Part-Time Founding Teaching Position · Reports to the Principal · Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s or MFA preferred in Studio Art, Visual Arts, Art Education, Film, Photography, Design, or Media Arts · Active studio, production, or design practice preferred · Illinois Professional Educator License in visual arts preferred and National Board Certification a major plus · 3+ years of secondary (grades 6–12) teaching experience preferred; high school (grades 9–12) teaching experience highly preferred · College-preparatory, independent, Jewish day or faith-based school experience is a plus. Being Jewish is not a requirement for this role. Fewer years but exceptional craft? We hire for mastery, not seat time.
Are you a working artist-teacher at home in the studio and behind the camera alike, whose practice feeds your pedagogy? Do you believe a serious visual arts program builds discipline, vision, and courage in teenagers, whether the medium is charcoal, a camera, or a design file? Are you excited to hang the first student exhibition on a brand-new school’s walls? If so, Davis School Chicago wants to hear from you.
THE DREAM TEAM
Davis School Chicago is a proudly Jewish, college-preparatory high school opening in fall 2027 in downtown Chicago, in a state-of-the-art building at the heart of a great city for learning. Every adult at Davis Chicago is an educator and a culture-builder. We hold two expectations at the same time: deep human warmth and uncompromising intellectual excellence. High health and high results, never one at the cost of the other. This is a summary of the characteristics that describe our dream team. Please read the full Profile of the Ideal Davis Chicago Educator https://www.davischicago.org/idealeducator and more information about our opportunities before you apply.
To thrive here you are:
- Warm and intellectually formidable. Genuinely kind and seriously bright. We hire for intellectual horsepower; only sharp minds grow students to their full potential.
- You bring the room to life. Passion people feel, loud or quiet, with the range to teach, support, and lead.
- A builder who owns it. Startup grit, a real growth mindset, open about mistakes, gives the gift of feedback, and the drive to create what doesn’t exist yet.
- Teach how to think, not what to think. Rigor, evidence, and a love of hard questions, including the controversial ones. Students reach their own conclusions.
- Rooted in tradition, built for what’s next. Ancient wisdom and modern tools, AI included, aimed at today's problems.
- Unapologetically Jewish. Israel has a right to exist; that is not up for debate. Everything else is fair game, including spirited debate about Israel’s actions. You’re excited to help build a proudly Jewish, pro-Israel school.
WHAT DAVIS CHICAGO NEEDS
Davis Chicago is hiring a part-time Visual & Media Arts Teacher to build visual and media arts at the school. Founding-year sections are drawn from Portfolio Foundation, Digital Design Foundation, Digital Photography Foundation, and Film & Television Production Foundation as founding-class elective choices fill them, with ladders above them that run to AP Drawing and AP 2D Design.
WHO THRIVES IN THIS ROLE
- Warm, Relational, and High-Performing – Kind, emotionally intelligent, intellectually rigorous, and committed to excellence.
- A Working Artist-Teacher – Practice informs pedagogy, in the studio and behind the camera.
- A Portfolio Coach – Builds bodies of work colleges notice, on paper and on screen.
- An Entrepreneurial Builder – Thrives in ambiguity, solves problems, and creates programs, systems, and traditions from the ground up.
- A Curious and Courageous Thinker – Embraces learning, evidence, critical thinking, and meaningful debate.
- Rooted and Forward-Looking – Honors tradition while embracing innovation, technology, and AI.
- Committed to Jewish Life and Community – Values Jewish identity, the diversity of Jewish thought, and meaningful engagement in Jewish…