Let's Talk UNLV

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Hi, welcome to another episode of Let's Talk UNLV at KUNV. You're here with Tanya.

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And Alicia.

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Hey, Alicia.

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How are you? I'm doing fabulous on this beautiful day in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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How are you? Fantastic. So, tell me, how was your weekend?

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What did you do? You ready for this? We know it's summertime and we had a pool party. What? Yes, there was barbecue, there were good drinks, refreshments, appetizers, most importantly family and friends. And I think I'm gonna make this a ritual. I think for the weekend you should be either near nature, close to water. That's just my thing. That's my therapy. So, and you can't go wrong with good food and some drinks. So what about you? What was your weekend

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all about? We went up to Lee Canyon, did a little bit of a hike. So yeah, speaking of being in nature, taking care of ourselves, making sure that we are using our bodies and going someplace where we can use our bodies without passing out.

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Especially here in Vegas, right? I mean, I think we're already at triple digits, but I won't complain because when it was winter time, I was so looking forward to the weather. Not necessarily triple digits of hot weather, but I'll take it.

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Well, we are joined today by Dr. Nancy Usher. She's the Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Presidential Professor of Music. Welcome, welcome aboard. Welcome.

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Well, I'm so pleased to be here with you today. Thank you for having me. It is our honor.

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So, you know, the question that I think some students might have, and also some just general individuals might have, is what is fine arts? And what falls under the College of Fine Arts?

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That's a great question. Thank you for asking it. It's an interesting question because fine arts itself usually alludes to visual arts. It doesn't usually mean the performing arts, which is typically considered music, dance, theater. And film is also something that you could say is visual and performing. So, you know, it's kind of in between. And that, just to segue a little bit to the second part of your question, those are the disciplines that are housed in our college, along with architecture, the School of Architecture, and entertainment, engineering, and design. So, we have visual arts, performing arts, film, which is, you know, kind of both, and as I say, EED, and architecture. And we have the Barrett Museum of Art and the Performing Arts Center and our advisement center. So I always say we have 10 entities, so it's a large college. It's one of the largest colleges of fine arts in the country, but your question about fine arts is really interesting because that is usually considered visual arts. So we might say, well, what the heck are all these other disciplines doing, being under the College of Fine Arts? Well, I think it's just kind of cultural and things that were done in the early days of many universities, because many universities, including University of Texas and others, also use CFA. They also use the words College of Fine Arts. But it depends, different institutions have different disciplines housed under them. Now, for example, at University of Michigan, there's a separate visual arts school, there's a separate architecture school, and then there's a separate school of performing arts. So I hope that answers your question, because it really, in a way, is a misnomer. To have all these disciplines under College of Fine Arts instead of College of the Arts, let's say, is a little bit misleading, but it's kind of traditional, I would say. So we live with it and we feel fine about it. I love that. That was a pretty long answer.

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No, the whole point is for you to take your time and also to explain, to educate. So for me as a first-time listener hearing about the Fine Arts Department, it's very helpful because I thought just visual as well. But with that being said, would you mind just kind of sharing with the

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audience about your origin story? Yes, I love the way you put that. You know, one day when I was nine years old, many years ago, I was living in a suburb of New York and I decided to play the violin. And so I walked into the teacher's office in a public school in that area, in White Plains, New York. And I said, Miss Amsterdam, that was her name, I would like to play the violin. And she said, sing me a scale up and down. And I happened to be able to do it because I had studied piano a little bit and she handed me a violin and that was my origin story. I was so excited that I wanted to show my friend and there was a softball game going on in the athletic park, you know, in the field next to the school and I literally put that violin in jeopardy because I put it down on the ground and I opened it up just to show my friend. I was so excited. And so that was my origin story. And so for my whole childhood and into my teenage years, and then later on, I studied violin and viola. A viola is like a big violin, kind of in the string family between the violin and the cello. And then I ended up being educated as a musician. I hope also, you know, in humanities and sciences and everything, but mainly music and the arts. And I went off to become a professional musician, and I went off to Israel and played in an orchestra there, and I played in many orchestras all over the world, and did chamber music, did recitals. And then, more than 30 years ago, I had gone and gotten a doctorate at New York University, and I also had studied at the Eastman School and SUNY Stony Brook in New York, and Royal College of Music in London, and Juilliard in New York, and my PhD from NYU, and I thought, gee, I love academe. I, you know, if I'm really lucky in my life, I'll be able to join a great university and be on a college campus. And so then I went on this journey of becoming, you know, first a professional musician, and then, and, you know, did scholarship as well. And then went off to my first position in a university was at the University of New Mexico, which is somewhat similar to UNLV in a way. And I just loved that. And I was chair of the music department there and director of a center for the arts and society. And eventually was in the provost office there as associate provost. So UNM, then I went off to California Institute of the Arts. I became provost, which is the Chief Academic Officer. Then from there I went to Seattle and I was President of a small arts and liberal arts school for five years called Cornish College of the Arts. And then I thought, gee, I would love to come back to a wonderful, excellent public university like I started my career with. And so I was so fortunate that this position, the deanship of this college was open in 2016, so I'm just starting my eighth year here, and I was the luckiest person in the world to be hired here, and I love UNLV. So that's my, again, kind of a long story, but I'd say that's kind of my origin story.

