CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Following a national search, Jacob Pinholster has been selected as dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts, effective Sept. 16, pending University of Illinois Board of Trustees approval. Pinholster’s title will be dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts designate until board approval.
Pinholster is executive dean for enterprise design in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University and the founding director of the ASU Media and Immersive eXperience Center — an emerging media technologies and practices facility in the center of downtown Mesa, Arizona. In addition, he advises graduate programs in interdisciplinary digital media and performance, extended reality technologies and immersive experience design.
“I congratulate Professor Pinholster on his appointment. After a national search, he emerged as uniquely qualified to lead our College of Fine and Applied Arts. His clear vision for advancing the college, his strong record of success in past leadership roles and his enthusiasm for bolstering the college’s excellence in teaching, research and engagement made him the clear choice. Professor Pinholster’s focus on community and collaboration will enrich the college and our campus by fostering creativity, critical thinking and cultural engagement,” said Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost John Coleman.
As an educator and administrator, Pinholster has engaged in several long-term initiatives that fuse technology, interdisciplinarity and curricular innovation, and he has been an invited speaker on these topics at the National Association of Schools of Theatre, the Leadership Institute of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and Live Design International (LDI). As a designer, his efforts have centered on projection and media design and technology for performance.
His professional media/projection design credits include the “Pee Wee Herman Show,” “Carrie Fisher: Wishful Drinking,” “Current Nobody,” “Hoover,” “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,” “Heddatron” and many other productions at off-Broadway, regional and academic venues.
Pinholster earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Production and a Master of Fine Arts in Scenic and Lighting Design from the University of Florida.
Editor’s note: For more information, contact Stephanie Henry, communications associate for the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, 217-244-1183, slhenry@illinois.edu.
