Director of Curatorial Affairs

Director of Curatorial Affairs Art Division

To be considered for an interview, please make sure your application is full in line with the job specs as found below.

The Brooklyn Museum is a world-renowned cultural institution dedicated to preserving and showcasing art, history, and heritage.

Our mission is to bring people together through art and experiences that inspire celebration, compassion, courage, and the will to act.

Our vision is to be the place where art is a powerful force for personal transformation and social change. Celebrating our differences and learning about our diverse communities through our collections, exhibitions, and programming is at the core of who we are and what we do.

We are committed to creating and cultivating a diverse community of talented, passionate people who are inspired to make the Museum an important hub of community activity and a great global destination.

Our staff have the opportunity to grow their professional skills and work collaboratively with colleagues they admire and respect.

About the role

The Director of Curatorial Affairs (DCA) plays a crucial role in shaping the Museum’s celebrated collections and its trailblazing, critically acclaimed exhibition program, both of which strive to be best in class, and to draw and inspire local, national, and international visitors.

Reporting to the Deputy Director for Art (DDA), you will lead and advocate for the Curatorial team, along with Libraries & Archives, in terms of both program and administration.

Working closely with the Director and DDA, you will ensure that the Museum remains a leader in the field for its distinctive approach to its exhibitions and collections with a brand-aligned, integrated approach to the visitor experience, as well as strong interpretive and design strategies.

The DCA will bring fresh perspectives to shaping our curatorial program and our planning processes.

While the DCA will have their own area of curatorial expertise, and may have the opportunity to curate exhibitions, your primary role will be to guide, shape, and support the curators in their respective areas of focus on the building, refinement, display, and interpretation of their corresponding collection(s), as well as special exhibitions.

Responsibilities

Curatorial program :

• Assess, refine, and build upon one of the Museum’s renowned collections, which includes more than 500,000 objects and spans 5,500 years of artistic creativity.
• Guide the curators in making strategic acquisitions that align with our Collection Development Plan goals, conducting thoughtfully executed provenance research, and identifying careful, systematic deaccessions to create ideal storage conditions that proactively care for the collections and continually improve upon the institution’s intellectual control over its holdings (in collaboration with the Director, DDA, curatorial team, and Board of Trustees).
• Work with the Director, DDA, Director of Exhibition Planning, and curators to deliver a 3-year exhibition calendar to garner national and international recognition while also meeting the goals of our exhibition and social action strategies and help refine processes for success while also shaping related content and messaging.
• Align institutional priorities with curatorial efforts to establish specific goals and deliverables for projects.
• Play a key role in the Museum’s capital planning and upcoming gallery renovations.
• Foster innovation in the presentation of the Museum’s exhibitions and collections with a visitor-centered approach.
• Oversee the curatorial team in generating coherent interpretive strategies, including gallery interpretation, digital content, and public programs.
• Lead partnerships with outside scholars and thought leaders on idea development and collaborations that incorporate cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research and generate relevant topics for exhibits.
• Speak about the Brooklyn Museum’s strategies, initiatives, history, and collections at major conferences and symposia, and with the press, to establish the Brooklyn Museum as an intellectual and professional leader in the field.
• Oversee the Museum’s active outgoing-loan program to maintain relationships and forge new partnerships with major national and international institutions for future projects.
• Establish conservation priorities, in collaboration with the Chief Conservator and DDA, for an active program of exhibitions (on-site and touring), collection activations, and outgoing loans.

Board, donor relations, and fundraising :

• Organize meetings of the Museum’s Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees, and lead discussions on collections management;
• best practices and policies for institutional collecting; industry standards relevant to museums; issues of scholarship across collections areas;

strategies for digital engagement; and acquisitions, deaccessions, and loan recommendations.

• Work closely with the Collections Committee Chair, Director, and DDA to set agendas for quarterly meetings, support collection reviews and acquisition priorities, and enlist support for the collection plan.
• Collaborate with the Director, DDA, and the Development team to cultivate donors, Board Members, and potential supporters, as an integral part of the curatorial process to generate financial support for the Museum’s curatorial affairs (acquisitions, exhibitions, and special collection projects);

and partner with Development to lead and educate the curatorial team on best practices in fundraising and donor cultivation.

Administration and team management :

• Manage the Museum’s Curatorial and Libraries & Archives departments.
• Oversee department personnel / searches, schedules, budgets, and contractual matters.
• Lead evaluations of curators, searches, and hires; set curator expectations and accountability on exhibitions, collection donations, digital engagement, donor cultivation, and more.
• Continually assess and improve upon policies and procedures to create a supportive, productive, inclusive, and energetic work culture.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years relevant work experience as a curator with established arts organizations, with a robust record of important exhibitions and publications and demonstrable success conceptualizing, designing, and implementing curatorial strategies.
• Minimum of 3 years of significant supervisory experience, including extensive collaborative work with all Museum departments, especially HR, Finance, and Legal departments on hiring and personnel matters.
• High-level donor cultivation and grant development experience at arts organizations, with demonstrable success of generating support for major exhibition and collection projects.
• Strong leader, communicator, and collaborator and has the ability to engage with a wide range of stakeholders, including staff, donors, Trustees, and other partners.
• A proven track record of promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility;
• Ability to balance creative and intellectual processes with strategic and entrepreneurial thinking, as well as with administrative and financial responsibilities.
• Management skills that foster high-functioning, self-sufficient teams that regularly meet or exceed expectations; and
• High level of integrity with ethics and values that are institutionally aligned.

Department : Curatorial

Reports to : Deputy Director for Art

Position Type : Full-time

Union Status : Non-union

FLSA status : Exempt

Schedule : 35 hours per week, Monday Friday, 9 am 5 pm

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