Professor of Visual Arts – Sculpture, Glass & Ceramics at LUCA School of Arts, Leuven, Belgium
Posted on November 18, 2023
Applications are due January 2, 2024
LUCA School of Arts is a multidisciplinary teaching and research environment where creative talent can develop and evolve artistically, performatively and technically. In four cities (Brussels, Genk, Ghent and Leuven), LUCA combines the educational expertise of five renowned institutions (Sint-Lukas, Narafi, C-mine, Sint-Lucas and Lemmens). LUCA’s artistic research is embedded in KU Leuven’s associated Faculty of Arts and covers the entire spectrum from demand-driven to autonomous artistic research. With more than 800 staff members and 4,000 students, LUCA is a creative hub for more than 4,800 artists, theater and film makers, designers, musicians, photographers, teachers, researchers. The Visual Arts program at Campus Saint-Lucas Ghent is a vibrant crossroads for the development of art and design at the heart of contemporary society. The Master of Visual Arts program has three majors (Fine Arts, Graphic Design and Textile Design) that are nurtured by seven studios: Painting; Graphics and Drawing; Sculpture, Glass and Ceramics; Mixed Media; Illustration; Textile Design and Graphic Design. They are supported by a wide range of highly developed workshops. Researchers at campus Ghent come together in research unit Image, which is organized around three focal points: Studio practices and processes in art and design; Image, word and reflective discourse; and Image and Society. The research dynamic is informed by six research clusters, led by senior researchers: Matter & Image; Art, Space & Sound; Art, Philosophy & Technology; Art, Imagination and Language; Fluid Futures and Art, Pedagogy & Society.
We are looking for a passionate Professor of Visual Arts with a vibrant practice in fine arts and artistic research who is strongly triggered by the intersection between fine arts and design, conceptual thinking, materiality and technology. In terms of research, we are looking for a colleague who can take a leading role in the research cluster Matter & Image, strengthening our unit’s focal point on ‘Studio Practices and Processes in Art and Design’. Contemporary developments at the intersection of art and design (e.g., relating to sustainability, technology, new material culture, posthumanism…) and a fascination with how experimentation in the arts can renew design processes are key features of her of his profile. Regarding teaching, we are looking for a colleague to strengthen our unique Sculpture, Glass & Ceramics studio in Fine Arts, mainly to stimulate and guide adventurous artistic processes in the senior years, based on a profound material-technological knowledge, love of craftmanship and the ability to trigger conceptual and critical reflection. The research forms a yeast for the teaching. Interdisciplinarity and affinity with other studios are strong assets.
Research
Your research task comprises 50% of your work package.
• Your artistic research explores the intersection between fine arts and applied arts or design, based on your own practice in fine arts. It aims at exploring new and fruitful tracks between autonomous and applied arts, starting from a contemporarily relevant approach to both. Experimental processes and innovative practices in art and design form the core of your research interest and artistic experimentation, in connection with the eponymous focal point of the research unit Image. From your relationship to fine arts and applied art or design, you develop your own research focus, the relevance and surplus value of which you must clarify and elaborate in your application. Innovative research into the reality of materials, questions on craftsmanship as well as philosophically, culturally or socially relevant questions may form the basis of your own research focus and the track(s) you envision in the upcoming years.
• You will lead the research cluster Matter & Image, based on a stimulating research attitude and focused on collaboration. Your own relationship to artistic and design research therefore includes a great curiosity for material-technical experimentation and conceptual reflection (of an art-historical, philosophical, cultural or ecological nature). From your artistic and critical questioning of the relationship between image, matter and technology, you develop collaborative relationships with colleagues in neighboring research clusters on campus and across LUCA. As such, you contribute to the development of our unit’s research program.
• You will supervise a team of doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers with whom you further develop your research cluster, in good collegial consultation with fellow supervisors.
• You actively seek external research funding and you set-up collaborations for this purpose.
• You create artwork, you exhibit, you publish, and you generously share processes that may communicate your research on high-standing and relevant artistic and academic platforms, within and outside LUCA.
You continuously implement developments in your research in your teaching assignment.
• You build a leading international network of peers in research, teaching and your own visual arts practice.
Teaching
Your teaching comprises 50% of your assignment – a reduction to at least 30% in function of your artistic career development is negotiable.
• You will provide high-quality teaching in the field of the visual arts, more specifically in the sculpture, glass and ceramics studio of the academic program for Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts at Sint-Lucas Ghent campus. To this end, you develop educational activities, forms of study guidance and innovative pedagogical models that are tailored to the students of the Fine Arts department, with a strong commitment to the quality of the program as a whole.
