After 25 years of shaping artists and activists at USF, Roberto G. Varea has retired from the Performing Arts and Social Justice (PASJ) program he helped build, leaving behind a legacy rooted in the belief that art can be a force for social change. PASJ is offered as a Bachelor of Arts major at USF and aims to “promote positive change through the performing arts,” offering a dance and theater concentration and providing students with additional performance opportunities and spaces.
In what was originally named the Visual and Performing Arts Department, Varea helped make performing arts a distinctive major and built up infrastructure to help the program thrive and attract high-quality students. As a co-founder of PASJ, leaving USF after so many years has led to “a lot going on in my heart and soul,” Varea expressed. His departure marks the end of an era, but the program he helped build will hopefully ensure his vision for art as a tool for social change.
From its beginning, PASJ was designed to fill a gap in arts education by combining performance training with a deep commitment to social justice, informed by the Jesuit mission of the University. PASJ was designed to be distinct from conservatory-style programs, to serve students who were interested in a liberal arts education as well as becoming a better performer. Varea described how students at the beginning of the program initially joined for the arts, only to appreciate the social justice aspect later. The program now mostly attracts students interested in how art can impact culture and society.
Varea described his experience growing up in Argentina during the military dictatorship and how the theater, arts and humanities universities and programs were the first to be shut down in the midst of authoritarianism. This decimation and persecution of the arts was the impetus for Varea migrating to the U.S. and informed his including the mission of social justice into the performing arts at USF. Varea said, “The social justice vision of performing arts is sort of baked in the vision of performing artists in many parts of the world.”
Varea is particularly proud of PASJ initiatives like the Dance Generators and Professor Amie Dowling’s work in San Quentin Prison. Dance Generators seeks to connect people of different generations through dance and movement, creating intergenerational pieces that foster artistic collaboration and catalyze social change. Varea said, “From the perspective of the students, to be able to connect with older folk and to see how movement is affected by age, but not necessarily always in a negative way, thinking that it is not necessarily the physicality, but the experience that a person can bring to the quality of a movement that might not be athletic but it could be beautifully charged with meaning.”
Professor Amie Dowling’s work consists of an artistic ensemble of 20 diverse men serving time in San Quentin who create performances in a dialogic creative process which aims to explore what it means to be human as well as social inequalities with language, sound and movement. Varea is proud of many of the productions and performances that PASJ has put on over the years and hopes they can continue after his departure.
Varea’s retirement leaves behind both a thriving program and a pressing concern for the future of arts and humanities education in the U.S. Varea described having “déjà vu because [he was] hearing a lot of things that [he] heard in Argentina during the dictatorship.” He went on to say, “There is no surprise, you know, that arts and humanities and social sciences are going through a really difficult time right now, but also why they’re so important and critical to protect and defend.”
PASJ was the recipient of a large grant from the Ann Getty Institute of Art and Design which will allow the program an increased budget for infrastructure and the chance to offer scholarships in the performing arts. Supporting the arts is congruent with the Jesuit mission of USF, according to Varea who says, “At universities like ours that have not only a little bit more independence from government and government policies and guidelines, but also because of the Jesuit vision and mission that has informed USF and Jesuit education, it is a time to greatly support these areas [arts] if we want to continue to have a democracy.” As PASJ moves forward with renewed support, it carries both Varea’s legacy and the responsibility to defend the role of the arts in shaping a more just and democratic future.
