The Old Town School of Folk Music is seeking a strategic and innovative leader for its Education Programs.
The Role:
The Senior Director of Education is responsible for ensuring the growth and smooth operation of high-quality programs across the portfolio, deepening Old Town School's engagement with our current audiences and broadening the School's reach to new audiences in neighborhoods across Chicago. Reporting to the CEO, the Senior Director of Education will lead a talented, dedicated group of seven program administrators and more than 200 faculty members.
The Old Town School of Folk Music's Education department encompasses in-person and online classes, private lessons and workshops offered by the school. It also includes Community Ventures which is a portfolio of fee-for-service and grant-based programs that operate in partnership with Chicago Public Schools and community partners primarily located in Chicago's south and west side neighborhoods.
This senior leadership position is responsible for conceiving, developing, and producing a variety of projects, and coordinating innovation across the Education departments. The leader produces an extensive calendar of programs, classes, private lessons, workshops, residencies with visiting artists, special events, and ambitious extended thematic engagement programs.
The Senior Director of Education fulfills several related roles:
A collaborative leader who partners with colleagues, program managers and faculty to quickly capitalize on new opportunities and solve problems.
A strategic planner who uses data-informed approaches and seeks out relationships to develop creative solutions to ongoing issues and new directions for innovative project development, and looks for new opportunities to grow programs, partnerships, and funding.
A business-minded professional who oversees fiscally sound, sustainable programs with appropriate input from within the School and the community.
A facilitator who brings together and catalyzes the work of ad-hoc working groups and internal partners necessary for success.
A visionary who conceives new ideas for building and engaging audiences, and adapts best practices from across the arts instruction field.
A partner/colleague who is an enthusiastic and inspirational change leader.
A champion of teaching and learning in the folk tradition. Qualifications:
Bachelor's degree in related area or equivalent work experience required. Advanced degree a plus.
A minimum of five years of management and supervisory experience in an arts education organization required.
Experience managing a departmental budget (P&L responsibility) - tracking revenues and expenses, ensuring accurate and timely reporting of changes to projections is required.
Highly creative thinker with a solid track record of accomplishment in program development and execution.
Experience teaching music or dance in person and online required. Experience developing e-learning programs is a plus.
Leadership experience taking complex projects from conception through development, funding, coalition building, production and assessment.
Ability to build relationships (both within OTSFM and with community partners, funders, teaching artists, and program participants).
Articulate and persuasive in oral and written communications; comfortable as a public speaker.
Committed and dedicated to justice, addressing inequality, amplifying the voices of marginalized communities and using music, dance, and the arts to heal and grow.
Direct experience working with the arts and/or education communities on the south and west sides of Chicago ideal.
Adept with current web and social media platforms as well as MS Office and Google Suite.
Ability to work a flexible schedule including nights and weekends as needed.
Ability to travel to program locations as needed.
Bilingual Spanish/English a plus.
Experience leading in a union environment is a plus.
If interested and qualified, please submit a resume and cover letter to hiring@oldtownschool.org.About Old Town School of Folk Music
Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music (“OTSFM”) is the largest community school of the arts in the U.S. and a non-profit organization committed to celebrating American music and global cultures. Founded in 1957, Old Town School provides a wide range of music, dance, and arts courses to people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. Whatever one's interest, Old Town School provides broad access to more than 700 weekly class offerings, a broad array of private lessons, and over 400 concerts and community events per year.
Old Town School of Folk Music opened its Lincoln Square facility in 1998 and expanded in 2012. The Old Town School operates two campuses located in Chicago's Lincoln Square and Lincoln Park neighborhoods that include world-class concert halls, classrooms, an award-winning music store, and a music resource center. Online classes were introduced in 2020 and students from nearly every state and a dozen countries participated over the course of the pandemic. Children's classes are also held at several suburban satellite locations. More information is available at oldtownschool.org