For over a decade as dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts, I have been asked to talk about how the disciplines of CFA signal the mission of this Catholic/Jesuit university. Sometime those questions came as challenge to both the configuration of the college, and at other times as a defensive posture to which I was expected to evidence my knowledge and commitment to mission. Knowingly or not, these questions were asked of me, as my mother would describe me, as a “relatively good Catholic boy.” Something that we giggled about over the years, as both critique and motivation for me to be better. And for those who know me as a Black Catholic, a former altar boy, and through my engagement at Sacred Heart Chapel as regular attendee at Mass, lecturer, and Eucharistic minister – my mother would be proud of my continued efforts to be and be better in my faith-practice. But we are all works in progress, and the LMU mission draws us all to “the encouragement of learning, the education of the whole person, and the service of faith and the promotion of justice.” Which is foundational to our broader embedded university commitment to “advancing belonging, equity, and justice” throughout the university, as I quote our new 17th LMU President, Thomas Poon, Ph.D.
The first question about CFA came during my job interview when someone who was both skeptical of the disciplines of Communication Studies, Theatre, Art, Art History, Music, Dance and Marital and Family Therapy with specialized training in art therapy asked, “Why do these disciplines exist as a stand-alone college?” Separate from this history of the university, maybe the question was serious inquiry or a challenge to the potential newbie to defend the arena of a new leadership position.
My response then was as simple as stating these are disciplines that are specifically committed to art as communication and communication as art. They are sutured together by a commitment to a critical reflexivity in exploring truth through argumentation, debate, rhetoric and media analysis as culture-building practices; expressing beauty that is reflective of the human spirit and examining material culture in the everyday and as historical archives of people who lived, imagined, and reinvented aspects of their existence through music, performance, rhetoric, and art (art as a critical technology of expression that manifests in the alchemy of skill, creativity, and imagination). All these disciplines engage in the expressive modalities of human sense-making – sometimes as therapeutic practice in laboratories of illumination and embodied action, mirroring social realities for cultural critique – always as disciplines engaged in creativity not just as artistic expression but as critical imagining of possibilities. Made more salient as clinical work in art therapy with integrate visual arts and psychotherapeutic skills preparing students to become marital and family therapists. I always link this liberatory and emancipatory commitment to the Jesuits of LMU; as we all move towards the magis. The magis, both in the relentless pursuit of ad majorem dei gloriam (everything for the greater glory of God), and the ways that such practices are always and already about the education of the whole person by activating processes of information, formation, and transformation of the human condition – linking faith and culture towards a just society.
These disciplines cluster together in CFA as a university commitment to a throughline of practice, possibility, and potentiality for students and society committed to rhetoric and art. They speak to and across each other; always linking the importance of being critical and creative and thus helping others to cultivate a cultural curiosity about how to live by offering new templates of sociality – as they search for truth and/or the divine. What we do in CFA is grounded in ethics of addressing social and cultural issues that shape the human experience inviting, nay demanding that our students use their critical and artistic skills to interpret, translate, and magnify what it means to be human through art, artistic expression, and through the rhetorical traditions of artful public address with elements of persuasion, argumentation debate, and analysis. All of which have been essential to diverse expressions of faith and spirituality – and will be critical to the ways that we imagine how we relate and respond to social, cultural, and political challenges. This was nearly my response to the questions then, but now more steeped in my years of service and accompaniment at LMU. I stand on this set of logics today.
But why am I revisiting this call and response? Maybe because it continues to be a question and curiosity to some. And maybe in a world so desperately in need of healing and compassion, as our Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange would say, we need to be consistently reminded of what the study of human social and political discourse, along with the performing and close examination of the mechanisms and study of art offer to campus, community, and society. Not just a diversion from reality but a deep immersion into the realities of everyday living, both real and surreal, then applying outcomes and insights with liberatory intentions for self and others.
Our students in CFA amaze me in the depth and intellect of their creative practice. What they present and represent in their work; in their critical artistry, and their articulate discourse is evidence of their knowing and coming to know themselves in the world; drawing from diverse cosmologies of knowing. They offer us new ways of seeing and knowing and thinking and doing and being – responsive to each other and the world. Their skill and intellect translate and is applied to every aspect of the human experience and to reimagining the world anew. They are engaged in the presentational and representational aspects of a redeeming sense of our joint humanity, inviting us to be both audience and critic, situating ourselves in the scenes of everyday life, and beyond. Communication, along with the performing and fine arts, continue to be a productive direction for us to imagine how we collectively move forward.