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Well, as I read your resume and your bio here, I would say that we are also exceptionally lucky to have you. Your bio reads like the who's who of music education, Juilliard, Royal College of Music in London, my gracious, all the travels that you've done. I'm so grateful that we have you here and all the richness and all the experience that you bring with you into this program. So thank you for choosing us as much as.

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Well, you know, our students are the best students in the entire world and our faculty and all of you both and everybody who works here is the most wonderful group of people and we are so proud of our students. Honestly, it is a joy every single day to think of ways that we can help our students succeed and they do succeed. I'm so proud of them, you know, and as their parents and their families are. And there's something so meaningful about the education that this university offers. I just am really honored to be part of it.

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So, which leads me to my question. So why would you consider fine arts to be an important part of academic study?

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You know, I think that the arts are an integral part of the goodness of life. And there is scientific study and so forth that shows that people who participate in the arts are happier, they have more successful lives. But I think it really goes beyond that. I think that the arts are absolutely essential and they're part of the healthcare system in my view. It may be a little bit of a different point of view than some people have, but I think it literally, the arts, participating and enjoying them and observing them however one wants to engage with the arts. It gives people a sense of spiritual health and I do think it's part of the health care system. So you know we know we love our medical school and of course our nursing school and public health and integrated health sciences and dental. We love all of the health sciences at the university. I would say we're right there, we're jogging right along with them in fine arts. It's that important. So, you know, it's a privilege to work in a university and to be part of a community that understands the importance of health care and really strives to help our community every single day. And I think that the arts in many respects is part of that system.

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I think that's just phenomenal. I mean, not just for students, but for faculty and individual. And it's so ironic that you said that because I was jotting down notes as you were speaking, and I thought I want to ask her, is music, whether you're playing or singing, personally for you, is it therapeutic? You know, I have a sister that bakes and she says that baking is therapeutic. It's just not an act of service. And so as I hear you explain this and the passion behind your voice to talk about, you know, could we kind of lean into it, although I know this is not necessarily a medical segment, but can we lean into the therapeutic side of music for you and also the impact that you said additionally can have on students and those who engage here on campus?

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Yes, I think it's therapeutic. I think from a scholarly perspective, it's extremely illuminating. It helps people think in a more creative way. I believe that people in the arts have a chance to see possibility in new ways. And so students who take courses in the arts also start to look at the world differently. I also wanna say from a global perspective, the arts are very, very important to societies all around the world. And I'm gonna tell you something that I haven't actually told many people, but I was just invited to a conference in Ghana, in Africa this summer, and I'm not sure I can go, but I'm gonna try. And I had suggested this, I wanted to talk about the arts as an intervention for health and well-being. So I actually wrote an abstract, and I'll tell you the presentation title. It's called, The Arts as an Intervention for the Health and Well-Being for Society, Sharing Global Perspectives. And this is a peer-reviewed conference and it got accepted. So you know I guess I'm conveying this not about me, but it's about showing that this is the new way of thinking about the arts, is that it's they're great, they help you, I think they help you think differently. It's part of Part of a really exceptional education will be moving through all sectors. Obviously, we know how important science is, social sciences, humanities. All of that is just critical. And arts and humanities are part of that mixture, part of that formula, about what it means to be a well-educated person, because you can enjoy yourself.

