Description
The Department - The Department of Collaborative Arts at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, seeks an accomplished, visionary Chair to lead its innovative Bachelor of Fine Arts program beginning in Fall 2027. This search is for an Associate Professor or full Professor tenure line (pending successful review) who will serve as Chair. The Chair position is a renewable 3-year term, upon successful review.
The Department of Collaborative Arts is an innovative, rigorous, and ambitious 4-year undergraduate interdisciplinary arts BFA program founded to cultivate a community of artists eager to break boundaries across all art disciplines and imagine new possibilities for artistic expressions. At its core lies a powerful intersection of hands-on art making, community building, collaborative spirit, and interdisciplinary arts education at the world's first global network university.
Department Overview & Philosophy - The Department of Collaborative Arts educates the next generation of artists and creative leaders through a unique interdisciplinary curriculum that encourages them to work across traditional boundaries of artistic practice. Students engage with a broad range of forms and disciplines, including performance, acting, dance, film and moving image, music and sound, visual art, writing, emerging media and technology, and critical and cultural studies.
Rather than asking students to define themselves through a single discipline, Collaborative Arts provides them with the tools, experiences, and intellectual frameworks to develop artistic practices that move among forms, methodologies, technologies, and fields of knowledge. The curriculum combines hands-on artistic practice with historical, theoretical, and critical inquiry, culminating in advanced interdisciplinary work and a senior Capstone. Guided by experimentation, curiosity, and rigor, this program is far more than an amalgamation of all areas represented at Tisch, it is a pioneering area of study that promotes a bold vision for cross-disciplinary creation.
Responsibilities - The Chair of Collaborative Arts will provide dynamic intellectual vision for the department's faculty, staff, and student body, driving a curriculum that prioritizes collaboration, experimentation, artistic inquiry, and the creation of original work. In their administrative capacity, the Chair oversees day-to-day operations, strategic procedures, budgetary initiatives, enrollment targets, and overall programmatic activity. Personnel management is a core focus, as the Chair directs faculty and staff recruitment, hiring, formal reviews, future tenure-line development, and ongoing mentorship. Additionally, the Chair leads the creation, organization, and implementation of curricular frameworks while strategically managing facilities, cutting-edge technologies, and physical resource allocation. Finally, the successful candidate will nurture and foster a collaborative practice through modeling collaboration with faculty and administrative staff, within the department, while actively connecting students to the extraordinary range of artistic, academic, and global study resources across Tisch, NYU's global network, and New York City. The Chair reports directly to the Dean of Tisch School of the Arts, NYU.
In compliance with NYC's Pay Transparency Act, the annual base salary range for an Associate Professor position is $130,000 - $150,000 and the annual base salary range for a full Professor position is $150,000 - $170,000. This pay range represents base pay only (for 9 months - paid over 12 months) and excludes any additional items such as incentives, bonuses, clinical compensation, or other items. The position will provide additional compensation for serving as Chair of the Department. New York University considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, as well as market and organizational considerations when extending an offer.
Qualifications
The successful candidate must qualify for an academic appointment as an Associate or Full Professor on a tenure line at NYU Tisch, supported by a distinguished national or international profile as a practicing artist, researcher, or creator with deep expertise in interdisciplinary practices, performance, media, or technology. This role requires proven administrative leadership experience, including demonstrated success in academic governance, creative direction, budget oversight, and faculty and staff management. The ideal Chair brings a track record of pedagogical excellence, with extensive experience teaching and mentoring undergraduate students and a steadfast dedication to nurturing individual artistic voices within a collaborative framework. Finally, the role demands a forward-looking vision for innovation, marked by a commitment to exploring new relationships among artistic disciplines, research, contemporary cultural practices, and emerging technologies.
Application Instructions
Candidates are required to submit a comprehensive CV and a professional portfolio and a one-page (500-word) personal statement articulating a philosophy of interdisciplinary collaborative practices in artistic work and education via https://tisch.nyu.edu/faculty/faculty-positions. Detail any past successes, priorities, strategies, etc. Application deadline is November 24, 2026.
