Dean, School of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts

Texas A&M University (TAMU) seeks an innovative, entrepreneurial, and collaborative leader to serve as the inaugural Dean of the School of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts (SPVFA or the School). Reporting to the Provost, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Chief Academic Officer, the Dean will be charged with continuing to establish and build a vision and mission for the School of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts that positions it for expected growth in programming and reputation. This leader will be joining TAMU and SPVFA at a time of increased attention to growth, research, and innovation and will be able to harness the artistic, scholarly, and technical expertise of a talented and engaged faculty, staff, and student body.

Officially established in September 2022, SPVFA was created to be an incubator where artistic and technological research and practice meet, to create innovative lenses through which to understand and solve the world’s pressing problems. The School is meant to be a place where students will gain both the practical, real-world skills and theoretical and historical frameworks needed to become leaders in the highly competitive arts world of the 21st century. The School was established for students who strive to imagine, create, learn, and grow. It’s for those who love to explore new ways of seeing the world and who understand the magic that can happen when artistic creativity and technology merge.

The successful candidate will be an established artistic and academic innovator with the ability to foster groundbreaking work across disciplines. The Dean must be eager to engage, support, and develop faculty, staff, and students and ensure that they have the clarity of mission and resources necessary to do their work effectively. With a focus on clear communication, the Dean will lead by centering collaboration and embracing the different needs within each academic discipline, ensuring all are valued and promoted. At the same time, they must be able to make bold decisions to advance the profile, reputation, and reach of the School on campus, across Texas, nationally, and internationally. To ensure continued growth and sustainability, the leader of SPVFA must be a strong financial manager, with the ability to attract and inspire donors, collaborators, and partners from both the academy and industry. This is an incredible opportunity to lead a school that is poised to be a model of how arts students can be equipped for success in an increasingly interdisciplinary and technology driven future.

Texas A&M University has retained Isaacon, Miller, a national executive search firm, to assist in this recruitment.

Stephaney Davis with Texas A&M Executive Searches is overseeing this search in collaboration with Isaacson, Miller.

Develop and implement a bold strategic plan and long-term vision for the School

As Texas A&M continues to strengthen its place of preeminence among public universities in the 21^st century and as a land-grant institution, the Dean must be prepared to meet changes in higher education with initiatives that are rooted in a tradition of service and that advance the multifaceted mission of the School. To address the expected growth of the School, the Dean must work to create systems and processes that both create efficiencies for a larger enterprise and delineate ownership and accountability for the day-to-day work of the School and its faculty, staff, and students. In all things, the Dean must be an entrepreneurial leader who encourages whole institutional thinking and demonstrates a steadfast commitment to the mission and vision of the University. Leveraging the vast experience of SPVFA’s talented faculty, staff, students, and former students, the Dean will use their knowledge of industry standards, advancing and evolving technologies, best practices in higher education, and cutting-edge teaching, as well as passion for  creative arts practice and theory, to develop a strategic direction for the future of the School that links, reinforces, and balances theory and practice and encourages innovation. As such, the Dean must understand and champion creative practice as valuable research. SPVFA is complex and holds many programs with different needs and priorities, and the Dean must be able to understand and develop all of them equally. While the collective perspective of all the programs is vitally important to the mission of the School, the Dean must also be able to lead and make decisions that center the overall good of the School and its faculty, staff, and students.

Establish the SPVFA as a destination of choice for top-notch faculty, staff, and students

Given the still early days of the School, it will be critically important that the Dean work to quickly increase its reputation and credibility. The School has been successful at securing a highly qualified and innovative faculty, and as the School continues to grow, the Dean will hire, develop, and retain faculty and staff that embrace and are committed to student success and advancing the School’s mission. Further, the Dean will work to connect faculty and staff with professional development opportunities that keep their skills in line with their interests and fields of study. As the School’s structures continue to be built, there is great enthusiasm among the faculty and students to work collaboratively across disciplines and to explore innovation unfettered by traditional academic silos. The Dean will work with faculty and staff to make SPVFA one of the top institutions for graduating students, who become impactful professionals within their fields. With a sharp focus on student engagement, success, and outcomes, the Dean will curate curricula and programs that provide students with the skills and experiences to thrive in the ever-changing professional, social, and artistic worlds they will enter.

Support an internal culture of respect, collaboration, and connectivity

In service to the School’s mission, the Dean must be ready to embrace and lead within a culture that craves and values interdisciplinary collaboration. They must quickly work to build trust among their administrative and leadership team and model best practices. Simultaneously, the Dean will invest time and resources to ensure a strong sense of community among faculty, staff, and students. One way of achieving this will be to leverage both in-person and digital points of connectivity, to create a thriving and bold artistic community. They must work to create a strong foundation of safety that allows and encourages all constituents at the School to both practice their chosen art and find ways to creatively explore within and outside of their chosen fields of study. Additionally, as students graduate, the Dean will ensure robust former student engagement, to ensure students are connected to the School in multiple ways, well beyond their time on campus.

