Professor Juan Cruz Will Leave the RCA to Take Up New Role
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Professor Juan Cruz
Professor Juan Cruz
Professor Juan Cruz, Dean of the School of Arts & Humanities has been appointed Principal at Edinburgh College of Art.
Juan will take up this significant role at one of the nation’s leading art schools, comprising over 3,000 students across architecture, art, design, history of art and music at the start of the next academic year, leaving the RCA in the summer.
Joining in 2014 as Dean of Fine Art, Juan became the first Dean of Arts & Humanities in 2017.
Professor Naren Barfield, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost said:
‘Juan has made a huge contribution to the RCA. He will be sorely missed. He has grown the School, not only in terms of students, including postgraduate research students, but also by introducing more diverse practices and approaches to teaching, establishing strong interdisciplinary foundations and integrating research into the curriculum.
‘Juan has been a really great colleague, and we are very much looking forward to continue working with him in his new role,  particularly through the University of Edinburgh Futures Institute, which complements our own approach to the STEAM agenda across teaching and research, and I am sure there will be a number of other opportunities for collaboration.’
Working closely with international partners as well as local stakeholders to raise the profile and enhance the College’s reputation, Juan has also overseen the RCA Show and been instrumental in launching the Graduate Diploma.
Juan continues to practice and research as an artist and writer, exhibiting and publishing internationally. He is a member of the Tate Liverpool Council, a trustee of the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition Trust, a board member of Peer and a Director of the International Awards for Art Criticism. He is also deputy chair of the REF2021 sub-panel 32 Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory.
The RCA is currently undertaking an international search for a new Dean of the School of Arts & Humanities.
Find out more about a UKRI research project to investigate the dynamic and fast-growing contemporary art scene in Shanghai, led by Professor Juan Cruz.