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But it's also about scholarship. There's

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a lot of very important discovery and creation of new knowledge in the arts. So I would say to go back to your story about your sister, I think it is therapeutic and it's also extremely important as a part of a strong

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and solid education, well-rounded education. I cannot tell you how much excitement you generated for me with your answer because they've done studies, they've done research on arts. You know that arts is often a part of a lot of therapeutic intervention. There's art therapy, there's music therapy. So those two, they marry very well. And I love the idea of it not just being a local, but a global initiative around art and how it not only improves people's mental health, but it also improves your ability to interact and engage with the wider world. So all of that-

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We have, I just want to say, we have a new project that hasn't started formally yet, but right here at UNLV, we're going to be taking some graduate students who are experts in theater improv, and we're going to be, as a pilot program, experimenting with making this an elective for the medical students, for their medical education, to learn theater improv as a way of exploring their own empathy for patients. Isn't that wonderful? I'm sorry, I just am so proud that we're going to be doing that work. And so I think more and more we're going to be, we're going to see more And we have a university that really enjoys the interdisciplinary opportunities that we have because we have such strong colleges. You know, I absolutely love every college in this university where I'm so privileged to be with our wonderful deans and all the people that work at these colleges. And more and more, I think we're trying to find ways that we can come together and work together and I think the idea of arts and

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medicine and arts and health sciences

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is one of those areas that will be so

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exciting to explore. So thank you for

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letting me share that. Speaking to my soul. You can't see us visually but we're like Overcome so I will let you take the next question. I'm excited to I mean like you think you're going to start one way That's the beauty of conversation. That's the beauty of awareness and I can hear even though we Physically can't see you. I'm on the other end We can feel your presence and so and the excitement and the passion you have so thank you for that. I want to know, are there any recent success stories from any of the artists that you would like to share a highlight?

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Oh my goodness, we have so many. I can tell you some general areas that we have. You know, in our film department, we have students who've been selected for the Sundance Film Festival. We have students, right now, we have a big project going on called the College of Fine Arts Around the World. And we have students who have been selected to go to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They're gonna be performing there in August. And one of the beautiful things, since we were talking about the interdisciplinary opportunities, we have students, we have seven academic disciplines, you know, that I mentioned before about, you know, visual arts and performing arts and film and architecture and EED, the entertainment engineering and design, we have students who are going to be collaborating from every single one of those seven disciplines and creating their own piece with faculty mentorship and they're performing it at the Edinburgh Scotland Fringe Festival and they've already come up with a title and it's called Is It Art? And then they're going to bring it back here and we'll perform it here somewhere in the community. And it's a 50 minute piece. And I'm not gonna be able to be with them in Edinburgh because I'm going to another festival where I'm gonna be playing my viola with our students in Eisenstadt, Austria. And that's another success story that we have 12 students who are coming to that festival in Austria to play in an international orchestra at Franz Josef Haydn's birthplace. In Eisen, well, whether it was his birthplace, it was the place where he was supported by the Esterházy family. And so we're gonna be playing in Eisenstadt and in a beautiful St. Stephen's Church in Vienna. And so these are great success stories. We just have our honors, Joe Williams honors, Jeff Kambo, is coming back today or tomorrow after being in Italy for two weeks and visiting many conservatories and having master classes with Italian jazz students. We have a group of string virtuosi that was just in residence at the Milan Conservatory in Italy. And so we have dancers who are gonna be performing in French Polynesia in a couple of weeks. We have a lot of success stories, and some of them are international, some of them are right here. We're very excited about the future for our students. We love to give them all kinds of opportunities, and we're so grateful to some of our donors who contribute so generously through philanthropy. We're very, very grateful to the state as well, of course, and our university for supporting the arts. But when we get, and when we get these other contributions, we're able to do even more for our students. And so it's just delightful. And it's a celebration of how we can really give transformational educations to our students. So they go out into the world and they give back, you know, to their communities as well.

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Which is phenomenal.

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Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. I just have a quick follow-up question. With that being said, for students, for faculty, even community members, the audience that is listening to this episode, where do we get tickets for those shows and particular performances that are going to be locally here in the Las Vegas area?

