CIA welcomes new faculty hires for 2023-24

Greg Watts, Vice President of Academic Affairs + Dean of Faculty, announced June 20 the following new faculty appointments for the 2023–24 academic year. These appointments became effective July 1.

Nicole Condon-Shih
Associate Professor and Chair, Foundation
Nicole Condon-Shih is an artist, educator and academic leader exploring the intersection of art, science and technology. Her research-based creative practice examines the dichotomy between the microscopic versus the macroscopic in thinking about biological, cultural and societal systems. Projects have been shown in Hong Kong at the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism & Architecture and in Beijing at the B3 Biennale of the Moving Image; commissioned by Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland; and collected by Summa Health Systems in Akron. She focuses her pedagogical research toward interdisciplinary foundation curriculum by leading and developing foundation programs in art and design schools such as the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China. She is an active member of the Foundations In Art: Theory and Education association and served on the committee to redefine the Guidelines for Foundations. Condon-Shih received her MFA from Hunter College, City University of New York and BFA from Cornell University, College of Architecture, Art, and Planning in Ithaca, New York. She is returning to CIA as an Associate Professor and Chair of Foundation after serving as the Dean of the School of Art at Pratt Munson College of Art and Design in Utica, New York. Her art practice continually informs her teaching, just as teaching is integral to her practice as an artist, researcher and academic leader.

Rachel Ferber
Assistant Professor, Foundation
An interdisciplinary artist, designer and educator, Ferber’s work explores the sticky sides of power, performance and sustainability through the lens of commodified private space. Ferber holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and a BFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. In addition to her studio, she runs an experimental natural dye project called The Dye Bath and is one-half of the art and design initiative, NEW NEW NEW. She has held solo and group exhibitions across the United States and comes to CIA after having previously taught at Kansas City Art Institute and Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.

Adam Lucas
Associate Professor and Chair, Graphic Design
A graphic designer, publisher and educator, Lucas runs Specific Ideas, a multidisciplinary creative practice that is one part graphic design studio, one part independent publishing house, and he is one-half of the art and design initiative NEW NEW NEW. Before coming to CIA, Adam was a full-time faculty member at Kansas City Art Institute. He's been a Senior Designer at SYPartners; a co-founder with Andrew LeClair of LeClair Lucas; and an art director at Wieden+Kennedy. He's taught classes and workshops at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island; Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York; and School of Visual Arts in New York City. Adam holds an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and a BA from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.

Jessica Richardson
Associate Professor, Creative Writing
Author of the short story collection, It Had Been Planned and There Were Guides, which won the FC2 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize and was long-listed for the PEN American Center/Robert W. Bingham Award. Richardson’s work has been featured or honored at The Short Form, Zoetrope, Short Fiction, the National Society of Arts and Letters, and her novel won the 2022 Grindstone International Novel Prize. Stories have appeared in the Commuter at Electric Lit, Gulf Coast, Masters Review, Slice Magazine, and in an immersive online exhibit at Neon Door among other places. She received her MFA from the University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, Alabama and has taught Creative Writing there, at Rutgers in her home state of New Jersey, and at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.

Scott Richardson
Visiting Professor and Interim Chair, Interior Architecture
Founder of Richardson Design, a Cleveland-based commercial design studio that's gained a global reputation for its excellence in creating engaging guest experience. Scott’s focus has always been on combining forward-thinking problem-solving, fearless creativity and dedicated client service. By fostering strong relationships and overseeing a continuously evolving design process, he has cultivated a successful studio that attracts some of the top creative talent in Northeast Ohio. Richardson also serves as a partner in Modern Smart Homes, a modern residential design/build company headquartered in Lakewood, Ohio. He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1991 with a BFA in Interior Design and minors in Industrial and Graphic Design.