Artist Educator, Durational Pedagogies Fellowship, Dia Chelsea

Temporary part-time position, in New York, New York

$33 per hour, August 2025–June 2026, approximately 350 hours

Background

Based in New York, Dia Art Foundation is committed to advancing, realizing, and preserving the vision of artists. A nonprofit founded in 1974, Dia collects the work of some of the most renowned artists of the last half-century, presents long-term, site-specific projects, executes new commissions, and produces scholarly publications related to its exhibitions and collection.

Learning at Dia is founded on the idea that art is an active, self-determined experience. Since their inception in 1993 in New York, learning programs have offered space for the collective curiosity and inquiry of artists, educators, and learners to be in critical exchange at Dia.

For more about Dia’s constellation of sites, exhibitions, and programs of engagement, visit our website.

Position summary

Dia Art Foundation seeks an experienced artist to design and facilitate an experimental, emergent yearlong fellowship program based at Dia Chelsea in New York. Serving as the key intellectual and creative collaborator for a cohort of up to eight young adults participating in Dia’s Durational Pedagogies Fellowship (2025–26), the Artist Educator supports fellows in developing their creative voice, critical thinking, and personal agency in an inclusive, self-determinative peer-learning environment. Along with providing individual mentorship for fellows, the Artist Educator conceptualizes a framework for collective creative engagement over the arc of the program and facilitates in-person cohort meetings that are responsive to the intersecting interests, identities, and needs of the fellowship cohort.

The Durational Pedagogies Fellowship brings together an intimate cohort of emerging, interdisciplinary practitioners to be in dialogue with each other, the Artist Educator, and guest artists and facilitators to explore questions and potentialities of time-based creative and pedagogical practice. How do articulations of temporality–from the ephemeral to the enduring–shape our ways of making meaning? Through observation, research, and exchange, the cohort, along with the Artist Educator, will collectively engage with time as material, considering its role in relationship to each fellow’s individual practice, as well as the history, present, and potentiality of Dia Art Foundation’s Learning and Engagement program. 

The Artist Educator works closely with the Learning and Engagement team and reports to the Curator of Public Engagement. The successful candidate will have experience with experimental pedagogy, community-building, and/or durational practice, and is committed to exploring questions central to their practice through reciprocal exchange with young people working toward more just, inclusive, and imaginative futures.

Essential duties and responsibilities

• Engage with Dia Art Foundation’s collection, program, and history, as well as relevant concepts and methodologies of contemporary art and experimental pedagogy; conduct additional research as required to support program development, the fellowship cohort, and/or individual participants
• Work collaboratively with the Curator of Public Engagement to create a program architecture driven by critical inquiry and realized as a holistic learning arc that is flexible and responsive to fellows’ real-time learning and supports, challenges, or otherwise broadens participants’ understanding of art-making, pedagogy, and public engagement and its impact
• Conceptualize and facilitate all fellowship programming, including nine cohort sessions (October 2025–June 2026), monthly one-on-one mentorship meetings, and guest-artist visits over the course of the program, drawing from personal practice, lived experience, and research interests
• Support fellows in building an intentional and self-defined peer-learning community, and create opportunities for fellows to learn, practice, develop, and experiment with skills related to critical thinking, self-expression, consensus-building, engagement, and research through experiential and collaborative processes within a supportive learning environment
• Support fellows in realizing independent and/or group projects based on their own interests; collaborate with Learning and Engagement staff to support the production of events or presentation of projects as required
• Establish and maintain a self-directed process of reciprocal reflection with fellows, seek out and share resources, and establish a practice of documentation

Other duties and responsibilities

• Carry out all responsibilities in a timely manner and communicate clearly, promptly, and on an ongoing basis with the Learning and Engagement team during program planning and implementation, including submission of session plans, materials lists, and evaluations, and regular meeting attendance
• Practice reflection independently and with colleagues over the course of employment; support program evaluation as directed and incorporate feedback from fellows, program partners, and Dia staff into program design and delivery
• Communicate the values of the program effectively to fellows, community partners, and the wider public
• Support development of Dia’s youth and young-adult engagement initiatives as required
• Participate in Dia’s learning community; attend trainings and meetings as required

Education, certification, and experience

• A working artist, cultural producer, or community-centered practitioner; artist with a socially engaged art practice or who has excelled in their field through enterprising or nontraditional pathways are encouraged to apply
• Applied experience in studio art, arts/museum education, or a related field
• Experience designing and facilitating participant-driven arts learning experiences in community-based and/or collegiate settings; experience with responsive or emergent curricula desired
• A demonstrated commitment to centering cultural equity for people with varying backgrounds, life experiences, and learning styles is required

Knowledge, skills, and abilities

• Understanding of and engagement with contemporary art and experimental pedagogy
• Must be a creative, critical, and flexible thinker who thrives in a responsive and collaborative setting
• Active listening skills, intellectual curiosity, empathy, high emotional intelligence, and comfort with open-ended or experimental working processes are essential
• Exceptional organizational and communication skills
• Ability to work independently and to balance and meet short- and long-term deadlines efficiently
• Understanding of and interest in the arts landscape and/or working knowledge of community-based organizations or educational resources in New York desired

This position requires a background check.

Working conditions and physical demands

This is a part-time, fixed-term position engaged from August 2025 to June 2026 with an expected schedule of 350 hours or more for the duration of the position at the artist-educator rate of $33 per hour. Working hours will be determined by the Curator of Public Engagement and include in-person programs, mentor meetings with participants, session preparation and planning; work and planning meetings relating to program development may be done remotely.

Artist educators are paid at a competitive hourly rate. Staff with Dia Art Foundation ID badges gain reduced or free admission to most American museums and arts organizations. As employees, artist educators may participate in staff trainings and public programs.

This position is represented by the Technical, Office & Professional Union, Local 2110, UAW, AFL-CIO.

Qualified applicants may apply for this position by emailing the following materials to [email protected] with “Artist Educator, Durational Pedagogies Fellowship” as the subject heading:

1. Cover letter highlighting your experience, pedagogical approach, as well as questions or ideas related to your individual practice or research that you hope to explore through engagement with Dia’s Durational Pedagogies Fellowship
2. Resume or CV indicating your experience as a facilitator and/or mentor, in particular as it relates to working with young and emerging artists, educators, and cultural producers
3. Up to three project or curriculum samples
4. Artist statement and link to portfolio or website

No phone calls or emails to addresses other than the one specified please.

Deadline: Open until filled

Dia Art Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, national origin, ethnic origin, citizenship status, disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law in its employment policies. In addition, Dia will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and supports a neurodiverse workplace. Candidates with nontraditional learning or career paths and/or applicants whose qualifications differ from those listed above are encouraged to apply.