Technical Assistant (post level 15): Department of Fine Arts (Job ID 6287) - (1972) at University of the Free State

Duties and responsibilities:

• Operate power equipment such as a jigsaw, belt sander, grinder, bandsaw. etc.
• Use hand tools like screwdrivers, hammers, axes, saws.
• Assist with cutting paper and canvas.
• Order of tools and equipment if needed.
• Assist with moulding and casting.
• Fix, build, restore and maintain any artspecific furniture or equipment such as exhibition boards, plinths and easels.
• Make frames and gallery stands as needed.
• Make stretchframes.
• Prepare studios for studio activities and classes.
• Give technical assistance in studios on campus, helping students with power tools and technical components of projects as requested by an academic staff member.
• Dismantling large and smallscale installations and other artworks.
• Assist with or move equipment in the department, to and from galleries and venues on and off campus.
• Assist with research projects of staff members on and off campus.
• Courier documents to and from the department and other venues on campus.
• Arrange and move equipment and studio furniture for classes.
• Take student attendance when necessary.
• Move objects and furniture around the department.
• Assist lecturers with their studio research, which could include all technical aspects of creative research projects
• Arrange studios to accommodate creative research.
• Stocktake, organise and clean sculpture storeroom.
• Recycle clay with the correct equipment and training.
• Move light works for lecturers or students’ exhibitions only if the assistance required relates to the academic staff members ‘teaching and learning’, ‘creative research’ and ‘community engagement’ responsibilities.
• Move light artworks from the Johannes Stegmann Arts gallery to the Department or around the campus.
• Assist if needed when heavy furniture or equipment is moved by facilities.
• Orchestrate the signingoff of sculpture studio keys, including the storeroom keys when necessary and for specified periods of time.
• Assist students in signing out tools from the storeroom.
• Prepare studios for projects which include cleaning, moving tables, boxes, putting plastic on tables, putting newsprint on the windows, packing out materials and washing equipment.
• Assist with student projects (for example, cutting cloths for printmaking, carrying heavy bundles of paper for drawing).
• Ensure the restocking of rags for use in the printmaking studio.
• Maintain upkeep of all studios and outside sculpture studio.
• Maintain the upkeep of fine arts walkways, studios, furniture and equipment.
• Clean the printmaking studio, which is a specialised studio requiring the use of solvents.
• Remove the trash from bins, for example, in the printmaking studio, which includes the oily rag bin for health and safety purposes.
• Keep furniture and equipment safe, especially by moving it indoors or undercover so that the rain and elements do not cause damage.
• Work in a team with UFS cleaners.
• Arrive and leave timeously according to work hours.
• Gather and remove litter in studios and outside studios and walkways.
• Clean studios, equipment and the department using hand tools, cleaning tools and machines. This includes disciplinespecific studios, for example printmaking, dark room and acid room.
• Clean the department or offcampus in public areas, studios or exhibition spaces if cleaning work relates to the academic staff members ‘teaching and learning’, ‘creative research’ and ‘scholarly engagement’ responsibilities. Offcampus cleaning require clearance by the Head of Department.
• Maintain and care for the Fine Arts departments trees and shrubs in the atrium and department of fine arts garden by watering plants and trees using hose or watering can.
• Assist with removal of sculptural and painterly trash discarded inside and outside studios.
• Clean painting palettes.
• Clean staff studios when necessary and remove trash.

Inherent Job Requirements:

• ​​​​Grade 12 or national vocational certificate on NQF Level 4.
• One (1) year’s relevant working experience relating to the duties and responsibilities.
• Experience in working with power tools, welding, woodwork (carpentry), and clay work.

Recommendations:

• Relevant experience as a technical assistant in the fine arts.
• A BA Fine Arts degree will be an advantage.

Assumption of duties:

• 1 February 2026

Closing date:

• 25 November 2025