Letter from the Dean

To begin with, I note that I am trully thrilled to join you in New Mexico. As I begin my service here at the University of New Mexico, I find myself both profoundly humbled and challenged by the opportunities before the College of Fine Arts. New Mexico at the beginning of the 21st century stands as a demographic marker of what will come to be recognized as the look of the new millennium. Possessing a demography in which the Hispanic population (the fastest growing ethnicity in the United States) combined with other populations of color constitutes a majority, New Mexico then becomes a model for how states must grapple with demographic change in the face of diminishing public prosperity.

By the year 2050 the overall population of the United States will have shifted to join New Mexico and other border states in what Guillermo Gómez-Peña has called the "New World (B)order," a sort of contested imaginary landscape in which disparate cultures negotiate moments of public visibility.

Within this context, the implications for the arts are immense. The fine arts offer the highest expression of the hopes, aspirations and yearnings of societies. America's rapidly changing demography and New Mexico's status as part of the new world (b)order provide special challenges and opportunities for the College of Fine Arts. How should the College respond to the insistent pressures of demographic change? Shall we dig in our heels, resist and claim the preservation of antique techniques as our guiding priority? Shall we jettison the traditional departments of knowledge as vacant silos whose notions of connoisseurship remind us of unresolved colonialisms? Shall we embrace the new digital technologies and release the analog? What of hip-hop? The cautious individual would seek a balance, a moment of stasis, while the less cautious artist, driven by passion and obsession, might veer to the extremes. And what of race in these unresolved contexts? How shall we locate a space for racial visibilities heretofore consigned to the margins of art discourse? Must guerilla rhizomal networks and marginalia void the center of its meanings? By my estimation, the arts long ago escaped the borders of mere leisure-time entertainment. Today the arts are proactive elements in the play and place of racial meaning in American society. Accordingly, it is imperative that departments in the College of Fine Arts respond in a fashion that will reflect our changing population base. Failure to respond will eventually locate the arts within an enclave of largely self-important elite, possibly irrelevant expression. In order for the arts to avoid devolving into irrelevancy, we must embrace principles of diversity and cultural inclusion and, indeed, claim a leadership position in the enterprise to make the arts a central feature of 21st century life in America.

I am fond of noting that I was born and raised in one of the most diverse communities in inner-city Chicago. Within this context, I learned to enjoy life on the margins of Anglo society, Hispanic society, African-American society and, as a Toisanese speaker, on the margins of Chinese-American society. Clearly, I am comfortable residing in those interstitial spaces that provide respite far from the center of life in America. Yet it is the center that must change to accommodate the margins. Access to the processes of artistic representation must be provided for the once excluded. Within this context, I am pleased to report that the College of Fine Arts has embraced the future. Through the Arts of the Americas Institute and the Arts Technology Center, we engage the interrogation of the multifaceted roles that nationalism, race and technology play in the arts. With some pride I note that all of the units of the College are actively involved in artistic projects that connect directly with communities beyond the borders of Albuquerque. For example, this summer the College will offer a course that will engage art as it intersects with Southwest water quality. Also, the Tamarind Institute recently brought together artists from the various factions of the former Yugoslavia to help the process of postwar healing.

At the University of New Mexico College of Fine Arts, the future is here. We face it and embrace it. We need an infusion of resources to implement the kind of change necessary to continue our upward trajectory. Even in this arena, progress can be reported. The Provost of the University of New Mexico recently established a new array of performance-based scholarships for the College. Beyond this, we intend a major development initiative to ensure future greatness. I invite all to join us in this important enterprise as we strive to create a dynamic and inclusive world-class art scene for the future in the state of New Mexico.

James S. Moy, Dean
jimmoy@unm.edu

Ira Jaffe—Shaper of UNM Media Arts

Professor Ira Jaffe, chair of the Media Arts Department, retires this May as a tenured professor in three departments—Media Arts, Art and Art History and Theatre and Dance—after more than 30 years of outstanding contributions to UNM.

