Full-time faculty position: Program Director of Community Arts MFA

Graduate Studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) invites applications for a full-time faculty position to serve as program director of the Community Arts MFA program at a private art and design college nationally known for the high quality of its graduate programs, its dedication to student learning and teaching excellence, and its distinction in fine art and design at national and international levels. The program director is a faculty position with administrative responsibilities on a multi-year renewable contract at this non-tenure institution, which begins August 2022.

Job description
The ideal candidate will be a dynamic individual and dedicated artist-educator with significant professional experience, who is prepared to nurture existing community partnerships, innovate curricula, and develop projects and partnerships that engage graduate students with the current practice and theory of community-based work and contemporary art practice. The candidate will have an established practice that demonstrates a critical engagement with art, social justice, culture, and community across a range of fields that may include, but are not limited to, socially engaged visual arts, partnered projects, and social or participatory practices. They will have experience developing student-centered programs, pedagogical approaches, and research relevant to a student, faculty, and community population rich in diversity across race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, culture, ability and class.

The next Community Arts MFA program director will have a solid grounding in historical, structural, and systemic issues that inform and challenge community-based work; an understanding of current theory and practice for community-based or socially-engaged work; and a vision for the future of the field in its local and international contexts – and the ability to articulate ways in which graduate study can inform or transform all of these. Through these contributions, the future program director will further advance the position of MICA and the Community Arts MFA program as leaders in community-based social-justice oriented art practice.

The director provides the academic and administrative leadership of this cohort-driven program of up to 20 students, necessitating in-person or on-site teaching and management across the calendar year. As a faculty member in the program, the director works directly with students, leading seminars and studio visits and observing students in the field. As administrative leader, the program director assumes responsibility for curriculum and program facilities, academic programming and budgets, program assessment and accreditation, student recruitment and mentorship, faculty hiring and management, and supporting legacy community relationships while cultivating new strategic partnerships and alliances. The program director is expected to contribute to the life of Graduate Studies and the College through cross-programmatic collaboration (especially with other field-based graduate programs), committee work, leadership meetings, student recruitment events, community engagement, and other institution-related duties. All full-time faculty at MICA are expected to pursue research and/or professional engagements that contribute to the educational mission of the College.

Applications
Please visit our Careers at MICA page to see a full description and application instructions. The College will review applications as they are received. All positions will remain open until filled. All inquiries, nominations and applications will be held in strictest confidence.