Course Leader — Advanced Painting

About the Role

We are seeking an outstanding practising painter and educator to lead our Advanced Painting Course — a part-time appointment of two and a half days a week (the half day for admin and preparation), across a 30-week academic year. Working closely with the Artistic Director, the Course Leader shapes the intellectual and creative life of the programme, fostering a culture of generosity, critical enquiry, experimentation and excellence.

This is a leadership appointment, not a teaching-hours post. You will hold the artistic vision of a rare, studio-based postgraduate programme — guiding a community of committed painters, coordinating a team of practising artist-tutors, and shaping the public life of the course — while continuing to sustain your own practice. You will lead individual tutorials, coordinate the visiting-tutor team, programme a fortnightly public programme of visiting artists, deliver seminars and workshops, and oversee the School’s interim and graduate exhibitions.

What we offer

• The rare chance to lead an atelier-scale postgraduate painting programme while sustaining your own practice.
• A close, studio-based community of committed painters, each with their own dedicated studio.
• A fortnightly visiting-artist programme and a wider network across contemporary painting.
• The support of the Artistic Director and a distinguished team of practising artist-tutors.

Salary

This is a part-time appointment — two and a half days a week (the half day for admin and preparation) across a 30-week academic year — so the actual salary is £18,000–£20,000 per annum, depending on experience.

You will be:

• an established painter with a significant exhibiting profile, including solo and group exhibitions;
• an experienced educator, preferably with teaching experience in Higher Education or postgraduate art education;
• able to teach and mentor across a wide range of painting practices without imposing your own artistic language;
• deeply engaged with contemporary art, painting and current critical debates, and equally committed to material practice and conceptual enquiry;
• generous and collegiate, with the temperament and pastoral judgement to support a diverse cohort inclusively, including students with disabilities or additional needs;
• an excellent communicator, highly organised, and comfortable representing the School publicly;
• able to commit to the academic-year pattern and to be in post for the start of the year.

Desirable traits:

Experience leading or coordinating a postgraduate programme; a broad professional network within contemporary art; experience organising exhibitions, artist talks or public programmes; and experience mentoring artists at MA level or beyond.

Why The Essential School of Painting

The Essential School of Painting is one of London’s leading independent art schools dedicated exclusively to painting. For over twenty years we have offered an atelier-scale model of art education founded on sustained studio practice, intensive individual tuition and the belief that painters develop through rigorous making and critical conversation. At its heart is our two-year Advanced Painting Course, an intensive postgraduate programme in which every painter has their own dedicated studio and is taught by practising artists with significant exhibiting careers. It is, in short, a place where painters teach painters.

Interviews

Interviews are expected to take place in the week commencing 7 September 2026.

How to Apply

Click the apply button above and apply through the online form on our website.

You will be asked for a CV including your full exhibition history; a link to your website, portfolio or images of recent work; a short statement (up to 500 words) on your approach to teaching and mentoring painters and your interest in ESOP; and the names of two referees.

Closing date: Monday 24 August 2026, 23:59 HRS

Inclusion

The Essential School of Painting is committed to an inclusive and supportive studio culture and warmly welcomes applications from painters of all backgrounds. Reasonable adjustments are available at every stage of the process — please just let us know.