Jaffe joined the College of Fine Arts in 1972 because he was drawn by the opportunity to design and teach new courses in film history, criticism and theory. "I was strongly attracted by the fact that these film courses would be located among the arts, including theater, music, painting and still photography, which inform and inspire motion-picture art," says Jaffe.

"That's how I wanted to regard film—not only as a medium of information and popular entertainment, but also as an art form, possibly the most important of the 20th century."

Jaffe brought a wealth of education and experience to his work at UNM. He received his undergraduate degree from Columbia College in New York, where he wrote film reviews for the campus newspaper. He went on to earn his master of fine arts degree in film, radio and television at Columbia's School of the Arts, studying with Erik Barnouw, writing short films and working as a production and editing assistant on fictional and documentary films.

While completing his doctorate in cinema and communication with a minor in philosophy at the University of Southern California (USC), he worked as a copywriter at Young and Rubicam and other advertising agencies. He found that "advertising required me to write enthusiastically about products and lifestyles that did not profoundly excite me. I was reminded what a privilege it is to spend our lives studying and speaking for what does excite us deeply and I grew more determined to lead such a life." This determination led him to teaching, and before leaving USC he was appointed lecturer, co-teaching sophomore production classes.

The long list of Jaffe's accomplishments at UNM include: designing and teaching more than 25 courses; being the first Presidential (Regent's) Lecturer in the College of Fine Arts; and founding the Rodey Film Festival in 1977, the International Cinema Lecture Series (ICLS) in 1988 and the Arts of the Americas Summer Film Festival and Course from 1992-1997. The ICLS has brought internationally renowned artists and scholars to UNM. Jaffe improved CFA facilities by helping to design the Media Arts seminar room with adjoining editing rooms. He also was instrumental in the renovation of several classrooms into media classrooms to project moving images on 16mm film, VHS, DVD and laser disc. He helped design the plan for the new Media Arts home on the third floor of the former UNM bookstore. While recently serving as associate dean of the College of Fine Arts, he wrote the plan for its new interdisciplinary minor. A noted scholar, Jaffe has made significant contributions to the literature on film through his published writings.

When asked of what he is most proud, Jaffe responds, "One career highlight was the design over many years of a wide-ranging curriculum for the Media Arts degree that became official in fall 1996, 20 years after I submitted the first proposal for such a degree. The curriculum today brings together a variety of approaches to moving images—including art cinema, experimental film and video, and mainstream work—from all over the world." He notes that since 1994, one of Media Arts' three full-time faculty positions has been dedicated primarily to the study of Latin American and Third World cinemas. Through his work, Media Arts became a department in 2001, the first new academic department in the College of Fine Arts since its establishment in 1936.

In the years ahead, Jaffe would like see the Department of Media Arts better funded to carry out its complex mission, a mission that he sees continuing to expand. "I hope to see more curricular attention to the relations between moving images and the other arts," he says. "I also anticipate greater attention to film and video in relation to social, political and economic questions. Various interfaces of electronic and interactive media also will grow in importance, as will the role of moving images in relation to biology and other sciences."

Jaffe has influenced generations of UNM students, many of whom have gone on to write, direct and edit major feature-length films, publish articles in newspapers and professional film journals and incorporate film studies in their work as university professors. The goals of Media Arts in Jaffe's estimation, however, are not just to educate future filmmakers and scholars, but also "to afford students a broad foundation in the purposes of art and culture. We hope to cultivate their ability to engage in the dialogue about what is most valuable in human thought, feeling and expression—whether in film, video or another medium. We have an exceptionally fine but small faculty to address these aims." Jaffe also sees an ongoing tension between the commercial and the artistic. He worries that "what does best at the box office does not necessarily enhance the human soul; sometimes just the opposite is true. In a strongly materialistic, competitive and often violent environment, we need to focus, both inside the University and out, on keeping the human spirit alive, probing, civilized and free."

Looking back on his work at the University, Jaffe also saw himself as a student. "UNM afforded me the opportunity to be a student as well as a teacher and an administrator," he says. "Every day I learned a bit more about the arts and the humanities, and I made new friends who were passionate about these disciplines."