Continuing Education Instructor

RISD Continuing Education functions within the larger context of RISD, an institution with an unparalleled reputation for producing highly-skilled, successful, and internationally renowned creative practitioners. With more than 100 years of expertise nurturing critical making, thinking, and innovation in art and design we facilitate personal and professional development by engaging students in sustained exploration and learning in the creative disciplines. With a commitment to centering inclusivity, diversity and equity in executing key responsibilities, RISD Continuing Education instructors plan, organize, teach, and provide feedback to promote and direct student learning in keeping with the institutional learning-centered values and in a manner that meets essential competencies of artists and designers.

Job Description

RISD Continuing Education instructors plan, organize, teach, and provide feedback to promote and direct student learning in keeping with the institutional learning-centered values and in a manner that meets the essential competencies of an artist and designer. Our instructors respond to students in a timely manner and communicate with the discipline and division via college-provided tools and resources. We welcome instructors whose teaching experience addresses historically underrepresented communities.

The successful candidate should be prepared to teach in person on the RISD campus to a diverse group of students from a range of disciplines. Interpersonal and leadership skills, clarity, generosity, and creativity in both personal work and teaching are essential. Candidates should be prepared to develop culturally diverse syllabi for studio and seminar courses and lead classes and critiques that model constructive, inclusive discussions that encourage students to grow creatively and intellectually.

We are looking for an instructor whose specialty is in Modern Collage, to teach the dynamic world of collage, a versatile medium that blends commercial illustration with fine art. The successful candidate will be able to teach artists at all levels who are eager to explore methods and materials. The instructor will need to provide a brief survey of collage history, highlighting the evolution from early techniques to the innovative approaches of 20th-century masters like Picasso, Schwitters, and Bearden, and moving into contemporary practices. The successful candidate will lead students through collage techniques through demonstrations, hands-on exercises, and creative assignments. Key areas of focus will need to include mixed media, photomontage, and experimental texture allowing students new ways to express their creativity and produce original works.

Required Knowledge/Skills/Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree required. MFA preferred or equivalent in established professional practice in area of study
• A track record of paid professional experience at companies successfully doing related work, and/or a robust, creative, intellectually and critically engaged design or studio practice, as evidenced by recognition in publications, commissions, exhibitions, awards and/or collaborative projects.
• In person teaching experience, including the ability to create syllabi and lesson plans, and how to tie those to learning outcomes. In person course content; syllabus, learning outcomes, tutorials, assignments and other components such as intuitive navigation, lively discussions, and meaningful feedback as part of a successful class.
• Ability to develop and implement diverse teaching and learning for different learning styles and to respond to the needs of learners from a variety of educational backgrounds in a multicultural environment.
• Analytical, evaluative, and critical thinking skills
• Accept and act upon constructive feedback from course and classroom evaluations by students and staff.
• Strong interpersonal, communication and organizational skills.
• Ability to develop syllabi and lead classes and critiques that model constructive, inclusive discussions, and that encourage students to grow creatively and intellectually.
• In-depth knowledge of collage

Preferred Knowledge/Skills/Experience

• Teaching experience in a collegiate or adult education setting that addresses underrepresented communities.
• Ability to convey complex art engagement ideas in a clear and articulate manner for an art and design program and design concepts that serves adult students with varied skills (novice to advanced) in a condensed time frame.
• Commitment to excellence in teaching and mentoring students.
• Lifelong learning orientation with demonstrated interest in learning about new developments in their area of study.
• Ability to empathically relate to a wide range of student perspectives and maturely handle interpersonal issues that may arise.

Work Schedule:

All classes will be held one day a week, for six weeks, in the evenings on the RISD campus.

Now hiring for the Spring 2025 semester (Classes begin 3/3/2024).

Documents Needed to Apply:

• Resume, including a URL link for your professional portfolio if applicable

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please upload all required documents.

The successful candidate will be required to meet our pre-employment background screening requirements.

RISD recognizes diversity and inclusivity as fundamental to its learning community and integral to an art and design education. We welcome candidates whose experience has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to diversity and excellence. RISD is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetics, or any other protected characteristic as established by law.

About Organization

RISD is a college and museum founded in Providence, RI in 1877, where making starts with a question, creativity sparks progress and challenging the status quo is the norm. Today, our community of 2,567 students engaged in 44 full-time bachelor’s and master’s degree programs cultivates a critical exchange of ideas between artists, designers and scholars that will help to shape the future. Through a cross-disciplinary curriculum of studio-based learning and rigorous study in the liberal arts, RISD students are encouraged to develop their own personal creative processes, but are united by one guiding principle: in order to create, one must question.

Rhode Island School of Design welcomes your opinions and encourages open discussion in a respectful and meaningful way. RISD reserves the right to remove any comments that harass, abuse, threaten or violate the rights of others.