Artist Mentor, Spiritual Pedagogies Fellowship, Dia Chelsea

Based in New York, Dia Art Foundation is committed to advancing, realizing, and preserving the vision of artists. A nonprofit founded in 1974, Dia collects the work of some of the most renowned artists of the last half-century; presents long-term, site‑specific projects; executes new commissions; and produces scholarly publications related to its exhibitions and collection.

Learning at Dia is founded on the idea that art is an active, self‑determined experience. Since their inception in 1993 in New York, learning programs have offered space for the collective curiosity and inquiry of artists, educators, and learners to be in critical exchange at Dia.

For more about Dia’s constellation of locations and sites, exhibitions, and programs of engagement, visit our website.

Dia Art Foundation seeks an experienced artist to serve as an Artist Mentor for a cohort of emerging artists, educators, and cultural practitioners participating in Dia ’s Spiritual Pedagogies Fellowship, taking place from October 2026 to June 2027 across Dia ’s New York locations and sites.

As an active artist and practitioner themselves, the individual in this role will enter a sustained intellectual and creative dialogue with participants around the fellowship ’s exploration of the evolving relationship between artistic practice, pedagogy, and spirituality. The Artist Mentor will shape the conceptual arc of the program year and foster community between an intimate cohort of six emerging, interdisciplinary practitioners who work collaboratively and independently over the course of the program.

Reporting to the Curator of Public Engagement and working closely with the Learning and Engagement team, the Artist Mentor will bring a holistic perspective, contributing to the fellowship ’s programmatic and intellectual development while navigating Dia as a broader institutional resource. In addition to their work with the cohort, the Artist Mentor will have opportunities to engage with Dia as an institution, bringing their own research and practice into conversation with Dia’s collection, sites, and public programs.

The successful candidate will have an established artistic practice; demonstrated engagement with questions of spirituality as they intersect with art making and pedagogy; a commitment to exploring these questions through reciprocal exchange with emerging artists; and experience in mentorship or a related professional context.

• Develop and sustain a rigorous intellectual and creative engagement with Dia Art Foundation, the Learning and Engagement department, and the fellowship’s annual thematic focus in relationship with personal practice; bring original research, thinking, and practice to bear on the cohort’s collective inquiry
• In consultation with the Curator of Public Engagement, conceptualize and facilitate all fellowship programming, including cohort sessions, one‑on‑one mentorship meetings, and guest‑artist visits drawing from personal practice and related research interests
• Support fellows in building a rigorous and self‑defined peer‑learning community and create opportunities for them to develop and experiment with approaches to critical inquiry, research, and creative practice through collaborative and experiential processes
• Support fellows in realizing independent and/or group projects based on their own interests, encouraging embodied and expansive approaches to scholarship, from research and writing to making and performance; collaborate with the Learning and Engagement team to support the production of events or presentation as required
• Establish and maintain a self‑directed process of reciprocal reflection with fellows, seek out and share resources, and establish a methodology of documentation
• Maintain clear and ongoing communication with the Learning and Engagement team throughout the program year, including regular attendance of meetings, timely submission of documentation, and incorporation of feedback from fellows and Dia staff into program design and delivery

• An active artist or cultural practitioner with a sustained…