Andrew Heiskell Arts Director

Term:Three-yearappointment,renewableforuptotwoadditionalyears.StartdateAugust 2027.

Foundedin1894,theAmericanAcademyinRomeisaleadingAmericanoverseascenter for independent study and advanced research in the arts and humanities. Each year, the Academy awards the Rome Prize to approximately 30 artists and scholars who join a dynamic, transdisciplinary residential community on the Academy’s eleven-acre campus on the Janiculum Hill—enriched further by invited Residents and Affiliated and Visiting Artists and Scholars, reaching a community of approximately 100 at any given time.

TheAcademyisledbythePresident&CEO,whosetsitsdirectionandservesasitschief fundraiser and public representative. A Chief Operating Officer manages the Academy’s business and administrative functions across Rome and New York. The Director is responsible for the daily intellectual and communal life of the residential community. The Andrew Heiskell Arts Director and Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Professor report to the Director and, together with the Director, constitute the Academy’s intellectual leadership team in Rome—the primary intellectual resources for the Rome Prize Fellows and the animating force behind the Academy’s scholarly and creative life.

Role

The Andrew Heiskell Arts Director is a member of the Academy’s intellectual leadership team. This is a role for a practitioner or scholarof genuine distinction—someone with an established reputation in one of theAcademy’sartsdisciplines,therangetoengagewith work across artistic and humanistic fields, and the commitment to place their intellectual life in service of a community.

The Arts Director works alongside the Director and the Humanities Professor to shape the Academy’s intellectual vision in Rome. Their primary institutional responsibility is to the Rome Prize Fellows: offering creative creativeandscholarlyguidance,facilitating engagementwith Rome’s artistic and cultural communities, and helping Fellows make the most of their time at the Academy. The Arts Director brings particular depth to the arts disciplines represented at the Academy—architecture, design, landscape architecture, literature, musical composition, and visual art—while engaging generously with Fellows across the full breadth of the residential community. But for the Arts Director to fully embody the role the Academy needs them to be active in critical, creative, or curatorial work at the highest level.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as a primary intellectual resource for Rome Prize Fellows across the Academy’sartsdisciplines—architecture,design,landscapearchitecture,literature, musical composition, and visual art—offering creative and scholarly guidance, substantive engagement with Fellows’ work, and mentorship calibrated to each Fellow’s stage of career and project.
• Work in close partnership with the Director and the Humanities Professor to foster intellectual exchange across disciplines; encourage and facilitate dialogue among Fellows, Residents, Italian Fellows, and AffiliatedandVisitingArtistsandScholars.
• Facilitate introductions and sustained relationships between Fellows and their counterpartsinRome’sandItaly’sartisticandculturalcommunitiesthroughthe Advisors in the Arts network and beyond.
• Design,organize,andleadsitevisitsandlongertripsinandaroundRome,Italy, and the Mediterranean that deepen Fellows’ engagement with the material, historical, and cultural dimensions of their work.
• May participate in the selection of Rome Prize and Italian Fellows and assist as neededintheselectionofResidentsandAffiliatedandVisitingArtistsandScholars.
• ConducttheirowncreativeandresearchworkandsetanexamplefortheFellows of what a life in the arts could look like.
• As a member of the Academy’s intellectual leadership team, contribute to the designandexecutionofprogrammingthatservestheinstitutionalmissioninclose collaboration with the Director, the Humanities Professor, and Programs staff.
• ServeasstaffliaisontotheArtsCommitteeoftheBoardofTrustees,contributingto governance discussions on matters of artistic programming, fellowship in the arts, and the Academy’s creative identity.
• AttendmeetingsoforganizationswheretheAcademyholdsaboardseator institutional partnership, as necessary.

CommunityStewardshipandExternalEngagement (10%)

• Maintainavisibleandengagedpresenceinthelifeoftheresidentialcommunity—at meals, at internal and public events, in communal spaces—as an active participant in the community the Academy exists to sustain.
• Represent the Academy in Rome’s artistic and cultural communities; build and expandrelationshipswithItalianartists,institutions,andorganizationsthatenrich the Fellows’ experience and deepen the Academy’s presence in the city.

Qualifications

Required

• AnadvanceddegreeinoneoftheartsdisciplinesrepresentedattheAcademyand arecordofaccomplishedcreativeorscholarlyworkcommensuratewithnationalor international standing, with a minimum of five years of experience in an academic, cultural, or arts institution.
• Demonstratedintellectualgenerosityanddisciplinaryrange:theabilityandgenuine desire to engage with creative and scholarly work across fields, and to support Fellows whose practices differ substantially from one’s own.
• FluencyorahighdegreeofproficiencyinspokenandwrittenItalian;strongworking knowledge of the arts, cultural sites, and organizations of Rome and Italy.
• Provenabilitytomentorartistsandscholarsatvaryingstagesofcareer,with superiorinterpersonalskillsandtheabilitytobuildtrustacrossadiverseand talented community.
• Demonstrated ability to represent an institution professionally—interacting diplomaticallywithFellows,staff,boardmembers,donors,institutionalpartners,and government officials.
• Strategicthinkingandorganizationalcapability,withexperiencemanaging programs and working collaboratively across teams.
• FlexibilitytoworkoutsidestandardhoursgiventheAcademy’seveningand weekendprogramming,andwillingnesstotravelbetweenRomeandNew York.

Preferred

• Establishedrelationshipswithartists,institutions,andculturalorganizationsin Rome and Italy.
• ExperiencelivingandworkinginItalyoranotherinternationalcontext,with demonstrated cross-cultural fluency.
• Familiaritywithartsadministration,exhibitiondevelopment,orpublicprogramming in an international setting.

Leadership Profile

TheidealcandidatewillberecognizedbyFellows,colleagues,andpeersinRomeforthe following qualities:

• Creative distinction. A practitioner or scholar whose work commands genuine respect—whosepresenceattheAcademylendsartisticauthoritytothecommunity and whose engagement with Fellows’ projects carries real weight.
• Disciplinaryrange. Thecuriosityandcapacitytoengagesubstantivelywithwork far outside one’s own discipline—to follow the argument of a historian, to understand what a composer is working through, to engage with equal interest a poet and an architect.
• Institutional commitment. A genuine orientation toward community and collaboration—someone who finds meaning in supporting the work of others and understands that their role is as much about creatingconditionsforexcellenceas producing it themselves.
• Romanfluency. ArealconnectiontoRome—itsartisticlandscape,itsinstitutions, its rhythms—and the ability to move through the city’s creative and cultural communities as a trusted participant.
• Mission conviction. An authentic belief in what the Academy does and why it matters—inthevalueofsustainedindividualcreativeandscholarlywork,inRome as an irreplaceable context for that work, and in the Academy’s unique role in American cultural life.

Compensation

Secondmentappointmentswillbecompensatedinaccordancewiththetermsofthe secondment. Salary range for direct employment is $100,000–$200,000, based on experience and qualifications.

To Apply

Submission deadline is October 15, 2026.

The American Academy in Rome is an Equal Opportunity Employer. AAR believes that a diverse community makes for a stronger institution, and actively encourages applications fromcandidatesof fallbackgrounds,identities,andlivedexperiences.Wearecommittedto ahiringprocessthatisequitable,inclusive,andfreefrombias,andtobuildigal ad leadership community that reflects the breadth of the artistic and scholarly traditions we support.