Sculpture Studio Technician

The Opportunity

The College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP) at Cornell University is seeking a Sculpture Studio Technician to steward the day-to-day operation and continued development of the Sculpture Studios. You will keep the spaces, equipment, and shared resources organized, safe, functional, and ready for use. Just as importantly, you will identify what needs improvement and follow through on practical solutions.

This is a wide-ranging role supporting the Art Department curriculum in wood, metal, ceramics, mold making, soft sculpture, papermaking, and many other additive, reductive, and mixed-material processes, alongside digital fabrication technologies such as laser cutting and CNC. No one is expected to arrive as an expert in every technique. You will need substantial hands-on skill, sound technical judgment, a strong understanding of safety, and the curiosity to learn as practices and teaching needs evolve.

Renovated less than five years ago, the facility has a strong foundation and real potential still to be realized. You will help bring that potential to life by refining studio layouts and storage, establishing dependable operating routines, maintaining and repairing equipment, and improving how shared spaces and resources are used. You will also help assess equipment needs and carry out approved purchases, installations, and improvements. This is an opportunity to help shape studios that are not only well run, but lively and inspiring places where students and faculty want to make work.

You will work closely with Sculpture faculty to understand their courses and research, prepare the studios to support courses, and provide technical guidance on materials, processes, equipment, and fabrication challenges. You will assist with in-class demonstrations and develop safety instruction suited to the processes students will use. You will also provide training to thesis students, independent users, and others who need access outside a Sculpture course. This work calls for strong technical knowledge, thoughtful problem-solving, and a collaborative approach that respects the different ways faculty teach and artists work. Faculty bring their artistic and educational approaches; you bring deep knowledge of the spaces, tools, and possibilities within them.

You will recruit, train, schedule, and supervise student monitors who help maintain studio operations and support approved evening and weekend access. You will also prepare monitors for appropriate responsibilities involving digital fabrication equipment. Working with the Director of Material Practice, Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), and Material Practice colleagues, you will maintain sound safety practices, oversee chemical and regulated waste management, and help improve training and access across the Sculpture and Rand woodshops.

We’re looking for someone who takes pride in making a complex facility work well: a technician who notices what needs attention, can make and repair things, exercises sound judgment, and follows through. If you enjoy both the daily craft of running a studio and the longer-term challenge of helping it thrive, this is a chance to make a lasting contribution to the work of students and faculty at AAP.

• Summary:
• The Sculpture Studio Technician oversees the daily operations of the Sculpture Studios, maintaining organized, functional, and equitable spaces for teaching, independent work, and research. Working with faculty and the Director of Material Practice, the technician adapts studio layouts, storage, equipment, and access to evolving needs across traditional and emerging sculpture practices, including laser cutting and CNC.

The technician provides hands-on technical support to faculty and students through consultations, troubleshooting, and assistance with in-class demonstrations. They work with faculty to plan safety instruction suited to course activities and provide training directly to users outside Sculpture courses. The technician also supervises student monitors who support studio operations, including approved evening and weekend hours, and collaborates with Rand Shop colleagues on training and access between the two woodshops.

Additional responsibilities include maintaining and repairing equipment, carrying out approved equipment purchases and installations, and managing studio safety and chemical practices in collaboration with the Director of Material Practice and Environmental Health and Safety (EHS). Throughout the role, the technician helps keep shared resources ready and available for the people who use them.

About the College, School, Unit or Department (keep short 1-2 sentences)

About AAP:

The College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University (Cornell AAP) includes the departments of Architecture, Art, City and Regional Planning, the Paul Rubacha Department of Real Estate, jointly led by AAP and the SC Johnson College of Business, the multicollege Department of Design Tech, and the Cornell Mui Ho Center for Cities. The college spans three locations in Ithaca, New York City, and Rome, Italy, each with world-class facilities and cutting-edge technologies.

Cornell AAP is about acts of transformation. We are committed to reimagining and reshaping the world in new ways, every day. A vital college at one of the nation's foremost research universities, Cornell AAP brings faculty, staff, and students together from around the world to take up some of today's most urgent challenges and advance research, inquiry, and collaborative approaches to designing, making, and doing that make a more just and resilient future.

This position is 100% onsite at our Ithaca location. Schedule is M-F and may require work to 7pm.

What We Need

• •Resume and Cover letter
• •Ability to provide technical instruction and guidance to users with varying levels of experience.
• •Associate degree and 2–4 years of relevant experience with sculpture, fabrication equipment, techniques, and safety practices in a shop or studio environment, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• •Demonstrated knowledge of sculpture techniques and materials, including wood, casting, and ceramics.
• •Experience with Adobe Creative Cloud.
• •Ability to provide clear technical instruction and guidance to users with varying levels of experience.
• •Strong communication and customer service skills
• •Sound judgment in assessing projects, equipment use, and safety; ability to work independently and collaboratively.
• •Ability to cultivate and develop inclusive working relationships with students, faculty, staff, and community members.

If you have all those things, great! We have a few more things that we would prefer you to have, but it’s ok if you don’t.

• •Experience working in an academic or shared-use studio or shop.
• •Experience supervising, training, or scheduling student employees or staff.
• •Experience with papermaking and metalworking.
• •Experience with CNC machining and laser cutting .
• •Experience maintaining equipment, implementing upgrades, or developing shop procedures and documentation.

Cornell receives national recognition as an award-winning workplace for our health, wellbeing, and sustainability.

Our benefits programs include comprehensive health care options, generous retirement contributions, access to wellness programs, and employee discounts with local and national retail brands. We invite you to follow this link to get more information about our benefits: Understand Your Benefits | Working at Cornell .

Our leave provisions include health and personal leave, three weeks of vacation and 13 holidays: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, and an end of the year winter break from December 25-January 1. To offer greater flexibility for observing faiths and traditions we also offer two additional floating holidays. Learn more about our generous leave provisions: