College of Fine Arts Dean Benjamín Juárez came to Boston University from the Dr. José María Luis Mora Research Institute, which focuses on social sciences, history, and culture, in his native Mexico. He previously directed Centro Nacional de las Artes, Mexico’s national arts center, running professional schools in music, dance, arts, theater, and film, research centers, the organization’s TV channel, and more than 20 theaters and performing spaces. While at the Centro Nacional de las Artes, from 2007 to 2009, he oversaw 600-plus employees and 1,800 students. He signed student and faculty exchange agreements with other art schools in the United States and Europe, and launched joint programs with such prestigious organizations as The Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, hosted international arts conferences, and presided over a 30 percent increase in visitors to the center.
Earlier, Juárez was Director of Cultural Activities for Universidad Anáhuac del Sur. From 1992 to 2002, he led an international research project on Mexican cathedral music that provided for the transcription and performance of hundreds of works composed between the 16th and 19th centuries. The work, underwritten by UNESCO and other funders, yielded a dozen CDs and a Latin Grammy nomination.
From 1978 to 1979, Juárez was Head of Music and Dance at the National University of México, where he inaugurated Mexico’s major 2,100-seat concert hall and oversaw its international programming. He was Principal Guest Conductor and Assistant Conductor of the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1981, Associate Conductor of the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra from 1983 to 1987, and Music Director of the Gran Festival de la Ciudad de Mexico in 1989 and 1990. He has lectured and run workshops on music and the arts in Mexico and abroad. In 1984, he was the first Latin American to conduct an orchestra in China.
Juárez earned a Masters of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts in 1973, and a Certificate in Business Administration from Universidad Anáhuac del Sur in 2002. He has also participated in seminars on cultural studies at Instituto Mora and casewriting and leadership in higher education at Harvard University’s Schools of Business and Education.
Among his areas of interest are: arts education, interdiscipline in the arts, creativity, arts management, arts policy, Mexican music, arts theory, cultural studies, globalization, cultural planning, technology and the arts.
Mark T. Krone, editor, is manager of graduate admissions in the Boston University College of Fine Arts and a Boston-based free-lance writer. You can read his blog at: http://markthomaskrone.wordpress.com.
