Maker-in-Residence – AI & the Arts

Full time, temporary / $82,500 annually / The College of the Arts (COTA) / Gainesville, FL

The College of the Arts (COTA) seeks an internationally recognized maker whose current and ongoing work is consciously located within a cultural diaspora and/or engaged with migration in creative fields including but not limited to art, design, music, theatre, creative writing, dance, and/or film as they intersect with emerging technology, specifically AI. The Maker-in-Residence’s projects will help shape the forward-thinking research agenda of the Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship (CAME), with a particular focus on cultural production in diasporic communities. Working with members of the college, the university, and the community, the Maker–in-Residence will also be responsible for guiding and implementing initiatives on behalf of the growing Center within and beyond this top six, public, comprehensive, land-grant research university. This position, though housed in the College of the Arts, serves the broader campus community.

The Maker-in-Residence position will reside in both the Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship (CAME), and the College of the Arts (COTA) AI & the Arts initiative. This position is primarily responsible for initiating and implementing creative research that reflects the diverse interests of the College of the Arts AI-activated units, including the School of Art & Art History, School of Music, School of Theatre + Dance and Digital Worlds Institute. The person in this position will also teach one class per semester in the new AI & Arts Certificate[Mo1] [CO2] program and help shape the future of the AI & Arts initiative, while working to develop collaborative opportunities across the units and making connections between CAME, AI & the Arts initiative, COTA, AI2 Center, Informatics Institute and other AI initiatives across the University. The opportunity exists to engage with the work of the new SPARC352 Initiative. SPARC352 activates spaces for creative collaboration where communities develop their own arts and culture-based programs, ideas, research, and solutions using the arts to nurture collective wellbeing and create healthy communities.

The University of Florida College of the Arts intends to be a transformative community that responds to and generates paradigmatic shifts in the arts and beyond. As artists and scholars, we embrace the complexity of our evolving human experience and seek to empower our students and faculty to shape that experience fearlessly through critical study, creative practice, and provocation. We seek a colleague who identifies as a change-maker. We seek a colleague who will prepare students to access and unsettle centers of power in a radically changing world. We seek a colleague who will position emerging artists and researchers as catalysts for equity on local and global levels.

The University of Florida is an equal opportunity institution dedicated to building a broadly diverse and inclusive faculty, seeking faculty of all races, ethnicities, genders, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.

Responsibilities:

Produce creative works and research that engage with the research framework of the Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship (CAME)
Collaborate, as appropriate, with CAME affiliate faculty, the College of the Arts (COTA) AI & the Arts initiative, the College of the Arts, other constituencies across the University of Florida, and with communities both local and global.
Work to identify and secure external funding and resources to support creative works, research, and programming
Present on your research and collaborations with CAME and the AI & Arts initiative at meetings, conferences, and symposia on and off campus
Teach one undergraduate class in fall and spring (two per year) in topics that align with their Maker-In-Residence expertise and to support the AI & the Arts initiative
Service engagement with the developing Arts & AI initiative in the College of the Arts
THE CENTER FOR ARTS, MIGRATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: The Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship (CAME) connects networks of scholars, artists, creatives, entrepreneurs, and advocates to the engines of creative and cultural economics at the heart of migration. Defining the arts as all forms of cultural production, the center seeks to effectively create new models and power alignments that return value—entrepreneurship—to cultural producers to build more just global futures. Through community-responsive programming, research, and creative production, the center facilitates and extends the innovation, resilience, and ingenuity of diasporic and migratory communities.

THE COLLEGE OF THE ARTS: The mission of the College of the Arts is to be a transformative community, responding to and generating paradigmatic shifts in the arts and beyond. We achieve the university’s mission by training professionals and educating students as artists and scholars, while developing their capacities for critical study, creative practice, and provocation. The College offers baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral degrees. Approximately 1,700 students are pursuing majors in degrees offered by the College of the Arts under the direction of 130 faculty members in its three accredited schools— the School of Art + Art History, the School of Music, and the School of Theatre + Dance, and in the Center for Arts in Medicine, the Digital Worlds Institute, and the Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship. In addition, the college comprises the University Galleries, and the University level of the New World School of the Arts in Miami.

The University of Florida: The University of Florida is a comprehensive learning institution built on a land grant foundation, ranked one of the top six best public universities in the nation in U.S. News & World Report. We are The Gator Nation, a diverse community dedicated to excellence in education and research and shaping a better future for Florida, the nation and the world. Our mission is to enable our students to lead and influence the next generation and beyond for economic, cultural and societal benefit. UF is a graduate research institution with more than 50,000 students and membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities. Gainesville, which is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s most livable cities, is located midway between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Together, the University and the community comprise the educational, medical and cultural center of North Central Florida, with outstanding resources such as the University of Florida Performing Arts (Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, the Squitieri Studio Theatre, the Baughman Center, University Auditorium), the Harn Museum of Art, the Florida Museum of Natural History and in the community, the Hippodrome State Theatre and Dance Alive National Ballet.

Requirements

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

Applicants must hold a terminal degree in the performing or visual arts, design, or another related field (such as AI, machine learning &/or natural language processing, computational creativity), or possess equivalent professional experience, including in community engagement, or leadership in technology-related sectors.
Evidence of national recognition as a creator working with emerging technologies (i.e., productions, exhibitions, commissions, publications)
Evidence of skill in designing and facilitating academic work that advances curiosity, inclusion, open intellectual discourse, and the well-being of all in an environment of complex diversities
Familiarity with 21st century diasporic and migration subject matter
Demonstrated expertise in a creative practice within African, LatinX/Latin American, or other diasporic communities

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Demonstrated experience in community-embedded practice
Experience establishing and implementing a shared vision/creative work
Training and experience in project development
Broad and deep understanding of migration and diaspora in the 21st century
Demonstrated fluency with entrepreneurship in creative practice contexts
Proven track record of successfully securing external resources and partnerships
Previous experience teaching in higher education
Proven track record of collaborating with diverse stakeholders