Areas of Specialization

• Future of Art Education - curriculum and course design.

• Comparative Cultures: Modern to Contemporary.

• Studio Art and Collaborative Practices.

• Experimental practices in performance, installation and film.

• Cultural and Creative Entrepreneurship.

• Thesis Supervision.

• Cultural entrepreneurship and the arts

Education

• Post-Doctorate Fine Art, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

• PhD Fine Art Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK

• MA Fine Art Musashino Art University, Tokyo

• MA Fine Art Goldsmiths, University of London

• M.Sc Boston University/ Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB)

• Erasmus Scholar Fine Art Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris

• BA (Hons) Fine Art Central Saint Martins College of Art, London

• BA cum laude, History, Boston University

Other Education

• Masterclass with James Rosenquist, Guggenheim Education.

• Teacher Training, Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning

• Advanced Curriculum Design Training, Teachers College

• NYU Coaching Program New York University

• GoldAward Academic Mentor Training, University of London

• MBA California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo

• Exchange Scholar, Sophia University Tokyo (Japanese studies) and American University in Paris (French studies), National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan (Chinese studies).

Academic Positions

• Visiting Associate Professor, Fine Art and Curriculum Design, Royal University of Bhutan, Taste, Bhutan (2027)

• Visiting Associate Professor, Visva Bharati University (2022)

• Research Scholar on Art and Education, Teachers College, Department of Organization and Leadership (2022-2025); Department of International and Transcultural Studies (2021-2022); Department of Art & Art Education (2016-2018) Teachers College, Columbia University (2016-present)

• Postdoctoral Art Research Fellow School of Art & Communications, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (2015-2017).

• Fulbright Senior Scholar on Art and Performance, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi (2022).

• Professor of Record for Modern and Contemporary Art History and hybrid lecture/studio practice courses, School of the Arts, Renmin University, Beijing (2013-2019)

• Visiting Professor of Creative Entrepreneurship, Peking University Institute for the Creative Industries, School of the Arts, Peking University, Beijing

• Visiting Lecturer on Art & Performance Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (2013)

• MFA Studio Critiques, University of California Santa Barbara, California (2006)

• Graduate Lecturer/ Studio Critiques, Musashino Art University, tokyo, Japan (1998-2001)

Other Research Positions

• Research Artist, Dunedin School of Art, Dunedin Polytechnic, Otago, New Zealand (2025)

• Research Artist, FormLAB - leading artistic research projects in France, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Mongolia, China, Brazil, India (2012-present)

• Postdoctoral Research Scholar on Arts. School of Art & Communications, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (2015-2017).

• Highland Institute Fellow India (2022-present)

• Fellow, Royal Geographical Society, London

• Field Research Fellow on US-Foreign Education Exchange, American Center for Mongolian Studies, Ulaanbaatar (2016)

• Chair, Young Researchers Forum, American Center for Mongolian Studies (2016).

• Research Scholar, University of the Arts London Research Center on Transnational Art, Identity and Nation, London (2015).

• Research Scholar in Japanese Art, Japan Ministry of Education and Culture Research Scholar on Japanese Art, Musashino Art University, Tokyo (1997-2001).

• Bauhaus Artist and Research Fellow, Bauhaus Foundation Kolleg Program, Dessau, Germany (2008-2009)

• Curating Research Associate, Inaugural Taipei Biennial “Sites of Desire” exhibition, Taiwan (1997-1998).

• Graduate Research Assistant, Technology parallel learning models, California State Polytechnic University (1988-1989).

• Graduate Research, Comparative Education, Trustees of Boston University (1986-1988)

Les Joynes, PhD

Multimedia Artist and Associate Professor of Fine Art: History and Practice. Fulbright Senior Scholar in Art and Performance. Board Director, College Art Associaiton.

