Continuing Education Instructor, Drawing for Beginners

RISD Continuing Education

Functions within the larger context of RISD, an institution with an unparalleled reputation for producing highly-skilled, successful, and internationally renowned creative practitioners. With more than 100 years of expertise nurturing critical making, thinking, and innovation in art and design, we facilitate personal and professional development by engaging students in sustained exploration and learning in the creative disciplines. RISD Continuing Education welcomes instructors whose teaching experience addresses historically underrepresented communities.

Job Description

RISD Continuing Education instructors plan, organize, teach, and provide feedback to promote and direct student learning in keeping with the institutional learning-centered values and in a manner that meets the essential competencies of an artist and designer. Our instructors respond to students in a timely manner and communicate with the discipline and division via college-provided tools and resources.

• Teach introductory drawing to adult students, focusing on developing hand-eye coordination and understanding how to look and transcribe the world into a two-dimensional surface through presentations and tutorials.
• Teach how to describe objects through scale, angle, and proportion, and how to explore line as a descriptive and expressive device to describe form through weight, direction, and speed.
• Utilize the power of light and dark to create volume and space, leading toward a more complicated subject and composition, and allowing students to grow in confidence and strategy.
• Teach using pencil, charcoal, and eraser to draw still life, architecture/space, and briefly introduce landscape.

Required Knowledge/Skills/Experience

• Bachelor's Degree required. MFA preferred or equivalent in established professional practice in area of study.
• A track record of paid professional experience at companies successfully doing related work, and/or a robust, creative, intellectually and critically engaged design or studio practice, as evidenced by recognition in publications, commissions, exhibitions, awards and/or collaborative projects.
• In person teaching experience, including the ability to create syllabi and lesson plans, and how to tie those to learning outcomes.
• Ability to develop and implement diverse teaching and learning for different learning styles and to respond to the needs of learners from a variety of educational backgrounds in a multicultural environment.
• Analytical, evaluative, and critical thinking skills.
• Accept and act upon constructive feedback from course and classroom evaluations by students and staff.
• Strong interpersonal, communication and organizational skills.
• Ability to develop syllabi and lead classes and critiques that model constructive, inclusive discussions, and that encourage students to grow creatively and intellectually.
• In-depth knowledge of Drawing.

Preferred Knowledge/Skills/Experience

• Teaching experience in a collegiate or adult education setting that addresses underrepresented communities.
• The ability to convey complex art engagement ideas in a clear and articulate manner for an art and design program and design concepts that serve adult students with varied skills (novice to advanced) in a condensed time frame.
• A commitment to excellence in teaching and mentoring students.
• Lifelong learning orientation with demonstrated interest in learning about new developments in their area of study.
• The ability to empathically relate to a wide range of student perspectives and maturely handle interpersonal issues that may arise.

Documents Needed to Apply

• Resume, including a URL link for your professional portfolio.
• Statement of interest (preferred).

Work Schedule

Classes will be held once per week for 6 weeks in Block Island, RI. The Fall, 2026 semester begins on November 2, 2026, and ends on December 17, 2026.

Union

No

Work Modality

In person

Employment Status

Full-time

Equal Opportunity Employer

RISD recognizes diversity and inclusivity as fundamental to its learning community and integral to an art and design education. We welcome candidates whose experience has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to diversity and excellence.