REAGAN EXPECTED TO NAME UC IRVINE DEAN TO NATIONAL COUNCIL ON ARTS

Robert Garfias, dean of the School of Fine Arts at UC Irvine, is being considered for a presidential nomination to the National Council on the Arts, state and federal arts officials said this week.

His formal nomination to the council, the 26-member policy-setting body of the National Endowment for the Arts, is expected in early 1987 and will be subject to congressional approval.

“He is under consideration at the White House,” said a highly placed staffer at the National Endowment for the Arts. “The formal nomination (by President Reagan) will not come until early January.”

Garfias, 54, an ethnomusicologist--one who specializes in the study of music as ethnic expression--has a broad interest in folk arts. He has written on such subjects as the influence of Turkish classical music on Romanian Gypsy music, links between African musical traditions and the marimba music of Latin America. He has been dean of the School of Fine Arts since 1982 and is president of the Orange County Arts Alliance, an umbrella organization for county arts groups.

“There has been no folk arts slot on the council before, and . . . we feel there is a need to represent that field,” said the endowment staffer. “(Garfias) has a very strong background.”