ARTS DEPARTMENT CHAIR (MUSIC, THEATRE, VISUAL & MEDIA ARTS)

Full-Time Founding Leadership Position · Reports to the Principal · Master’s degree required in Education, Educational Leadership, Art, Music, Theatre, Arts Education, or a related field; doctorate preferred · Illinois Professional Educator License in the arts preferred and National Board Certification a major plus · 3+ years of successful teaching experience required · Some form of leadership experience is required; Department, administration, or instructional leadership 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 passionate educator and arts advocate who believes creativity is essential to a world-class education? Do you believe the arts cultivate confidence, innovation, expression, leadership, and belonging? Do you want the opportunity to build and lead an exceptional visual and performing arts program within a new Jewish college-preparatory high school? 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 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 an accomplished Arts Chair to build a program where making, performing, and understanding art are studied as seriously as calculus, and to teach in it every day. As a founding leader, the Chair is a member of the team opening a school from scratch. Therefore, the person needs to be a builder-leader: someone who can take a bold founding vision and turn it into a living school, then run a department in that school at a level of excellence every student, parent, and teacher can feel. Davis School Chicago has also posted part-time arts teaching roles: Visual & Media Arts, Music (Instrumental & Choral Director), and Theatre (Director). If you want to teach in one discipline without leading the department, apply for the part-time role that fits; if you are open to either, apply to both. Who Thrives in This Role
• Warm, Relational, and High-Performing – Kind, emotionally intelligent, intellectually rigorous, and committed to excellence.
• A Teacher First – Leads from the classroom and teaches every day.
• A Practicing Artist at Heart – Models the creative discipline the department teaches.
• 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 life.
• A Collaborative Culture-Builder – Balances accountability, care, and results while elevating everyone around them. The Role The Arts Department Chair is the academic and instructional leader of the Arts Department and serves as a key member of the school’s academic leadership team. Reporting to the Principal, the Chair provides vision, leadership, supervision, and support for faculty and curriculum across the arts disciplines, including visual arts, music, theatre, and media arts. This is a founding seat. You will shape the creative identity of a new school and make Davis Chicago a destination for exceptional arts education, in the conviction that the arts are essential to human flourishing. The Arts Chair will establish a cohesive departmental vision, cultivate a culture of professional excellence, and develop an innovative, college-preparatory curriculum that reflects Davis School Chicago’s mission and values. The Chair will champion interdisciplinary learning, evidence-based instructional practices, student-centered pedagogy, and authentic assessment while helping to build a signature arts program recognized for creative and academic distinction. This is a teaching chair, and the balance evolves by design. In the launch years, the Chair carries a substantial teaching load while building the department from scratch. As the school grows, the role carries increasing dedicated time for curriculum development, classroom observation and coaching, and professional development planning — the steady state Davis Chicago is building toward. 1. Academic Vision and Department Leadership
• Develop and articulate a compelling vision for arts education that aligns with the school’s mission, strategic priorities, and educational philosophy.
• Lead the design, implementation, evaluation, and continuous improvement of a vertically aligned arts curriculum across visual arts, music, theatre, and media arts.
• Exercise founding-level design authority: architect the arts course sequence from first principles — studio, ensemble, and interdisciplinary models are welcome — provided the result meets or exceeds AP frameworks and prepares students for the most selective colleges.
• Ensure curricular coherence, rigor, and relevance across all grade levels and disciplines.
• Promote interdisciplinary learning experiences that connect the arts with humanities, STEM, Jewish studies, and real-world issues.
• Monitor emerging research, best practices, and innovations in arts education and integrate them into departmental programs.
• Analyze student achievement data and assessment outcomes to strengthen teaching and learning.
• Build a culture that values creativity, intellectual curiosity, expression, ethical reasoning, and critical thinking.
• Build the department around the accomplished-practice standards for art and music teaching (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards) and the National Core Arts Standards for theatre: the substantive study of art making, art history, art criticism, and aesthetics; students who sing and play expressively, compose, improvise, and read music, and listen to, evaluate, and describe it; and theatre taught through creating, performing, responding, and connecting.
• Build relationships with universities, museums, conservatories, cultural institutions, artists, and arts organizations and develop signature arts experiences that distinguish Davis School Chicago among leading college-preparatory schools.
• Serve as an ambassador for arts education within the school and broader community.
• Showcase student achievement through exhibit