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Contact: James Rannefeld 505-751-0433 |
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October 29, 2002 CREATIVITY IS THE HALLMARK AT UNM-TAOS Taos and the arts have always been synonymous. Founding artists such
as Victor Higgins, Kenneth Adams, Nicolai Fechin, W.H. Buck Dunton and
Ernest L. Blumenschein found inspiration in this area. So have their contemporaries
Dennis Haggerty, Judith Hilmer, Lori Malott and others. The arts community
and Taos have, historically, supported and encouraged each other. The tradition continues at UNM-Taos where the Academy of Arts & Culture
is the school's "bread and butter," according to James Rannefeld,
UNM-Taos Dean of Instruction. UNM-Taos offers several certificate and associate programs in the arts.
"They are degrees that allow individuals to become self-employed
or work for other artists. Some students transfer their work into studio
arts programs at UNM main campus, others to national art schools,"
he said. Since the school combines theoretical and practical art skills,
students can also use computers to become graphic artists or gallery owners.
"We provide them with a well-rounded education. In the Associate
of Applied Science program students may take math, languages, and history
as well as their art coursework," said Rannefeld. And some students
use art to help others. "We are proposing an art therapy course through
general studies," he says. The Klauer Campus, located on 88 acres of land, was donated to the university
by the Klauer family. It will provide the school with the much-needed
expansion room. Funded by a $2 million GO Bond, Phase I was started in
1997and it is now complete. It gives the school 8,000 sq. ft. of classroom
and laboratory space in the Padre Martínez Building as well as
3,500 sq. ft. for a woodshop and computer lab in the Fred Peralta Building. Groundbreaking for the new art center took place recently for Phase II.
It was funded by a $1.25 million GO Bond. The 8.900 sq. ft. center will
house painting, drawing, printings, ceramics, photography and a metal
arts studio within it. UNM-Taos has also received money through a Perkins grant for vocational
courses. "We can't use the funds for studio arts, but we can use
it for applied arts," said Rannefeld. "Our computer labs are
equipped with both PCs and Macs because graphic artists make use of Macs."
The computer room furniture was designed and built by students in the
woodworking shop. Phase III is scheduled to be funded by GO Bond B going before the voters
in November. Classrooms, science and computer labs will fill the 15,000
sq. ft. Additionally, UNM-Taos will address campus landscaping if they
receive the $3.152 million should the bond issue pass. Wynn Goering, former Interim Campus Director of UNM-Taos, involved the
staff and faculty in planning the new facilities. "We have been able
to establish what we need out of the gate rather than retrofitting it
at a later date, which is much more difficult," said Larry Torres,
Head of the Academy of Arts & Culture. Torres also doubles as a lecturer,
visual artist, performance artist, cultural historian and linguist. Artists at UNM-Taos were invited to share their input in the new art
building design. Their suggestions included such things as clay traps
instead of grease traps in the ceramics rooms, directional lighting with
each fixture on its own switch for painting and drawing, floor drains
in dry storage and photography rooms and appropriate air in-take/out-take
valves for printing and monotype. All address specific needs of artists
in the proposed building. Not only is the facility expanding, so is the faculty. "Currently
we have 17 art faculty and they're all adjunct. We will be hiring 15-20
fulltime faculty in the next five years in all disciplines. Two were hired
last year and we expect to hire an additional three this year," Rannefeld
said, noting that the plan is to add a faculty member to each field to
provide some long-term stability. Developing the Klauer Campus has helped the school in its successful
bid to become a full-fledged UNM branch in 2003. Increased funding, $750,000
over the next five years, is one of the driving forces behind the school's
ability to hire new faculty. "There are only 20,000 people in the county and we have almost 1,600
students enrolled. In the future, if we intend to grow, we will need to
court students from outside of the community and begin to build student
housing." he said. Some of the art courses that UNM-Taos offers include pottery, ceramics,
two and three-dimensional design, figure drawing, landscape painting,
portrait painting, watercolor, printmaking, jewelry, blownglass, photography
and art history. These classes are all in response to requests from the
community. "The classes are capped at 12 to 15 students in order to ensure
the quality of the education," said Torres. "When we were limited
to art studio classes we could only attract between 50-60 students. Now,
with applied arts on board, we can attract as many as 250 students per
semester. That's roughly a quarter of our total student enrollment." Glassblowing is a relatively new offering within the curriculum. "Dale
Chihully is a pioneer in blown glass. He introduced glassblowing in Taos.
Now we offer glass blowing at UNM-Taos. Despite the $250 course fee -most
art classes ordinarily have fees between $25 and $40- glassblowing classes
continue to fill up, even to the point of bringing in students from other
states!" he said. Much of the furniture in the art classrooms was designed and built by
the students in woodshop classes. The woodshop students get credit and
practical experience and the arts program gets equipment at the cost of
materials only. It's a win/win situation," said Rannefeld. He also
adds that more than 600 students have gone through the woodworking program
in the last four years. Torres says that the UNM-Taos course catalog cover features work by students in the art program. "At the annual student art show students get to exhibit their work.
A blue ribbon panel of judges selects two pieces to grace the cover; one
for the fall and one for the spring. The winner gets professional exposure
of his work and that student's bio appears in the catalog. It's a great
incentive," he said. "It also shows how we are different from
UNM-Albuquerque and from the other branches." # # # |
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Please let us know what you thought of this article. Comments to: paaffair@unm.edu |
The University
of New Mexico
Public Affairs Department
Hodgin Hall, 2nd floor
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0011
Telephone: (505) 277-5813
Fax: (505) 277-1981