UNM Professor/Artist James Rannefeld Reception

the taos gallery is proud to present a reception in honor of “*Living Master” James Rannefeld, Saturday, September 19 from 5-7 p.m. at the taos gallery.

“Clients are fascinated by James’ work which clearly demonstrate that he is a master of his craft,” says Jan Mellor, the taos gallery owner.

No stranger to the Taos functional art scene, James Rannefeld has been creating wooden objects since 1972-- first as a carpenter, then cabinetmaker, furniture designer, master craftsman and sculptor. As a self-taught artist he is also published, collected nationally, and has achieved numerous awards and recognition: most recently as a Living Master at the 2007 Annual Taos Fall Arts Festival.

As Associate Professor of Woodworking at UNM-Taos, James teaches and heads the Trades and Industries Academy. In the ongoing SMU/UNM-Taos Lecture series on September 24, 7 pm, at the Klauer Campus, he will present a talk and slide show: The World of Wood: 5000 Years of Wooden Objects looking at the interwoven history of Man and Wood over the last 5000 years. With an extensive array of visual images of carved and constructed wooden objects and a variety of examples from his private collection, he will demonstrate the beauty, utility and diversity of man-made wooden objects.

“Wood is a magical material that can be transmuted through the power of the imagination and the ability of skilled hands, into fine art, craft or ubiquitous utilitarian objects. Wood symbolizes rebirth. The tree sacrifices its life and its wood is transformed into a chair that lives on.” JR

Rannefeld’s most recent works are featured at the taos gallery including his signature ribbon furniture, wall and figurative sculptures. * Other Living Masters associated with the taos gallery include: Carlos Barela, Tupper and Richard Hawley and most recently, Steven Gootgeld and Jeffrey Hills.

www.thetaosgallery.com 758-3911 103 paseo del pueblo norte

Celebrating 5 years of International Programs at UNM Taos

In 2005 , I led a group of UNM Taos students to China and visited Master Lin at a Daoist Temple in Fujian Province. Master Lin talked with us about the philosophy of Daoist meditative and healing practice. He is a man in his late fifties; but his appearance was very youthful and serene. The following year we went to another Daoist Temple in Beijing and experienced a concert by Daoist musicians with traditional instruments. Situated usually at high levels in mountains, Daoist temples and ceremonies are considered the height of spiritual meditation with much healing and cleansing results. We observed the Daoist priest all keep their hair long and tied up in a knot on their heads. Sometimes they wear a cloth hat. The wear traditional clothing and appeared very peaceful and healthy. Of course, our trek up the Great Wall outside of Beijing was quite a spiritual experience for us also. This year, we will travel to Fujian Province again as well as go to other ancient World Heritage Sites in Sichuan and Hubei Provinces to study Chinese cultural and holistic healing traditions. In 2007 we traveled to the southwest of China to study ethnic culture in Guizhou Province where tribal Chinese continue to live in their traditional life styles and practice their own rituals and cermonies. In 2008 we traveled to the northwest to follow along the Silk Road passages of Tang Dynasty Buddhist Monk, Xuan Zuan when he went on foot to India to study Buddhism and translated Buddhist teachings into Chinese. We visited the famous Mogao Caves in Dunghuang and saw another Great Wall site in Jia Yu Guan. For a native from China who has lived in the United States over forty years, each trip to China is GOING HOME! I have enjoyed sharing my heritage with our program participants. Through their eyes, I saw China again and again in many different aspects and they are all interesting and stimulating.
This being our 5th anniversary of study abroad programs at UNM Taos, as Program Coordinator and facilitator, I feel very privileged and grateful for these opportunities to learn and serve. Our program in the past five years also included trips to Peru, Belize, Spain, and Mexico. In 2008, we began our first year of Exchange with Xi Bei University in Xi'an, China.
I would like to clarify that study abroad programs have been offered long before 2005 and students at the high school level, or at UNM Taos have traveled with their teachers to various parts of the world for summer programs, etc. I do know that Taos is a multicultural community with many talented residents and rich culture resources. It was just very fortunate that in 2005 we were able to formally establish International Programs at UNM Taos Branch to make study abroad courses more possible for our students and community. Our efforts to raise scholarship funds for our students to study abroad started in 2005 at the then Western Sky Cafe on Weimer Road. Virginia and Arthur, owners of Western Sky Cafe were very supportive of our efforts. They let us use their kitchen to prepare a dinner which was a joint efforts of students, faculty, family and friends. We almost ran out of food and had to turn people away. Our art auction, door prize raffle tickets, fashion show, musical performance and demonstrations raised enough scholarship to support five UNM Taos students for their China trip expenses. Since 2005, we had scholarship fund raise event at the Taos Convention Center with support from the Town of Taos and the community. Many people have helped make these programs possible in the last five years and I am grateful to them though they are too numerous for me to list all on this page. I thank you all for myself and our students from the depth of my heart.
On this occasion of our anniversary, I wish also to acknowledge some of our wonderful instructors and group leaders who have made our programs rich and worthwhile: James Rannefeld, Phil Aldritt- Belize Ecology Program; Andrea Heckman- Peruvian Culture Program; Tom Shaw- Our Lady of Guadalupe Mexico Program; Barri Sanders- Spain Program. We have also new programs to Bali, India, Greece, Italy to be offered in the future.
In closing, I feel quite happy about our efforts to take UNM Taos classrooms to other parts of the world. I would like to invite every one to our anniversay celebration on Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at the Don Fernando Hall at 124 Civic Plaza Drive from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Please come join us to view exhibits, get information on our programs, meet and talk with our faculty and students who has traveled and hope to travel again soon. UNM Taos Holistic Healing Arts Academy which sponsored all my classes to China will be celebrating its 10th anniversary also at this event. There will be great door prizes and a silent auction for a lot of wonderful items donated generously by local artist, faculty and community. Thank you all and I hope to see you at our celebration and at our next study abroad program.
With appreciation,
Pearl Huang
For more information: huang@unm.edu, 575-776-5126, 575-737-6258

UNM-Taos and SMU to present lecture series

“Evolution as a science is not in conflict with religion,” says Dr. Hewlett of UNM-Taos. “They’re dug in on both sides but my colleagues and I say you can celebrate evolution as the best science but at the same time have room for religion. Our position is called theistic evolution and I will defend it,” he said.

