Continuing Education, Pre-College Art & Science Instructor
About The Position
RISD CE seeks an Art & Science Major instructor for summer of 2026. We welcome teaching artists of all backgrounds with ongoing studio practices and demonstrated achievements of high caliber results in their students’ work. Pre-College instructors are passionate about art and design and can nurture the interest of their students. They are approachable but maintain high expectations and are invested in their students’ success. They vary their approach using lectures, demonstrations, and more. Our instructors are plugged into the needs and interests of today’s youth, and connect the course content to the students’ lived experience and current events. They are culturally responsive and lead an inclusive learning environment. We are particularly interested in candidates whose pedagogical approach and personal studio practice can resonate with our diverse student body. RISD Pre-College focuses on making by hand and with few exceptions does not use computer programs or tablets for the completion of artwork. As our students come from a range of backgrounds with variance in prior art education, successful candidates will be able to be responsive to students with a range of existing skills. Successful candidates will have the ability to keep students engaged in 7-hour studio courses twice a week in a class where the creative process meets the scientific method. This course will investigate how nature can inform art and design and, conversely, how art and design can solve environmental and other problems. While utilizing natural specimens in RISD’s famous Nature Lab, the successful candidate will teach students to use 2D and 3D construction skills to build prototypes of designs in this inquiry-focused and experimental class.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree
- Teaching experience in a collegiate and/or high school setting
- Ability to meet RISD’s technology requirements
- Experience developing courses that challenge students creatively and intellectually while maintaining age-appropriate pedagogy
- Demonstrated ability to generate high caliber student work
- Ability to keep students engaged throughout full-day studio courses
- Experience leading classes and critiques that model constructive, inclusive discussions in an environment of diverse learners
- Ability to tailor instruction to meet the needs students with a wide range of pre-existing skills
- Demonstrated expertise in overlapping areas of art and science (for example, creative research or bio-mimetic design).
- Ongoing professional creative practice
- Proficiency with online collaborative tools such as Google Suite
Nice To Haves
- Ability to contribute to RISD’s strategic priorities of just societies, sustainability, and creating new knowledge
- Experience developing inclusive curriculum that centers artists of historically underrepresented backgrounds
- Interest in collaborative curriculum planning
- Master of Fine Arts or equivalent in established professional practice in area of study
- Proficiency with learning management systems such as Canvas
