![SAE-Logo-Stacked-onBlack SAE Creative media institute](https://sae.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/SAE-Logo-Stacked-onBlack-jpg.webp?ver=1716188309)
MEET THE MASTERS
– FACULTY –
DR LOLA MONTGOMERY
linkedin.com/in/lolamontgomery
“I completed a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Arts at Griffith University’s Gold Coast Campus, leading to an Honours year and PhD at the same institute. I had some incredible mentors in my theatre and visual arts majors, as well as a minor study in music.
During the early months of my PhD, I discovered the then embryonic burlesque resurgence. It fascinated me because there was so much going on, conceptually, in each act I saw. Since then, I’ve been a dilettante travelling the world as a burlesque performer and musician and completing the first PhD to include performance-as-research.
Yes, I did dance with my PhD. I’ve been with SAE now for three years, and love to talk French Theory, experimental practice, femme theory and art.”
Projects I have been involved with
The Big Day Out, Valley Fiesta, Woodford Folk Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, Burlesque Hall of Fame, numerous solo tours, original show Vamp & Burn, Solo show The Poor Slob and The Good Fairy, tours to New York, New Orleans, Stockholm and Italy, countless nightclubs and local festivals, and support for Nick Cave and Grinderman.
![Lola the Vamp Burlesque performer next to unicorn prop](https://sae.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/MEET_THE_MASTERS_lola-the-vamp.jpg)
What are some of the benefits you have seen students gain by studying the Master of Creative Industries?
When students move into postgraduate study, they become colleagues and collaborators. I enjoy pushing conceptual and creative boundaries and creating a space where scholars are able to find new directions in their work and see things they may not have seen in themselves previously. I love creative research and this is where the really amazing stuff happens, students cover their craft bases at a bachelor level, and then they are able to take flight as both a creative and a scholar.
What inspires you about the creative industries?
Often in Australia, the creative industries are considered to be of less importance. I think the opposite, they give us other dimensions of experience.
Can you reflect on the types of collaborations that occur within the program?
Within the module I deliver, Graduate Studio 2, I work with students to find a solid conceptualisation of what they want their work to communicate, then set the scene for them to experiment with the ways in which they can achieve it.
I have just begun supervising a Master of Creative Industries thesis on music history heritage with a focus on women in audio, and that has been an amazing experience so far, not the least because our candidate is brilliant!