Jointly, these disciplines offer templates to understand our shared humanity across borders of presumed difference that is used to minimize and deny human rights: the human right to live; to roam across borders, to seek joy and survival; to thrive and be productive. These disciplines mirror and motivate Catholic Social Teaching that recognizes the dignity of every human person, the dignity of work and rights of workers, balancing fundamental human rights and our corresponding responsibilities in/with/for religious freedom, expanding options for the poor and vulnerable, care for our common planet and our social and civic responsibility. The disciplines in CFA truly make manifest the commitments in an activist affect that demands those in ear shot and eye shot of their engagement to respond with empathy and action. That is what audiences get from public debate, theatrical performance, dance, and musical performance, as well as art exhibitions. They get an invitation to practice a critical empathy, to imagine a world made new with their effort and with their participation. And the participation in the critical and creative endeavor affords opportunity for each to articulate what is intuitively felt and productively work toward personal uplift and social justice.
Assisting me further in my argument, Leticia Rhi Buckley, chief executive officer of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, LMU alumna ’93, a new member of the CFA Development Council writes: “The transformative and unifying impact of the arts cannot be overstated, serving as a catalyst for social and civic change, cultural expression, and community identity. Creativity is at the center of what makes us human. Everything we do is rooted in creativity, whether as a practicing artist, a scientist working to cure cancer, a parent figuring out how best to guide and support their child, or a community member pulling out a cardboard box and marker to write a protest poster. Every seemingly intractable challenge requires a creative solution. That’s the power of the arts.”
Leticia’s words speak both to the particular efforts of CFA and the work of LA Plaza that engages the arts to illuminate the rich history, cultures, values, and traditions of Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and all Latinos in Los Angeles and Southern California. The link between communication, culture, creativity, and the arts is inseparable. Each are conformed and co-informed by the expressive articulation thought, feeling, community, compromise and celebration of lived experience. Not only for aesthetic pleasure, but as a form of archiving rich heritage and serving as a critical lens to analyze the past, as we practice the presence, and imagine new futures together. Such is the power and importance of the disciplines in CFA across cultures and the range of our shared human experience.
Jennifer Robbins Braanan ’94, ’23, P ’23, working actor, adjunct professor, and new member of the CFA Council links the disciplines of CFA back to the mission of the university. She writes: “I believe the spiritual and contemplative practices of St. Ignatius of Loyola, which permeate an LMU education, ground students of the arts and provide discernment, stability and purpose. This grounding in the source of creativity creates joy, generosity, and resilience. This spirit permeates all that they do. . . In a time that is fast becoming more digitized and reliant on non-material interaction in business, social, educational, media and entertainment, I believe the theater of the future will be of more benefit and relevance than ever, as it will serve its audience in an increasingly unique way: the audience will laugh, cry, think, dialogue with a fellow (live) human being, body and soul.”
I wholeheartedly agree with Jennifer. In our disciplines we invite, nay demand that our students use their critical and artistic skills to interpret, translate, and magnify what it means to be human through art, artistic expression, and through the rhetorical traditions of public address with elements of persuasion, argumentation debate, and analysis. All of which are essential to diverse expressions of faith, spirituality, and social formations like the building and maintaining of dialogue and democracy. Hence, critical to the ways that all imagine how we relate and respond to social, cultural, and political challenges. I am also reminded how the disciplines of CFA support the mission of LMU’s Marymount Institute for Faith, Culture, and the Arts that instils the legacy of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary and attends to the relationship between different faiths, unique human cultures, and the arts.
Affixed to the wall in the lobby of the Foley Building that houses the Department of Theatre and the Department of Communication Studies, is the magnificent tapestry by acclaimed muralist Millard Sheets, which is reputed to be the largest modern tapestry in the Americas and the third largest in the world. The Loyola Tapestry, 18 feet by 34 feet, was hung in March 1966. The Loyola Tapestry, was designed for the foyer of the Edward T. Foley Communications Arts Center and symbolizes the meaning and means of communication created by man. One quote from Martin Buber, an Austrian Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, is woven into the tapestry. It reads: “It is clear that all art is from its origin essentially of the nature of dialogue. All music calls to an ear not the musician’s own, all sculpture to an eye not the sculptor’s, architecture in addition calls to the step as it walks the building. They all say, to him who receives them, something not a ‘feeling’ but a perceived mystery that can be said only in this language.” I add: the disciplines in CFA explore and offer a linguistic and artistic method that speaks in critical ways to the soul of many. Thus, defying arrogant ambition and a forced Tower of Babel, to seek and instill comprehension each to the other – set within a common syntax of the heart.
In CFA we stand committed to our LMU mission expressed, embedded, and animated through the collective disciplines of the college. I offer these words to you as a welcome, motivation, invitation, and confirmation. A welcome to a new academic year filled with great promise. Motivation that drives the interconnection of our CFA disciplines with the mission and religious orders of our campus. An invitation to continue the critical and creative work of our disciplines. And a confirmation to those who continue to offer us their time, talent, and treasure to support, underwrite, and encourage our progressive endeavors in the college of Communication and Fine Arts through philanthropy. We appreciate you and invite your continued support.
Let’s Have a Great New Academic Year!