Arts Department Chair (Music, Theatre, Visual & Media Arts)
Davis Chicago · Chicago · $77,543–$137,099 (stated in the posting)
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 secondary (grades 6–12) teaching experience required; high school (grades 9–12) teaching experience highly preferred · 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 exhibitions, performances, festivals, competitions, and public events.
2. Faculty Leadership and Professional Growth
Recruit, hire, onboard, mentor, supervise, and evaluate department faculty.
Foster a collaborative professional culture focused on continuous growth, reflective practice, and instructional excellence.
Serve as an instructional coach, providing regular feedback and support to teachers.
Lead department meetings, professional learning initiatives, curriculum reviews, and collaborative planning sessions.
Support teachers in implementing innovative instructional strategies and meaningful assessments.
Encourage faculty leadership and cultivate opportunities for professional growth and advancement.
Promote a culture of accountability, collegiality, and shared responsibility for student success.
Facilitate weekly common planning time centered on student work, so the department's collaboration is about what students actually produce.
Run a peer observation and coaching cycle focused on one targeted instructional area at a time.
Co-lead the school's instructional leadership team
Lead a department that is both high-health and high-results, never one at the cost of the other.
3. Teaching and Learning Excellence
Model exemplary teaching and instructional leadership.
Support faculty in creating engaging, student-centered classrooms that challenge students academically while nurturing student voice and agency.
Ensure curriculum and instruction prepare students for success in selective colleges and universities.
Master the Advanced Placement frameworks that anchor the arts sequence — AP Art and Design, AP Art History, and AP Music Theory — and design a program that meets or exceeds them. At Davis Chicago, top AP scores are the byproduct of rich, rigorous instruction, never of test-prep culture.
Promote inquiry-based learning, studio practice, rehearsal and performance, critique, and project-based experiences, including immersive and experiential approaches where they deepen mastery.
Partner with faculty to develop authentic assessments that measure student growth and mastery.
Advance the effective integration of educational technology and emerging instructional tools.
4. Student Experience and Community Engagement
Collaborate with faculty and school leaders to create enriching student experiences inside and outside the classroom.
Support exhibitions, performances, ensembles, festivals, competitions, and community arts initiatives.
Champion portfolio-worthy student work — original artwork, performances, and productions — and help students build portfolios, audition materials, and pathways toward collegiate and professional arts opportunities.
Partner with families to support student growth and academic success.
Serve as a visible and engaged presence in the life of the school community.
Help cultivate a culture of belonging, respect, dialogue, and intellectual engagement.
5. Strategic Planning and School Leadership
Serve as a key thought partner to the Principal and academic leadership team.
Participate in school-wide strategic planning and institutional initiatives.
Contribute to accreditation, assessment, and school improvement efforts.
Assist in developing and managing departmental budgets and resources.
Coordinate department scheduling, course offerings, and staffing needs.
Ensure compliance with applicable reporting, accreditation, and regulatory requirements.
Help establish traditions, signature programs, and distinguishing features of the Davis Chicago arts program.
Qualifications
Education: Master’s degree in Education, Educational Leadership, Art, Music, Theatre, Arts Education, or a related field required; doctorate preferred.
Licensure: Illinois Professional Educator License preferred (the arts) with National Board Certification highly preferred.
Experience: 3+ years of successful secondary (grades 6–12) arts teaching experience required; high school (grades 9–12) teaching experience highly preferred. College-preparatory, independent, Jewish day or faith-based school experience is a plus.
Leadership: Some form of leadership experience with adults is required; instructional leadership preferred.
Core Competencies
Instructional Leadership: coaching, observation, and common planning time centered on student work.
Curriculum and Assessment: rigorous, coherent, college-preparatory design across the arts disciplines.
Talent and Team: a high-health, high-results department culture.
Teaching: daily classroom excellence.
Compensation and Benefits
The anticipated annual salary range for this position is $77,543–$137,099, based on the school’s established Faculty Salary Schedule. In addition, this leadership role carries a leadership differential of $4,000–$8,000, determined by years of leadership experience. Placement within the salary range is determined by a combination of relevant leadership experience and educational attainment, including Bachelor's, Master's, Master's + additional graduate credits, Education Specialist (Ed.S.), and Doctoral (Ed.D./Ph.D.) degrees, in accordance with the school’s step-and-lane compensation structure. Final compensation will be determined consistent with the school’s compensation philosophy, internal equity, and established salary schedule. In addition to base salary, the position is eligible for a comprehensive benefits package that includes paid time off, holiday pay, medical insurance, and a 401(k) plan with employer match.
How We Hire
Our process is thorough and we believe that hiring is a dual decision-making process; you are vetting us as much as we are vetting you. Our process includes focused conversations with the people you would work with, a battery of assessments we use for your development as much as for selection, and interview rounds both in-person and virtually. We use artificial intelligence tools in our recruitment and hiring process to help review and organize applications and interviews; every hiring decision is made by a person. Davis School Chicago is an equal employment opportunity employer.
Is this you?
This isn’t for everyone. If it’s you, it may be the best work of your life. Read the full Profile of the Ideal Davis Chicago Educator, then apply.
More jobs at Davis Chicago · Education & Training jobs in Chicago