DEAN of GRADUATE STUDIES MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE of ART and DESIGN Boston, MA Massachusetts College of Art and Design (Massart) Se
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
DEAN OF GRADUATE STUDIES MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN Boston, MA Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) seeks an enterprising, creative, and collaborative higher education administrator for Dean of Graduate Studies. This is an exciting opportunity to continue the development of outstanding graduate programs for a highly respected, long-standing art and design school. MassArt has a 145-year legacy of leadership as the nation’s first and only free-standing public college of art and design, as well as the first art school in the United States to grant a degree. For over 40 years, the College has offered quality graduate programs at a small scale and is now seeking to expand and build the programs as integral to the next phase of MassArt’s development. The next Dean will have the opportunity to evolve and shape an important and integral area for the future of this institution, working closely with a committed faculty and administration. As a key member of the Provost’s team, the Dean of Graduate Studies will provide institution-wide leadership for all aspects of graduate studies and will advocate for all issues of graduate programming and planning. Located in Boston’s district of arts and culture along Huntington, the Avenue of the Arts, MassArt enrolls nearly 2,000 students (approximately 1,800 undergraduates, 130 graduate students, and the remainder in certificate or continuing education programs) and offers a comprehensive range of degrees in 22 disciplines, as well as continuing education and youth programs. MassArt’s undergraduate enrollment has grown by 50 percent in the last decade. Students choose MassArt for its academic excellence, resources and facilities, dynamic urban campus, affordable tuition, and close connections with renowned faculty. The College excels in the education of professional artists, designers, and art educators and contributes to the cultural and intellectual life and creative economy of the Greater Boston region, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and beyond. A search committee of MassArt administrators, faculty, and students has been formed to conduct the search and make recommendations to the Provost. All applications, inquiries, and nominations should be directed in confidence as indicated at the end of this document. MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN 1 MassArt is one of the nine state universities that comprise the Massachusetts public higher education system, which includes fifteen community colleges, nine state universities, and five campuses of the University of Massachusetts. The President of MassArt and the eleven-member Board of Trustees of the College work with and report to the twelve-member Board of Higher Education that oversees all colleges and universities in the state system. MassArt has 15 academic departments. Three departments -- liberal arts, history of art, and studio foundation -- serve all students, and thirteen offer B.F.A. degrees: 2D (including painting and printmaking), 3D (including ceramics, fibers, glass, metals, and sculpture), animation, architectural design, art education, fashion design, film/video, graphic design, history of art, illustration, industrial design, photography, and studio for interrelated media. At the graduate level, the College offers an MFA in four areas of concentration, a Master of Architecture, a Master of Arts in Teaching, a Master of Education, a Master of Design, and a low-residency MFA program with an interdisciplinary focus. Graduate programs also include post-baccalaureate programs in a variety of disciplines, as well as a post-baccalaureate teacher preparation program. As a state university, about 70 percent of students come from Massachusetts, 27% from the broader US, and 3% international students. From its beginning, the College has recognized that excellence knows no class or racial distinctions and welcomes a diverse student body. Nineteen percent of the student body is U.S. students of color. The student-faculty ratio is10:1. Students are supported by over 250 full- and part-time faculty members who are practicing artists, designers, scholars, and educators. The faculty is represented by a union (MSCA), and the staff is a mix of unionized (AFSCME and APA) and non-union professionals. MassArt’s faculty, its extensive studios, the wealth of resources in its arts library, and the breadth of its curriculum are widely considered to be among the best in the nation. Sustaining high undergraduate graduation rates (mid to upper 60 percent), MassArt has been recognized by The Washington Post as a superior value nationwide among the top public colleges. MassArt’s curatorial programs have been honored by the International Association of Art Critics, and the Center for Art and Community Partnerships has been recognized by the Carnegie Foundation and represented on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. Notable alumni of the College include conceptual multimedia artist William Wegman, time-based artist Christian Marclay, Oscar-winning set designer Nancy Haigh, MIT Media Lab co-founder Muriel Cooper, painter Albert Munsell (the inventor of the Munsell Color System), interior designer Kelly Werstler, and designer Brian Collins. Located in the Fenway Cultural District of Boston, MassArt is near some of the city’s most treasured cultural institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The city of Boston is home to some of the finest art museums in the country as well as dozens of independent galleries. Boston also boasts the second highest concentration of design employment in North America, providing MassArt 2 students with a wealth of experiential learning opportunities as well as access to employment upon graduation. The College recently completed a major physical transformation of its campus made possible by a $140 million comprehensive campaign and the opening of the new front door to MassArt, the Design + Media Center (DMC) (2015). The DMC offers exciting new possibilities for collaboration across disciplines and for new programmatic and curricular innovations. In addition to raising the endowment and elevating scholarship awards, the campaign has highlighted MassArt as a presence along Huntington Avenue and strengthened the campus community. A striking new 21-story residence tower opened in 2012, guaranteeing housing on campus to all freshmen and sophomores, and a renovated campus center and dining commons opened in 2010. These facilities are shared with university partners. Presently, MassArt is renovating the Bakalar & Paine Galleries, two esteemed professional galleries focused on exhibition and education in contemporary art, which are free and open to the public. The successful, all-private fundraising of $12M made this possible. Once completed (summer 2019), the galleries will become the Bakalar & Paine Museum, which will also open onto Huntington Avenue. MassArt is one of the few institutions in higher education operating a public-private partnership. In fiscal year 2004, the College implemented a transformational funding model with the Massachusetts legislature that has been recognized as a national model for funding public higher education. The new plan, with greater operating flexibility—an annual state appropriation, tuition retention, and the authority to establish enrollment targets and tuition rates for in-state and non-resident students—convinced the legislature and the Board of Higher Education that MassArt could achieve its vision and steer a course for its financial, academic, and administrative future. Renewed for another five years in December of 2015, this partnership provides the College with a firm foundation from which to continue to move the institution forward. Other benefits of the partnership include programmatic enhancements, increased fundraising effectiveness, improved facilities, and cost savings from new and broader collaborations with other institutions. MassArt has an operating budget exceeding $70 million, including a state appropriation of $17 million. The College has an endowment of $18 million and raises individual, institutional, and government support averaging $2 million annually through the Foundation. Graduate and professional/continuing education programs are sources of additional net revenue for the College. MassArt is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), Inc. through its Commission of Institutions of Higher Education (now NECHE), and also by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD). The most recent dual-accreditation visit took place in spring 2017. Locally, two partnerships, Colleges of the Fenway (COF) and Pro Arts, provide cross-registration opportunities and jointly sponsored student activities, expanding the boundaries of the MassArt college community and curriculum beyond what MassArt could offer 3 on its own. The College also has cross-registration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. COF is a collaborative effort of five neighboring colleges in Boston’s Fenway area including MassArt, Emmanuel College, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Simmons University, and Wentworth Institute of Technology. COF was created to add value to students’ academic and social life while seeking innovative methods of investing in new services and containing the costs of higher education for the six member institutions. ProArts is a group of six Boston colleges of visual