Assistant Professor of Art in Sculpture

Job Description Summary

Organization Summary Statement:

The Department of Art at the University of Maryland invites applications for a nine-month tenure-track appointment as Assistant Professor of Art in Sculpture, beginning in August 2027, pending budgetary approval. We seek a practicing artist and educator with substantial expertise in metalwork and casting. The successful candidate will engage contemporary sculpture through material experimentation, fabrication, and interdisciplinary approaches to making. They will build on the Department's strengths in sculpture while advancing its work with new materials, technologies, and modes of production. 

The position brings technical and material knowledge into conversation with conceptual inquiry, contemporary artistic practice, and collaboration across disciplines. We are especially interested in artists who use emerging technologies to extend hands-on sculptural processes rather than replace them. The position also offers opportunities for work with immersive media, design, architecture, engineering, technology, and other fields. 

The successful candidate will help students develop skills in fabrication, design thinking, material problem-solving, prototyping, collaboration, and professional practice through collaborative, critique-based, and public-facing work. Opportunities may also include participation in University-wide initiatives such as Arts for All and the Grand Challenges program, as well as professional and community partnerships throughout the Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Maryland region. 


Additional Job Details:

Teaching, Curriculum, and Mentoring 

The successful candidate will teach two undergraduate courses per semester, including introductory and advanced sculpture courses serving majors and non-majors, with particular emphasis on casting, metal fabrication, and contemporary sculptural practice. The candidate will contribute to inclusive pedagogy and student success by supporting students with varied experiences and perspectives and by fostering a welcoming, rigorous, and supportive learning environment. They will use mentoring, critique, and advising to help students clarify their goals, strengthen their practices, and navigate academic and professional pathways. 

The candidate will contribute to curriculum development and programmatic planning, with specific emphasis on re-visioning the pedagogical organization of sculpture within the Department. This work may include coordinating learning outcomes across introductory and advanced courses, updating foundations-level studio curriculum, and collaborating with faculty across areas of study. The candidate will advise and mentor MFA students across disciplines, participate in semester reviews with the graduate faculty, and serve as Director or committee member on MFA thesis committees. 

Research and Creative Practice 

The successful candidate will maintain an active creative practice appropriate to their career stage and contribute to the Department's national and international visibility through exhibitions, installations, public art, publications, collaborative projects, or other forms of professional creative activity. 

We welcome candidates whose work expands conventional understandings of sculpture through new materials, technologies, fabrication processes, spatial practices, or interdisciplinary approaches. The candidate's creative practice should demonstrate sustained engagement with contemporary questions and investigate how material and technological processes can transform the possibilities of sculptural practice. 

Required Qualifications:

An MFA or other appropriate terminal degree in sculpture, studio art, or a related field by the time of appointment from an accredited institution  

An active, professionally recognized creative practice in sculpture or a closely related field, with a record of nationally or internationally recognized creative activity appropriate to career stage  

Additional Job Details

Preferred Qualifications:

• 3+ years of university-level teaching experience in casting, metal fabrication, welding, or related sculptural processes  

• Demonstrated expertise in casting and metal fabrication  

• Demonstrated potential for excellence in teaching  

• Ability to teach sculpture across multiple levels of undergraduate education  

• Experience integrating traditional sculpture practices with digital fabrication or emerging technologies  

• Experience developing interdisciplinary curriculum or collaborating across disciplines  

• Experience contributing to studio, fabrication, or making facilities  

• Experience working with students from varied backgrounds 

Required Application Materials:

• Letter of Application 

• One- to two-page Statement of Research Interests 

• Statement of Teaching Philosophy 

• Current Curriculum Vitae 

• Names and contact information (title, email, phone, and complete addresses) of three references 

• Documentation of personal creative research (up to 20 images or 10 minutes of video; provide URLs for video and multimedia documentation where necessary) 

• 20 examples of student work and the corresponding assignment description. 

• Please upload the materials as a single collated PDF file, named “LastName_FirstName.pdf,” to the following link: https://umd.app.box.com/f/2634012801af4e919c631f8d9e76b4c5

Best Consideration Date:

For best consideration, please submit application materials no later than November 14, 2026. The position will remain open until filled. 

Open Until Filled:

Yes

About the Department 

The Department of Art at the University of Maryland offers undergraduate programs in Studio Art and Immersive Media Design and graduate education in studio art and related areas. As part of a major public research university, the Department is engaged in significant curricular and programmatic development focused on strengthening foundations education, expanding interdisciplinary collaboration, and integrating contemporary technologies and approaches into studio practice. Located in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore region, UMD provides access to an extensive network of museums, galleries, artists, cultural institutions, technology companies, research organizations, and design and fabrication communities. 

About the University  

Founded in 1856, the University of Maryland, College Park is the flagship institution in the University System of Maryland. Our 1,250­ acre College Park campus is just minutes away from Washington, D.C., and the nexus of the nation’s legislative, executive, and judicial centers of power. This unique proximity to business and technology leaders, federal departments and agencies, and a myriad of research entities, embassies, think tanks, cultural centers, and non­profit organizations is simply unparalleled. Synergistic opportunities for our faculty and students abound and are virtually limitless in the nation’s capital and surrounding areas. The University is committed to attracting and retaining outstanding and diverse faculty and staff that will enhance our stature of preeminence in our three missions of teaching, scholarship, and full engagement in our community, the state of Maryland, and in the world.

Financial Disclosure Required

Department

ARHU-Art

Worker Sub-Type

Faculty Regular

Salary Range

90,000 - 95,000

Background Checks

Offers of employment are contingent on completion of a background check. Information reported by the background check will not automatically disqualify anyone from employment. Before any adverse decision, the finalist will have an opportunity to provide information to the University regarding disclosable background check information. The University reserves the right to rescind the offer of employment or otherwise decline or terminate employment if the information reported by the background check is deemed incompatible with the position, regardless of when the background check is completed.

Employment Eligibility

The successful candidate must complete employment eligibility verification (on Form I-9) by presenting documents that establish identity and work authorization within the timeframe required by federal immigration law, and where applicable, to demonstrate renewed employment authorization.  Failure to complete employment eligibility verification or reverification within the timeframe set forth by law may result in suspension or termination of employment.

EEO Statement

The University of Maryland, College Park is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment. Please read the University’s Equal Employment Opportunity Statement of Policy.

Title IX Non-Discrimination Notice

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