Forge new and innovative partnerships on campus, locally, nationally, and internationally

As the lead ambassador for the School, the Dean must be an extremely effective communicator, able to forge connections and relationships within the University and in broader academic and industry-based communities and organizations. Leveraging these relationships to enhance SPVFA’s curriculum, the Dean will further opportunities for faculty, staff, and students to engage in new and cutting-edge relevant research and practices. As a visible force beyond the boundaries of the University, the Dean will help build partnerships that serve as a critical conduit between the academy and the various industries, in terms of sharing research and refining practices and in establishing experiential learning opportunities, so that students graduate ready to meaningfully work within their disciplines of choice.

The Dean must also be an internal advocate for all of the programs at the School, able to talk about them all equally and compellingly, and make the case to TAMU leadership for increased funding, resources, and campus space. There is a distinct opportunity to explore opportunities to connect with other colleges, schools, and programs at TAMU, to create compelling and innovative programming to explore complex topics and issues with multidimensional nuance. As resources like the Texas A&M – Fort Worth Campus are built, the Dean will find ways to further connect them with the School, in order to uplift SPVFA’s creative research practices, as an important part of TAMU’s overall research enterprise.

Generate and develop sustainable resources for the School

To help the School grow and evolve, it will be imperative that the Dean work to secure resources to sustain its mission, vision, and direction. To be successful, the Dean must be a skilled budgetary and financial manager, with the ability to plan for current and future financial and resource needs as the School grows. An enthusiastic fundraiser, the Dean will work alongside advancement, other institutional partners, and their own networks to engage potential short- and long-term donors and to secure additional funding to grow and support the work of SPVFA. Highlighting the School’s current successes and painting the story of its future accomplishments, the Dean will create strong relationships that result in opportunities to advance the School fiscally, in service to the School’s pedagogical and research missions. The ability to prioritize, leverage, and tactfully utilize funds and resources will be an ongoing requirement for the Dean. It will be paramount that they continue to nurture established relationships with donors and corporate partners, while strategically developing plans to foster new relationships with the aforementioned constituents.

Reporting to the Provost, the Dean of the School of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts serves as the chief academic and executive officer of the School, managing its human, financial, and capital resources. The Dean is supported by an administrative team consisting of an Associate Dean for Industry and Community Engagement, an Associate Dean for Research and Creative Works, an Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, an Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and an Assistant Dean of Business Services, alongside Section Chairs and other administrators.

With an eye toward the future of the visual, performing, technological, and fine arts, the Dean is responsible for supervising and directing the teaching, research, and service missions of the School and the wider University. With that mission in mind, and in collaboration with their leadership team, faculty, staff, and students, the Dean will make decisions and recommendations regarding budget, curricula, degree offerings, faculty and student recruiting and retention, faculty development/tenure and promotion, staff professional development, fundraising, long-term strategic planning, matters of academic quality, promotion of SPVFA’s interests, and research planning.

The Dean will be responsible for a total operating budget of approximately $24.5 million. Of that total, approximately 24.5% comes from state allocations, approximately 24.5% from student tuition and fees, and the rest from a special 2-year legislative appropriation. Additionally, the School has endowment funds totaling $5.9 million disbursed across endowed faculty positions, as well as $1.5 million in income from research funding.

• An advanced degree in a field of study or discipline relevant to the School;
• Substantive work within a discipline or disciplines related to one or more of the degree programs offered by the School;
• Significant experience working at the intersection of the arts and technology;
• Strong administrative experience within a complex organizational context;
• Prior success in leading/expanding a major program, department, or college;
• A record of recruiting and mentoring researchers, educators, and practitioners who embody high-caliber professionalism and excellence in their field;
• Experience or familiarity with higher education accreditation processes;
• Astute financial acumen and demonstrated ability to acquire and manage external resources through fundraising, grants, or contracts;
• Demonstrated understanding of, and commitment to, working as a member of the University’s senior academic leadership team;
• Ability and desire to work within a highly collaborative culture;
• Willingness to advocate for and incorporate University systems and processes that support faculty and students;
• Demonstrated entrepreneurial skills that leverage the expertise of faculty to enhance educational offerings at the local, state, national, and international levels;
• Effective interpersonal skills and ability to develop people within teams;
• Excellent oral and writen communication skills;
• Ability to clearly articulate the nature of the School’s vision to internal and external constituencies;
• A clear understanding of the modern educational landscape and current national trends, at the intersections of the arts, technology, and research;
• An innovative and visionary leadership style; and
• Experience working with development/fundraising personnel and alumni relations.