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Well, we have a very good website, which is, you can just log into College of Fine Arts, and then you'll find all the events that are now being, that website populates with new events every single year, and we have many events going on almost every week. But I will say this, if anyone is listening and decides to contact me at nancy.uscher at unlv.edu, if you let me know that you'd like to come to a concert or to a visual arts exhibition or to an architecture project or to a film or anything contact me and I would be delighted to give you complimentary tickets. Okay, that's an offer and it's an offer for you both as well.

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Yes, I'm excited.

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All right.

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Thank you so much. I will be emailing you, I promise.

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As will I.

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It would be my honor and pleasure to invite anybody who's listening to come to one of our events. It would really be just lovely to meet you and to talk about life and the arts. It would be just a pleasure.

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You know, you said transformational education. Oh my gosh, I love those two words together. That is what a wonderful amalgamation. Transformational education. I want to understand, because I'm beyond excited with everything that I'm hearing. How can we support? How can individuals support? How can students support? How can we get involved in all the wonderful things that you are part of? Well, you know, I

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think having conversations like this is so powerful. It's a powerful opportunity. Thank you for inviting me because to have this conversation and be able to share these ideas, I think is one very positive step we can take together. I think going to things, you know, contacting people in our college, we certainly are always very, very grateful for any philanthropy in the arts. I should mention that we are incredibly excited about the fact that over the next decade we are building a new arts building on campus and it's going to be where Grant Hall is now and right now we're calling it the College of Fine Arts building. But we're hopefully raising some money from the state and we don't know yet but we hope that we'll be hearing good news at the end of this session. We already have the building designed and programmed and our next step is to create a very detailed construction plan and then to build the building. It's going to be gorgeous. It's lovely. And so, of course, we'd love to name the building. We have many namings in the building, and we're hoping for a lot of community support. So I guess that's another thing we could talk about, maybe another time, about what this building is going to mean for the college, for the university, and for the whole community, and for the entire state actually. It's gonna be a beautiful, lovely building with all kinds of arts going on, beautiful boxes like we have already, have a black box on campus. There are gonna be two other performance venues, sort of like arts laboratories, a cafe, lots of gathering space for students, an advisement center, what we call a front porch that's gonna be outside. Lot of very wonderful space for students to collaborate and to talk about anything they want. You know, to just visit with each other and get to know each other.

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How exciting! I'm so excited. I didn't know that that was coming, so thank you so much for sharing.

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Thank you for that wonderful question about how you could support us.

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Yes.

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Well, listen. I think one of the best ways to support us is to enjoy the arts and let us know how we can serve you because we want to be of service to the community.

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And that's what it's about, bridging us together and us working together. This is the sad part because we're coming to an end, and that time went by so quick. And so you have been so phenomenal with educating us and bringing awareness and visibility to many facets of the Fine Arts Department. So we just want to give you the platform and the remainder of time that we have, a few moments, just to leave us with any final words, anything that you want the listeners to hear, to grasp, and take home.

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Thank you. Thank you so much. We have a new, this may sound a little bit academic, but we have a new strategic plan and I'd like to read the mission statement because I'm really proud of it. And this also will, you know, this will show, it will sort of illuminate how we want to be helpful to everyone in the community. The The College of Fine Arts educates, empowers, and engages creative people to become visionary changemakers in the arts through acts of imagination. Oh, I love that. I think anything is possible. I think life is a grand adventure, and we are so lucky at UNLV to have a place to have Everyone matters. Everyone is important. And I am honored and thrilled to be part of this community. We really care about Las Vegas. We care about Nevada. We care about the university and we care about our students. And anything we can do together to make life better for people is a great day. It's a wonderful opportunity for all of us.

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Well, you've made my day substantially better just by being here, so thank you. Thank you, thank you.

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I feel so fortunate to have been with you both today. Really, thank you.

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Oh, thank you. It's been a pleasure and an honor. We definitely have to have you back on again, and we can talk about some of the shows that we're going to participate in.

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I would love to.

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You just say the word, and I would just be delighted to visit with you whenever you wish. Thank you.

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I hope your day is as amazing as you are. Thank you.

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Well, I could say the same for you both, and thank you for making this possible. How creative it is for you to have this podcast. It's fantastic.

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Thank you.

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You take care.

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You too. Bye-bye.

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All the best. Bye-bye.

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Transcribed with Cockatoo