As many artists of his generation experienced, if as a student you showed the slightest creative inclination but also demonstrated academic ability you were funnelled by the school guidance counsellor into an architecture degree: if you were, God forbid, also numerate, your destiny was engineering, certainly not art school.
Richard Dunn began his studies in architecture at the University of New South Wales and undertook further studies in painting and sculpture at the National Art School (also known at various times as East Sydney Technical College), winning the NSW Travelling Art Scholarship in 1966. The scholarship was judged by the Antipodean painter and director of the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, John Brack. After winning the scholarship, which changed.
