Music Education Lead

Job description Job Type: Full-time Remote: Remote WHO WE AREMaterial Institute is where art and ecology are practiced as one. We are a nonprofit cultural institution and learning community in New Orleans making and experimenting with sound, soil, and textiles to recognize the interconnection of art and the natural world. We understand ourselves as material, including our voices, bodies, and movement.Within our programs, students, staff, teachers, and collaborators learn and create side by side. Material Institute is multicultural, centering emerging Black artists from New Orleans, welcoming people across experience and backgrounds, and inviting global artists and thinkers to widen our context.OUR PROGRAMSOur mission lives through our programs: Material Studio, Material Camps, guest artist workshops, screenings, concerts, and events.Material Studio is our core program: a cost-free, two-year curriculum for emerging fashion designers and musicians from New Orleans ages 18+. Through sustained study and practice with peers and mentors, artists expand their perspectives and work; gain technical and creative skills; develop professional portfolios; and foster collaborative relationships.At Material Institute, fashion designers and musicians participate in daily life alongside staff and visiting artists as a part of practice growing food, cooking meals, and caring for shared spaces. We believe this consistent rhythm transforms ourselves, each other, and the world. With trust in process and clear purpose, artists are empowered to take the next steps in their vocation and, in time, influence their fields; contribute to their communities; and evolve culture. From the DNA of Material Studio, we design Material Camps, where kids learn and experiment with materials to explore their creative voice.We serve as a cultural institution to the wider New Orleans community through global guest artist workshops, screenings, and concerts with visiting artists.OUR CAMPUSEnvironment shapes consciousness: We build spaces that encourage connection to each other and the natural world. Our unique campus spans two blocks at the border of the 8th and 9th wards. Our campus comprises a community garden; organic food production garden; outdoor kitchen; outdoor classroom; fashion atlier; knit lab; dye lab; recording studio; music production room; and a residence that doubles as staff offices and visiting guest artist accommodation. Over the next five years, we will develop our campus to include larger indoor and outdoor assembly spaces for classes and events, a dance studio, indoor kitchen, food production site, and more. MATERIAL MUSICMaterial Music began as a cost-free recording studio in 2015. In 2017, we added a year-long Recording Artist Residency for emerging musicians to record professional quality projects cost-free. We focused much of our resources on developing a quality, unique recording studio and, over time, added vocal lessons; performance and music business workshops; and other creative and professional opportunities. Between 2017-2025, we developed 63 Recording Artist residents and over 100 community recording projects. We paused our programs in 2025 to define a unified mission across Material Institute and align programs. 2026-27 will pilot Material Studios new, first year curriculum focused on foundational skills and material experimentation.WHO YOU AREYou are an educational program lead, educator, and musician with a passion for music history and musical forms, from foundational traditions to contemporary sounds. You bring deep knowledge of Black American music its history, forms, and cultural force. Your practice responds to the present, drawing from many musical forms to engage with what's happening now.You are a broad-minded songwriter who uses music theory as a tool to help others reach their fullest artistic potential. You are as comfortable with an artist working in R&B or hip hop as one working in jazz or experimental sound.You believe teaching is a transformative act. You learn as much as you teach. You are curious about what happens when people make things together.You design rigorous and inventive experiences where emerging artists discover through doing experimenting, failing, and finding their unique creative voice in the process. You champion learning that is experiential, hands-on, and alive; where the process of making is as important as whats made.You are a reliable and empathetic teammate with a collaborative spirit. You expect excellence from yourself and those around you. You are connected to the wider world of contemporary music practice and excited to bring that world into Material Institute through visiting artists and thinkers. You consider music's relationship to ecology, community, culture, and contemporary realities.WHAT YOULL DOEDUCATION LEADMATERIAL