Associate Professor: Chair, MFA-Visual Arts
The College of Art at Washington University in St. Louis seeks a dynamic visual artist and leader for a position at the rank of associate professor as chair of the MFA-Visual Art program (MFA-VA). This 10-month, tenured or tenure track full-time appointment begins August 2024 with a three-year renewable term as chair. In addition to administrative responsibilities, the role includes teaching the equivalent of one and a half classes each semester.
The successful candidate will demonstrate an ambitious creative practice including a record of national and/or international distinction within their discipline in addition to experience teaching graduates and undergraduates commensurate with the rank of associate professor. An MFA is required. Salary is competitive and based on experience. Granting of tenure is contingent upon approval of the voting faculty and the University’s Board of Trustees.
Our interdisciplinary graduate program in visual art is intimately scaled, home to about 25 students at any one time. We are part of a tier-one research university, our program is an inclusive, close-knit community of zealous makers and thinkers. We offer students a site for rigorous inquiry, humanity, and intellectual generosity. Housed in the recently built Weil Hall, our LEED Platinum 82,000 square-foot facility includes studio spaces for three graduate programs, exhibition and project spaces, and numerous resources for production including a digital fabrication lab and an experimental studio for video and time-based media. (This is only a fraction of the first-class studio facilities located throughout the Sam Fox School.) Graduate thesis exhibitions are mounted in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, a world class collecting institution, alongside curated exhibitions of some of today’s most significant artists. Our faculty are nationally and internationally recognized for their diverse practices; they engage complex territories on the environment, race, politics, material culture, science, and the human condition. Much more information can be gleaned here: Otherwise
The chair of the MFA-VA program manages academic planning, including course scheduling, faculty teaching schedules, and student academic advising. Working with fellow faculty, administrators, and staff, the chair provides leadership for recruitment, student learning, curriculum and policy development, and budgeting. The chair collaborates with a group of ten tenured and tenure-track faculty and two full-time lecturers, and is assisted by a full-time administrator working for our two graduate programs.
We seek diverse and enthusiastic candidates with wide ranging intellectual and creative research interests to complement and build upon our program’s existing capabilities. The recent launch of both the Sam Fox School’s strategic plan, Shaping the Future, and Washington University’s plan, Here & Next, provides an excellent opportunity to develop research interests within a framework of interdisciplinary collaboration and funding. Candidates who are interested in both benefiting from and contributing to the enrichment of a committed and collegial environment are encouraged to apply.
