Rampa: Signaling New Latin American Art Initiatives illustrated the museum’s new focus. In addition to new acquisitions from Brazil and Cuba, Rampa highlighted works from the museum’s permanent collection and on loan from Arizona collectors. Nearly 40 artists from seven Latin American countries were represented in the exhibition.
Eugenio Dittborn, Red Light District, 1984. Paint, feathers and photosilkscreen, 69 x 57 inches. Collection of Diane and Bruce Halle.
In keeping with ASU President Michael Crow’s global engagement design imperative, the Herberger College of Fine Arts recently expanded its global reach by spanning the Americas through innovative initiatives. Partnerships with leading North and South American universities, museums and arts institutions enable Herberger College students to access faculty, art and performance on both continents.
Consortium expands reach
In spring 2005, the Herberger College joined New York University, the University of Pittsburgh, Universidade do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), the University of Manitoba (Canada) and the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú to design and launch a graduate-level course titled “Performance and/of Indigeneity.”
The new course addresses history, theory and contemporary performance from indigenous communities throughout the American hemisphere. Students at all participating institutions interact via the Internet and teleconferencing for multi-site conversations, team teaching and lectures by faculty leaders.
An important aspect of the program is ASU’s affiliation with the Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics, an elite consortium of institutions, artists, scholars and activists dedicated to exploring the relationship between performance and social and political life in the Americas. As part of the consortium, ASU joins New York University, Harvard University, Yale University, Dartmouth College, Trinity College, University of Pittsburgh, University of Manitoba (Canada), Universidade do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil), Universidad Autómoma de Nuevo León (Mexico) and Ponitificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
ASU’s affiliation is supported by the Office for Pan-American Initiatives and the Herberger College of Fine Arts. Theatre faculty Tamara Underiner and Ramon H. Rivera-Servera lead the project.
Borderlands project grows
The college’s Performance in the Borderlands project, directed by assistant professor and Borderlands scholar Ramon H. Rivera-Servera, focuses on the performing arts of the U.S.-Mexico border region. The program broadened its reach this year by incorporating dance.
Joel Valentin-Martinez joined the dance department as a half-time faculty member, enabling Dance to participate in Borderlands and bringing an exciting new dimension to its program. The first course led by Valentin-Martinez, “Dances of Mexico,” introduced students to the history and practice of social and folkloric dance in Mexico. They learned social dance steps and choreography for a variety of dances, including quebradita, el Jarabe Tapatio and bailes jarochos. The course develops the musical understanding, rhythm and basic technique, zapateado, needed for more advanced study of Mexican folkloric and social dance forms.
Valentin-Martinez has been a professional dancer for the past 15 years and a senior member of the Garth Fagan Dance troupe located in Rochester, New York. He has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, Israel, Brazil and the Caribbean, and has taught Latin American social dance, contemporary dance, ballet and choreography at several institutions, including the University of Rochester, Yale University and the American Collegiate Dance Festival.
The School of Art also is adding a new faculty member in 2006 with focus on Latinas and Latinos, borderlands art and the art of Mexico.
New Ph. D. concentration
In conjunction with its Pan-American initiatives, the Herberger College also launched a Ph.D. concentration in Theatre and Performance in the Americas. The new program is the first of its kind in the United States. It offers advanced training in the histories, theories and practices of performative culture in the American hemisphere.
Graduates of the program are expected to become scholars and teachers at the forefront of the inter-discipline of theatre and performance studies, particularly as they relate to the study of such practices in the Americas.
ASU Art Museum showcases Latin art
The ASU Art Museum further developed its global programs on the Americas by removing barriers and increasing access to works from Latin America through acquisitions and partnerships.
Recently, the American Association of Museums named the ASU Art Museum one of 17 participants in its International Partnership Among Museums. IPAM enables American museums to advance their mission through projects with partner institutions abroad. The ASU Art Museum has partnered with the Museu de Arte Contemporanea at the University of São Paulo of Brazil, which has one of the best collections of Latin American art in the Americas. The project links the two museums through Web technology, kiosks and streaming video, enabling live visual access to each museum’s galleries.
The museum also removed the barriers between the United States and Latin America when it reinstalled its former American Gallery as the new Americas Gallery. The move lead the Arizona Republic newspaper to name the ASU Art Museum “the best home to Latin American art.”
Roll over dates to see details
is established. By 2006, it will have grown to include partnerships at 46 sites, including ArtsBridge, a collaboration among 14 universities in the country partnering with public schools to provide quality K-12 arts education. 
The college is named The Katherine K. Herberger College of Fine Arts in recognition of Valley philanthropist Kax Herberger. Her $12 million was the largest personal gift given to the university at the time. Photo: Paolo Vescia. 
Kurt Weiser (art) is named college’s third Regents’ Professor.
Kurt Weiser, Continental Drift, 2005. 
Multi-million dollar gifts by Evelyn Smith and her family endow faculty positions and graduate fellowships throughout the college. Their generosity is recognized with the naming of the Evelyn Smith Music Theatre. The same year David Katzin gives $500,000 to name Katzin Concert Hall and provide endowed programming.
Art in America lists ASU Art Museum as the “single most impressive venue for contemporary art in Arizona.”
Doc Severinsen becomes the first artist to hold the Katherine K. Herberger Heritage Chair for Visiting Artists, followed by Gunther Schuller and the St. Lawrence String Quartet.
Mark Klett (art) is named the college’s fourth Regents’ Professor. 
ArtWalk, the first alumni art festival becomes an annual fixture of ASU Homecoming.
School of Art M.F.A. program leaps to 13th in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Specialty areas also received special recognition: printmaking, ceramics, and photography.
School of Art begins a joint Ph.D. in art history and theory with the University of Arizona.
Graduate programs in Music, Art and Theatre are nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report. 
Professional Connections Office, later to be called
Student Success, is established to aid students in gaining on-the-job experience and post-graduation placement.
The Office of Public Art is created to administer the college’s growing public arts program.
Luis Jimenez, Southwest Pieta, 1987.
The Ceramics Research Center, under the auspices of the ASU Art Museum, is created by the Board of Regents. 
Arts, Media and Engineering experiential media graduate program is created in conjunction with Fulton School of Engineering. 
motione premieres at ASU then debuts in Lincoln Center, garnering repeated coverage in The New York Times.
College initiates certificate program in Public Art.
Stanton Sears and Andrea Myklebust, Prickly/Prickly/Prickly/Prickly/Spiny, 2005.
College celebrates 40th anniversary.