OPEN CALL:Professorship of Fine Art Pedagogy in Higher Education & Professorship of Painting at University of the Arts Helsinki

Uniarts Helsinki is an open meeting place for the arts—an ambitious university community for bold reformers and experts in tradition. We cultivate a unique environment that helps artists grow and strengthens the power of art as a driver of change. Uniarts Helsinki is among the leading performing arts universities in the world, and it is comprised of the Academy of Fine Arts, Sibelius Academy and Theatre Academy. We have about 2,000 students, 60 professors and 700 full-time equivalent employees.

Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts is an international community. It offers high-quality teaching in contemporary art and is a pioneer in artistic research. The Academy of Fine Arts has educated visual artists since 1848.

Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts is now inviting applications for two professorships:

A Professorship of Fine Art Pedagogy in Higher Education
For years, artist training has been based on the idea that artists teach artists. Little research has been conducted on the theoretical basis and the methods of higher education provided for artists. As a result, Uniarts Helsinki will now establish a new five-year Professorship of Fine Art Pedagogy in Higher Education thanks to funding from the Saastamoinen Foundation. The professorship will focus on research in the education of professional artists. In this sense, the field is different from art education for schools, which relies on conventional pedagogical research.

Fine Art Pedagogy in higher education is a new theme that has involved limited international research. As far as is known, the newly founded professorship at Uniarts Helsinki is, in fact, the first of its kind in the world. In this context the selected professor will set up a research group that will focus on university-level artist training in Fine Arts and forge international networks in the field.

“Uniarts Helsinki has a national responsibility to provide the highest possible education in the arts in Finland. We want to take an ambitious approach to art pedagogy in higher education and act as a forerunner in this new discipline,” says Jaana Erkkilä-Hill, Uniarts Helsinki’s Vice Rector responsible for research.

The applications should be submitted by April 24, 2020.

Professorship of Painting, with the focus on contemporary movements in painting
In order to ensure the vitality of the arts and to make way for new initiatives, we invite world-beater professionals for fixed-term positions to bring the latest practices and trends from the field. We are now inviting applications for a Professorship of Painting, with the focus on contemporary movements in painting, for a for a five-year term.

The purpose of instruction in painting is to examine the significance of today’s painting as part of the discourses of contemporary art. Students explore the development of the medium in relation to its tradition, to different forms of expression and theories of contemporary art, as well as to cultural contexts in general.

The professor of painting, with the focus on contemporary movements in painting, has a wide knowledge of contemporary international trends and networks in painting, actively also giving their own contribution. The professor is interested in developing and renewing exhibition practices related to their own artistic field and is capable of supervising exhibition practices of art as part of the studies.

The duty of the professor is to provide theoretical teaching and supervision that are based on artistic work and to carry out artistic activities. Other duties include following their field’s development, bearing responsibility for the development of education and research in painting, as well as participating in community interaction, international cooperation and the planning and management of diverse projects.

The professor of painting determines the general orientation of teaching in the study programme in painting, acts as a representative for the discipline in the university’s administrative bodies, and provides expert commentary on matters related to this discipline.

The applications should be submitted by April 30, 2020.

See the calls for applications for both professorships in full here