Dr. Hewlett’s lecture will part of a collaborative effort between UNM-Taos and SMU to present a fall lecture series beginning Sept. 10 with “Agua y Cultura” and finishing with “Taos Traditional Foods – Chili vs. Chile” on Nov. 12. Eight other lectures are scheduled in the series which will rotate between SMU’s Fort Burgwin campus and UNM’s Klauer Campus. The public is invited and encouraged to attend.

“This is for the community,” said series coordinator Kathleen Knoth, Library Director at UNM/Taos. Knoth said the goal of the project is allow Taoseños from all quarters to meet and enjoy the wealth of interesting and scholarly people who are associated not only with UNM and SMU but who are retired here and live in Taos year round.

Marie-Elena Reyes will moderate the first program, “Agua y Cultura.” She is director of UNM’s Instituto de Agua y Cultura: Water Institute for the Northern Rio Grande. Her panelists will include Sylvia Rodriguez, Enrique Lamadrid and Esteván Arrellano.

The next three lectures in the series are “Herbs and Pharmaceuticals: How they can compliment each other” on Sept. 17 at Ft. Burgwin, moderated by Jean Ellis –Sankari, Academy Head for Health and Human Serives at UNM; “The Word of Wood–5,000 Years of Handmade Wooden Objects” on Sept. 24 at Klauer with furniture maker James Rannefeld who is Academy Head of Trades and Industries at UNM; and “Taos–People, Place and Time,” moderated by Nita Murphy, Head of UNM’s Southwest Research Center.

Murphy’s panel for “Taos People” with include a group who call themselves “The Book Team.” They are Corina Santistevan, Julia Moore, Bob Romero, Corky Hawke and Ernestina Cordova. The team is finishing a book on Taos history, soon to be published.

A meeting hosted a year and a half ago by Taos author and book store owner Art Bachrach brought together Dr. Kate O’Neil and Dr. Mike Adler, executive directors of UNM/Taos and SMU’s Burgwin campuses respectively and produced the idea for a group effort between the two schools. Library Director Knoth then proposed a number of ideas on what could be done. She was joined on the project by Pam Brody, UNM/Taos’ Director of Developmental Studies Program and the two put together the series.

In other presentations, author Dr. Eliseo “Cheo” Torres will deliver a talk called “Curanderismo in the Southwest” on Oct. 8 at Klauer. Dr. Ted Dyman, retired from the U.S. Geological Survey, will present the Oct. 15 lecture at Ft. Burgwin entitled “America’s Energy Crisis and the Future of Petroleum.” UNM faculty member Dr. Marty Hewlett will talk about “Creationism and Evolution” on Oct. 22 at Klauer.

Novelist Sean Murphy will host a writer’s roundtable on Nov. 5. His panelists will be novelist John Nichols and authors Mirabai Starr and Rick Collignon. The final program in the series, “Taos Traditional Foods – Chile vs. Chili,” will be moderated by Larry Torres who teaches languages and culture at UNM and who is a weekly columnist for The Taos News. His panelists will be restaurateurs Ben Sandoval (Tiwa Kitchen), Joseph Wrede (Joseph’s Table, Lambert’s and the OBL) and Adam Medina (Ranchos Plaza Grille).

“Our focus in planning this series is to spotlight some of the interesting people and cultures of Northern New Mexico,” said Pam Brody.

All presentations are open to the public and free of charge.



Contact: Pam Brody 737-6237

Kathleen Knoth 737-6200

Sam Richardson 758-9539

The world’s oldest mass media, newspaper, working with the newest mass media, the internet

By Sam Richardson

CJ 273, Newspaper Practice

We live in The Age of Convergence where newspaper, TV, radio, music, movies, magazines and books can all be found on the internet. However, newspaper, the world’s oldest mass media, continues to be an original source of news, entertainment and information. And surveys show that the greatest percentage of information found on the internet comes from newspapers.

In Communication and Journalism 273, Newspaper Practice, we will put out a campus newspaper. The course is designed for students who are interested in learning the concepts of journalism and how to apply them in writing for print. Students will revisit some of the concepts of grammar and usage they’ve studied in English courses and will continue to work on developing good writing and editing skills which will be demonstrated in portfolio presentation. Students will demonstrate good judgment about what makes a news story and learn how to go about gathering and evaluating information. Students will master the techniques of interviewing. They will demonstrate the results of their interviews in the articles they write that will include quotes from their subjects and attribution of sources their subjects cite.

Students will attend a seminar at the UNM/Taos library on how to use search engines and websites available through the UNM system. Students will gain technical competency in using the tools required to operate in today’s media environment which will involve being able demonstrate the use of a word processing program and an e-mail program. And they will learn to recognize the great diversity of New Mexico’s many cultures and analyze how they affect media perspective.

Students completing the A.A. degree program in Communications and Journalism will be able to transfer into communications and journalism programs at UNM main campus or comparable four-year institutions and complete their B. A. program with a major or minor in the fields of communications and journalism.

For more information call the instructor Sam Richardson at 758-9539 or the Academy Head Bob Arellano at 737-6257.