Profile: Les Joynes is a New York-based multi-disciplinary artist who has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions in both national and international venues, including: the Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney, Milch London, Barbican London, Gallery Thomas Jaeckel New York, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Museu de Arte Brasileiro, Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, Norimatsu Museum Japan, Inside Out Art Museum Beijing, Douba Film Festival Sichuan China, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Korea, Ecole National Superieure des Beaux-arts Paris, Michael Steinberg Gallery, CBGB, New York, and the National Museum for Taiwanese Literature. His work is included in numerous public and private collections in the United States and abroad.

Joynes’s work has featured in Art in America, Springer, Art Monthly London, Commons and Sense Japan, Sculpture and has featured on NHK television and China Central television among others. He contributed to the curatorial team that produced “Sites of Desire” the inaugural Taipei Biennial at the Taipei Museum of Fine Art in Taiwan as well as exhibitions at the Inside-Out Art Museum Beijing, Brazilian Museum of Sculpture. He serves as a selector for Japan Contemporaries, the Fulbright NSC Selection Committee and as a Board Director for College Art Association (CAA).

Born in Santa Barbara California Joynes studied under Disney Cinematographer, Wolfgang Lauter and first exhibited at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art at 18. Educated in the Americas, EU and Asia, he received his BA (Hons) Fine Art from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design and MA Fine Art from Goldsmiths in London; Masters in fine art from Musashino Art University Tokyo, M.Sc from Boston University and the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences; PhD from the Faculty of Art, Environment and Technology, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK; and Post-Doctorate in Fine Art from the School of Art and Communications at University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Teaching since 1999, he has taught BA students at Musashino Art University and served as Professor of Record for courses Modern and Contemporary Art History and site specific art. He has served as Fulbright Visiting Associate Professor, Visva Bharati University and Visiting Professor of Creative Entrepreneurship in the Institute of Creative Industries at Peking University and now serves as 2025-2028 Board Director for College Art Association in New York.

Joynes has served as Editorial Board member of ProjectAnywhere, a peer-reviewed journal of artistic research co-hosted by the University of Melbourne and Parsons School of Design and his work has featured in international publications since 1990 including Art in America, Springer, NHK television Japan, University of Indiana Press, Dankook University Press, the Journal for Artistic Research, China Central TV, Arte Brazil, Art Monthly London, Commons and Sense Japan, Chitravathi India.

Awards And Honors 

• Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award for India (2022)

• US Department of State RTP-SCA Grant for Sri Lanka (2022)

• American Arts Incubator Art and Technology Artist (2019)

• Fulbright Hays US Public Diplomacy Award forChina (2017) and Mongolia (2014)

• CEC ArtsLink Foundation Grant, St. Petersburg, Russia (2017)

• Renmin University of China Merit Award for Teaching, Beijing (2018)

• Taiwan Ministry of Education Huayu Grant (2016)

• Wheatley Fellow, Birmingham City University (2016)

• Field Research Fellow, American Center for Mongolian Studies (2016)

• UAL Arts Research Fellow, University of the Arts London Research Center on Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (2015)

• CEC ArtsLink Foundation Grant for Mongolia (2014)

• Queenstown Council, Singapore Citation Award, Singapore (2009)

• Edwin Austin Abbey Fellowship, National Design Museum, New York (2009)

• Bauhaus Foundation Fellow, Dessau, Germany (2008)

• The Nordic Artists Center Fellowship, Norway (2008),

• Musashino Art University Selection Award (2001)

• Japanese Ministry of Education and Culture Scholarship (1998-2001)

• Erasmus Scholarship, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-arts, Paris (1995)

• King Sturge Award for Sculpture, London (1995).