• You supervise master’s degrees in visual arts, both for their artistic and the reflective aspect, and within but also outside the aforementioned studio.
• Your teaching is research-based and research-oriented in accordance with LUCA’s vision of academic teaching. You actively seek ways to update and renew your teaching from your research.
Service
You providesocial, scientific and internal services. The assumption of responsibilities withinboards and commissions of LUCA School of Arts are part of your duty.
Profile
• You hold a PhD in the arts or relevant to the arts.
• You have a solid background in fine art making and artistic research, as may be evidenced by a strong portfolio and research record in the relevant field.
• Your artistic portfolio and academic research dossier demonstrate a thorough expertise and practical experience with Sculpture, Glass and Ceramics in general and on the intersection between art and design and/or image and matter in particular.
• You enjoy stimulating developments in others, both in a pedagogical context and research-wise, and you have demonstrable qualities for academic teaching. Teaching experience is a plus.
• You enjoy working independently as part of a team and have a talent for topical leadership.
• You have organizational skills, actively seek collaborations and have a growing (international) network relevant to the visual arts.
• You are communicative and can express yourself fluently in Dutch and English in accordance with the language requirements in force in Flemish higher education. At the start of the teaching assignment, you must have mastered the teaching language at ECFR level B1. The administrative language in LUCA is Dutch. If you do not or not yet sufficiently know Dutch when you are hired, LUCA provides a compulsory integration program with the goal of mastering Dutch at ERK level B2 within 5 years of appointment.
• You are loyal to the mission, mission, vision and policies of LUCA School of Arts.
At LUCA School of Arts you will join an environment where respect and integrity define the basic attitude. We see sustainability and diversity as an asset, with quality as the driving force. In the coming years we want to give LUCA an identity as an actor in society, let our training institute become part of a laboratory, complement our offer with demand-driven initiatives, and open our multicampus reality to a network. You will thus find yourself in a stimulating environment in which we offer numerous opportunities to develop and fulfill your talents on your main campus in Ghent or on LUCA School of Arts’ other campuses for visual arts.
LUCA School of Arts wants to create an environment where all talents can develop to their maximum potential, regardless of gender, age, cultural origin, nationality or disability. We therefore welcome all talented people who recognize the added value of diversity and want to help shape an inclusive organization.
LUCA School of Arts offers a 100% appointment for an indefinite term. The appointment at LUCA School of Arts is at lecturer level (salary scale 528) and appointment at a later stage is possible according to the existing rules and procedures. You will also acquire the status of special guest lecturer in the arts. With this status you will be able to supervise doctorates and apply for internal funding at the KULeuven as a supervisor. More information on salary scales can be found on the website of the Education Department (www.ond.vlaanderen.be). The estimated starting date is 16/9/2024 or soon after.
More information can be obtained from Head of Research Unit Image Prof. dr. Tom Van Imschoot (tom.vanimschoot@luca-arts.be) and from Head of Training at Sint-Lucas Visual Arts Ghent Bert Vandenbussche (bert.vandenbussche@luca-arts.be).
Applications are open until 02/01/2024. Anyone experiencing problems with the online tool, please send an email to solliciteren@kuleuven.be.
The application includes a file consisting of:
- a motivation letter
- a curriculum vitae
- a portfolio
- a certificate of diploma (if necessary, a declaration of equivalence)
- a biosketch: an open text of maximum two pages in which you give a synthesis of your past career and your future plans, with the following elements:
- a first part with crucial elements of your past career, highlighting importance and impact.
- a second part outlining your future activities (focusing on the first 5 years).
- a third part on your added value and further opportunities for cooperation with respect to the existing entities within the research unit Image and LUCA School of Arts or KU Leuven.
Only complete application files will be accepted.
A first interview will take place with candidates who are retained after a pre-selection based on the application file. The interview is preceded by an interactive workshop of maximum 30 minutes, which is open to staff members of LUCA School of Arts. The workshop allows candidates to explain the core of their artistic and academic expertise, motivation and vision for the future in a format of their choice (e.g. lecture-performance). Candidates are asked to presuppose an audience of masters in preparing and presenting the interactive workshop.
KU Leuven seeks to foster an environment where all talents can flourish, regardless of gender, age, cultural background, nationality or impairments. If you have any questions relating to accessibility or support, please contact us at diversiteit.HR@kuleuven.be
