The students who begin art school at the University of Washington next year will find themselves in a changed program. Today, UW announced five new faculty hires, in photomedia, sculpture (called "3D4M"), art history, industrial design, and human-computer interaction design. At least three of the positions replace longtime professors whose presences shaped what it meant to get an education in art at UW: Akio Takamori, Paul Berger, and Pat Failing.

And the incomers are:

•Adair Rounthwaite, an art historian most recently at McGill University in Montreal, who specializes in contemporary participatory, performance, and feminist art;

•Michael Swaine, a ceramicist most recently at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, who recently attracted the attention of CBS for his mending project in the Tenderloin.

•The elusive and yet somehow theatrical Aaron Flint Jamison (and here), Portland-based artist and founder of Yale Union who takes the photo media position.

•Jason Germany, an industrial designer from the University of Oregon.

•Justin Hamacher, who, before this, worked in Silicon Valley for a design company that helped start-ups and Fortune 100 companies by "championing users and advocating for sensible aesthetics and ease of use in the technological space" (he also plays in a self-described post-punk/punk band called Biography of Ferns).

That was a mouthful. I'm working on getting to know more about these new profs and their intentions in the coming days, if they'll agree to interviews with me. Here's hoping.