Intro
By Andy Blacker
This fall, the College of Fine and Applied Arts welcomed a new dean, Jake Pinholster, to campus. Pinholster comes from Arizona State University where he served as executive dean for enterprise design in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and founding director of the ASU Media and Immersive eXperience (MIX) Center in downtown Mesa. He was also previously the director of the ASU School of Film, Dance and Theatre. As an educator and administrator, Pinholster has engaged in several long-term initiatives that fuse technology, interdisciplinarity, and curricular innovation. As a designer, his efforts have centered on projection and media design and technology for performance. His professional media/projection design credits include the Pee Wee Herman Show on Broadway and HBO, Carrie Fisher: Wishful Drinking on HBO, Current Nobody, Hoover, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Heddatron, and many other productions at off-Broadway, regional, and academic venues.
Q&A
As you start your term as dean of FAA, what most excites you about leading the college?
There is such a rich selection of things to be excited about! I think the element of FAA that excites me the most is the vibrant community. Everyone I’ve met, talked to, and even heard about has been welcoming, warm, and deeply invested in the wellbeing of each and every member of the college.
While you are learning more about FAA, do you see a specific opportunity or challenge that you are looking forward to exploring?
There are two primary areas that I believe FAA is well-primed to explore more deeply in the immediate future: greater interdisciplinary connection both within and outside the college and deeper integration with the communities of Champaign and Urbana. Our world today calls for an end to the perception that artists and designers are somehow apart from the world. We must be deeply embedded and radically engaged in the world as it is in order to help the future be what we need it to be. And to do that, we have to be less of a black box and more of a front porch.
You have a background in theatre production and design so you have a deep knowledge of the performing arts. Is there a discipline in FAA that you are most interested in learning more about?
My background is primarily in theatre, but my career has led me down all sorts of roads in dance, architecture, graphic design, and a variety of visual arts forms. I have a deep curiosity about all the disciplines FAA represents, but, perhaps weirdly, the one I am least fluent in is music. I have no musical ability whatsoever, and frankly, I’ve always been amazed by the masters of its forms.
You were the founding director of an arts facility in downtown Mesa. How do you hope to bring more of FAA into our communities?
Yes, absolutely. Champaign-Urbana’s microurban context is, I believe, a source of rich opportunity for engagement between a community and a university. I would like to see more presence of architecture, design, and the arts out in the twin cities, particularly in the form of deeper, longer-term relationships. More broadly, I believe FAA can have an important presence throughout Central Illinois, especially given some of the great work being done in our units currently around small and rural communities.
As a designer working in media and projection for theatre, is there a project that you are most proud of and why?
There are several projects in my portfolio that instill pride in me, usually due to the social issues they address. The most recent of these is The Most Beautiful Home…Maybe, which is an immersive, interactive cabaret performance about the US housing crisis that I both coproduced and designed. But, perhaps for me, the project I am most proud of is the one I am currently working on: Upstream, an immersive work about climate change that is being cocreated with youth ages 11 to 18 in St. Paul, Minnesota. It premieres next spring and will then be followed by a national tour.
Moving to Central Illinois from Arizona, is there something in the area that you are particularly enjoying, and/or is there something that you are missing from Arizona?
I’m enjoying having more than two seasons! Deeply looking forward to the fall – festivals, brisk mornings, and a Halloween where it isn’t likely to be 100 degrees. I’m also really enjoying Champaign-Urbana’s unique combination of the benefits of a bigger city (great restaurants, arts, and culture options) with the feeling of a small town. Thus far, I only know about twenty people in town, but I swear I’ve already run into half of them in the wild at either Friday Night Live or Harvest Market. As to things I will miss about Arizona, ask me again in February.
Serving as dean is a demanding role but work-life balance is important. What hobbies, interests, and/or activities do you enjoy pursuing in your free time?
When I can force myself to truly relax, I enjoy reading great science fiction and fantasy books, spending time with our dogs, and learning to cook new cuisines. When I can’t force myself out of “go mode,” I also really enjoy getting engaged in local activism/social causes and working on collaborative projects that combine the arts with permaculture, conservation, and environmental awareness.