UA School of Art seeks new director
3 candidates for the position will make presentations on Fayetteville campus
Three candidates for director of the School of Art in the University of Arkansas Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences will make presentations at forums that start his week.
Each forum will be in the lobby of the Studio and Design Center in the Windgate Art and Design District.
The candidates will be asked to give a talk that focuses on strengths and opportunities they see for the School of Art’s future; highlight past experiences that have prepared them for this position; and provide insight on how they will advance the School of Art as a national and international hub for the study of art.
The campus and community can attend. Parking will be available at the southeast corner of lot 56, located at the intersection of Razorback Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. A shuttle ride to the front doors of the Studio and Design Center will also be provided.
The candidates are administrators and university professors with extensive backgrounds.
The schedule of their presentations are as follows:
∎ Jason Guynes (1:30-2:45 p.m., Monday). Guynes, an artist and arts administrator with more than 27 years of executive leadership experience, is a professor of art and chairperson of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Alabama.
∎ Adam Herring (3:30-4:45 p.m., March 7). Herring is the Emily Rich Summers professor of art history and department chairperson of art history in the Meadows School of Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
∎ Rachel Debuque (1:30-2:45 p.m., March 11.) Debuque is an associate professor and associate director of the School of Art at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
The successful candidate, who would ideally start in July 2024, would spend about 80% of the time on administrative work, with another 10% on teaching and another 10% on research., according to the university’s advertisement. The School of Art has a budget of about $15 million.
The director would work closely with the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation to help achieve the goals of an endowment gift as well as expanding the school’s philanthropic base, according to the ad.
The Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation awarded a $120 million gift to establish a School of Art in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences in 2017. The gift created the first and only school of art in the state.
In 2017, the School of Art received a $40 million gift from the Windgate Foundation to develop and build a new Studio Art and Graphic Design facility.
In 2021, the Windgate Foundation gave a $30 million partial challenge grant to develop and build a facility to house a professional gallery, auditorium, the foundations program, as well as idea fabrication and arts entrepreneurship labs.