.
'The need to train more Indigenous arts managers is highlighted in the National Cultural Policy and has been a discussion topic at gatherings of First Nations arts workers.
'With a 30-year history in training arts managers, and as a regional university, Deakin is ideally placed to meet this need,' says Dr Anne Kershaw, Discipline Head and Course Director for the Arts and Cultural Management Program.
The arts can address social issues in surprising and powerful ways, as Val discovered when watching a performance of Translations at Malthouse Theatre almost 20 years ago. The play is set in a 19th century Irish village where British troops are forcing English upon the local Gaelic-speaking population.
Understanding the role of history is important. This has happened before. The tools of conquest include the taking away of language. It's not a movie. It's actual facts.
Val Johnstone
The Indigenous Arts Leaders Fund will support 10 full-fee scholarships for the Graduate Certificate program and additional support of accommodation and mentorship to the participants.
'Val’s very generous donation lets us focus on the learning experience when designing the new Graduate Certificate. In other circumstances we would be conscious of the travel and accommodation costs associated with residential study and be aware of financial access to postgraduate study,' Dr Kershaw says.
'Thanks to the scholarships we can build residential study with an on-country experience into the new program. It also lets us offer the course to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts workers from regional and remote parts of Australia.'
In selecting the projects she supports, Val carefully considers an organisation’s financial documents and strategic plans to ensure due diligence.
'By nature, I am a structures and systems person, with a working knowledge of investing in the future,' she says.
Val also reflects on the causes close to her heart and encourages others to do the same.
'It's about being true to oneself, and it's about being bold.'
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