Douglass Dempster

 Douglas Dempster is dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, a public arts college made up of liberal arts and professional programs in Visual Arts, Design, Music, Dance, Theatre, and Digital Arts, ranging from the BA to the PhD. The college also includes a large arts presenting program and a campus public art program.

Dean Dempster is a philosopher by training and inclination who has dedicated his scholarly life to understanding and advocating for the cognitive and epistemic value of artistic inquiry and creation, his teaching life to enlarging the vision and ambitions of young artists and performers, and his professional life to reinventing best practice in higher education for preparing artists for a healthy, productive, and prosperous lives in the arts.

Prior to his appointments at the University of Texas, Dempster was 18 years on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music as a teacher of Philosophy, Humanities, Music Theory, Musicology, and Cultural Policy Studies as well as associate director and dean. He established the Eastman School’s Arts Leadership Program, orchestral studies program, and the department of Chamber Music. He was a co-director of the Creative Campus initiative in the early 2000s and has served from its inception on the advisory board of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project. He currently holds the Marie and Joseph D. Jamail Senior Regents Professorship and the Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair in the Department of Theater and Dance. 

The University of Texas at Austin | College of Fine Arts | 512.475.7038