In 2017, the Queensland College of Art (Griffith) launched a new common Studio Foundations program across its Fine Art, Photography and Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art degrees. The initial premise was simple—transform sixteen courses and dozens of classes, previously regimented through strict disciplinary cloisters, into one or two coherent and dynamic courses that could reassert the value of the Foundations experience and better serve the mission of educating art students. This reformed first-year initiative was designed to have significant impacts on a host of issues in tertiary studio art education including: course loading, student experience, retention, staffing, space allocation, curricular alignment, graduate attributes, program learning outcomes and program flexibility. This paper will use the QCA model as a catalyst to examine teaching, learning and administration in the Foundations space.