Louise Armijo, a gifted performer, studied dancing, singing and acting from childhood. She pursued a degree in theater in the early 1980s, performing in many productions including Cabaret and Grease.

However, financial considerations caused her to leave school and obtain employment in the travel industry in California. Hoping yet to complete her degree, Louise returned to New Mexico, but was not able to recommence her studies before her death.

Andrés Armijo, senior academic adviser in UNM's University College, Spanish instructor and flamenco dancer, is committed to keeping his sister's memory alive with this scholarship. Louise strongly influenced Andrés, the youngest of five children. Her joy in performing and pride in studying at the College led him to attend UNM and include flamenco dance in his studies. Louise loved children and especially enjoyed performing for them. She participated in the first UNM Children's Theatre Class taught by Associate Professor of Theatre Denise Schulz. In this class, she studied theater and produced plays, which were presented at a number of Albuquerque public schools. Her brother wants her to be remembered for "her laughter, sense of freedom, passion for life and love of the dramatic arts which she generously shared with her family and friends."

Louise inspired Andrés to be passionate about life and give back to others. He strongly values education and takes great satisfaction in assisting students with their academic dreams. He says, "It is important to honor people's dreams. The scholarship will help others who may have financial needs to return to school to fulfill their dreams in theater. I cannot think of a better way to honor and remember the passion and essence of my wonderful sister."

To help make the fund operational, send donations to:

The Louise Armijo Endowed Memorial Scholarship Fund

College of Fine Arts Development Office
MSC 04 2570
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001

Bravo Awards

A performance by the UNM Dance Faculty "Reflections and Beginnings", and a creative project co-sponsored by Friends of Music were both honored with Albuquerque Arts Alliance Bravos Awards at the annual awards celebration on Saturday, April 5. According to the Alliance, "[T]he celebration honors the best in all of the arts disciplines: visual, dance, music, theater and literary."

Under the category of excellence in dance, the Arts Alliance recognized "Reflections and Beginnings" as "[achieving] a masterful level of fully integrated choreography, performance, lighting and costuming." The performance by UNM faculty and students featured a retrospective of the work of UNM Dance Professor Bill Evans and new choreography from Evans, Rujeko Dembutshena and Eva Encinias-Sandoval.

Friends of Music received The President's Award for its "Music is Instrumental" project in collaboration with KHFM Radio, Wells Fargo Bank and the Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) Fine Arts Program. To meet the needs of APS students unable to rent or purchase instruments, the group solicited and donated more than 140 musical instruments during Spring 2002. The goals of the program were "to foster a love of music in children and to make it possible for them to participate in the middle school band or orchestra." Friends of Music, Inc. supports the College of Fine Arts through scholarships and event sponsorship.

Kathleen Howe Receives Provost Award

Kathleen Howe, who received both her master's and doctorate in art history from UNM, was one of three winners of the Provost's Outstanding Staff Award for 2003. The provost gives the awards annually to outstanding individual staff members who have demonstrated extraordinary achievement in providing service to UNM, exemplifying University values and contributing substantially to significant department accomplishments. Howe has served as curator of prints and photographs at the UNM Art Museum for eight years and is also the associate director. Over the years, she has curated more than 60 exhibitions and worked with hundreds of students and faculty to help them effectively use the museum's vast collection of works on paper. In cooperation with several UNM academic departments, she created a new interdisciplinary program at the museum, the Cultural Studies Colloquium, which is open to all students and faculty. Howe is also an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Art and Art History and has written several books and numerous essays on art history.

VIRCONA at Bainbridge Bunting

The Visual Resources Catalog of Native American Artists (VIRCONA) project is now accessible online at bbmsl.unm.edu/vircona. VIRCONA is the result of a collaboration between Bainbridge Bunting Memorial Slide Library and the Arts of Americas Institute (AAI) to share the Native American portion of the slide library's artist authority and cataloging data with other educational visual resources collections. The catalog currently contains information on more than 500 Native American visual artists and more than 1,000 art samples. An annual Visual Resources Internship has been established to support VIRCONA; Kathleen Emmke, a graduate student in Art & Art History specializing in modern Native American Art, was the spring 2003 intern.

The library also recently established the Digital Media Internship to support its transition to digital collections. Matthew Tuttle, a graduate student in Art & Art History's Electronic Arts Program, was the 2002-2003 intern. Additionally, Sheila Hannah, director of the slide library, presented a seminar this April at the 21st Annual Conference of the Visual Resources Association on including images of Native American art objects in visual resources collections and in art historical scholarship.