[CV upon request]

Selected Lectures and Workshops on Contemporary Art

Joynes has led workshops and lectures on contemporary art and art education at University of the Arts London, University of Cambridge, Kookmin University, Seoul; Columbia University, the Bard-Smolny Curating Program, St Petersburg, University of California, Otis College of Art, Peking University and universities in India, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Mongolia and Singapore. Selected lectures and workshops include:

2025 Coaching and Mentoring in Art Education”, College Art Association Annual Conference, New York (2025), Coaching for Future Art Managers, Teachers College (2025); Coaching for Social Work (2025). 2023 “Coaching Mindset in Organizations”, National Taiwan University Normal University, Taipei (2023); “Pop Art and the Contemporary” National Museum of Taiwanese Literature, Taipei (2023); “Turning the studio inside-out”, National Taiwan University of Education, Taipei (2023); “Contemporary Arts and Climate Change”, National Sun Yat Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2023); “Models for intercultural Collaboration”, National Sun Yat Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2023); 2022 “Rethinking UNESCO Heritage: Expansion of Durga Puja into the Modern Sphere”, Kolkata, India (2022); “US-Indian collaboration in Education”, Vista-Bharati University India (2022); “Imagining the Museum of the Future”, Colombo National Museum, Sri Lanka (2022); “Interdisciplinary practices and artistic research”, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka (2022); “Collaborative Arts as Public Diplomacy, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka (2022); “Artistic Research in Performance”, University of Visual & Performing Arts, Colombo, Sri Lanka (2022); “Curriculum Design and the Arts”, Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management, Visakh, India (2022); “Collaborative and Site Specific art” Visva-Bharati University, India (2022); “Imagining careers in the arts” Vellammal Schools, Chennai, India (2022); “Photography and Memory of Disaster”- Tohoku Reframed, Chennai, India (2022); “Curating Site Specificity in India”, Visva-Bharati University, India (2022); 2021 “Coaching Mindset for Museums and Art Professionals, Association of Academic Museums and Galleries Conference (2021); 2020 “Central Asian art and the future”, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC (2020); 2019 ZERO1: US Department of State American Arts Incubator, San Francisco (2019); “Models for Intercultural Collaboration in the Arts and Culture”, Beihang University, Beijing, (2019); 2018 “Robert Rauschenberg in China”, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2018); “Entrepreneurship and Beyond Design Thinking in Creative Industries”, Peking University, Beijing (2018); “Pioneering Doctoral Research in the Creative Industries”, [Keynote], Peking University, Beijing (2018); "Art and Social Practice Chair, ProjectAnywhere Conference, Parsons School of Art, New York (2018); Cooperation between China and the US, Columbia University Global Center Beijing, China (2018); Artist-led models for museums”: Long Museum Shanghai, China (2018); 2017“US-China collaboration in the arts” US Embassy and the Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, China (2017); “Curating Across Cultures”, Bard Smolny MA Curating Program, Saint Petersburg, Russia (2017); Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, China (2017); 2016 Young Researchers Conference, American Center for Mongolian Studies, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (2016); College Arts Association, New York (2016); 2015 “Creativity as Intercultural Interface”, Teachers College, Columbia University (2015); “Performing cross-cultural spaces,” Mongolian State University for Art and Culture, Ulaanbaatar (2015); “The Artist as Interface” Teachers College, Columbia University, New York (2015); “Cross-cultural collaboration in Brazil and Mongolia,” Cambridge University, UK (2015); Young Researchers Conference, Mongolian National University for Education, Mongolia (2015); Mongolian National University for Art and Culture, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (2015); University of the Arts London Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation, UK (2015); 2014 Zanabazar National Museum of Art, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (2014); “China Modern” National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China (2014); The Artist Explorer” College Arts Association Conference, Chicago (2014); 2013 Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics and University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (2013); 2012 Art Studio as Classroom Live, Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2012); Performing the Museum, Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2012); Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Seoul, South Korea (2012); “Interdisciplinary Art as Research”, MA Fine Art, Kookmin University, Seoul; “Exploring site and local identity”, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, South Korea (2012); 2010 Treignac-Projet, Correze, France (2010); 2009“Studio as Laboratory - Merging Photography with Performance”, Nanyang Academy, Singapore (2009); Performing Site in Singapore, La Salle College of Art/Nanyang Academy of Art, Singapore (2009); “Engaging the Visible and (trans)visible”, Bauhaus research in Singapore (2009); 2001 “Japanese Pop Art and the Emerging Contemporary”, Otis College of Art, Los Angeles, California (2001)