Seeking Director

Nida Art Colony, a subdivision of the Vilnius Academy of Arts, invites applications for the full-time position of General and Artistic Director, a 3 + 3 years assignment from September 2019.

Nida Art Colony (NAC) is a residency center in Nida, Lithuania’s premium seaside resort. NAC runs an international Artist-in-Residence Programme, the Nida Doctoral School, and a number of other projects within contemporary art, art education, and artistic research. NAC aims for a creative cross-pollination of artistic and scholarly practice, the academic and the non-academic, work and leisure. Its activities encompass, among other things, exhibitions, conferences and workshops, printed and electronic publications.

NAC is a subdivision of the Vilnius Academy of Arts (VAA), a state university headquartered in Vilnius and with branches in four other Lithuanian cities. VAA has about 2000 students pursuing BA, MA, PhD and DA degrees in visual and applied arts, design, architecture, and art history.

NAC opened in 2011. Its well-equipped premises, 2,500 square meters in total, operate all year round, accommodating about 50 resident artists and 700 other guests a year and providing space for workshops, intensive courses, exhibitions, seminars, rehearsals, artist talks, and screenings.

NAC is located on the Curonian Spit, a peninsula dividing the Curonian Lagoon and the Baltic Sea. The spit is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of Europe’s most beautiful cultural landscapes. It also forms the National Park of the Curonian Spit. Nida is 50 kilometers from the port city of Klaipėda and 360 kilometers from Vilnius.

NAC seeks a General and Artistic Director with a good track record in contemporary art curating and management and a good international network within fields relevant to NAC’s program.

The Director shall provide forceful strategic leadership for NAC, conceive and deliver its artistic program and articulate a compelling vision for its further development as a leading residency center in the Baltic and Nordic region and as an integral part of an art university.

The Director shall develop NAC’s artistic and educational programs and enhance its standing in the contemporary art world. The task includes communication and networking with art professionals and audiences, as well as the operational management of NAC and its strategic development.

The Director shall provide reliable and proactive day-to-day leadership of NAC. The task includes staff and financial management and maintaining a good working relationship with the Vilnius Academy of Arts. The new Director is expected to hire a Deputy Director to assist with day-to-day management.

The successful candidate shall:

–Have the vision, skills and professional standing to develop and deliver artistic and educational programs at an international level of excellence.
–Have relevant leadership experience in the contemporary art and/or art education sector and be interested in and devoted to leading this ambitious institution in dialogical but result-oriented fashion (experience in running another residency program is an advantage).
–Be intellectually curious and committed to finding new directions and possibilities for NAC in contexts including critical and operational support for art production, practice-based research, interdisciplinary dialogue, formal and informal art education, and audience building.
–Be able and willing to expand NAC’s networks and seek external collaborations nationally and internationally.
–Be able and willing to maintain a financially viable institution, generate additional income from the existing infrastructure and secure grants from national and international funding bodies.
–Be a skilled and experienced communicator, have good spoken and written English and be willing to learn Lithuanian.

The monthly salary is EUR 1,900 (before taxes).

The closing date for applications is December 1, 2018

For an application information pack, please contact NAC administrator Julija Navarskaitė at info [​at​] nidacolony.lt.

For further information, please contact NAC Board members Anders Kreuger at anders.kreuger [​at​] gmail.com / T +32 475391361, or Julijonas Urbonas at julijonas.urbonas [​at​] vda.lt / T +370 61945384.