GRI Chief Curator

Job Summary

With up to 20 staff members and a robust acquisitions budget, the Getty Research Institute's (GRI) Chief Curator will have the opportunity to create world-class collections to advance research at the Getty and around the globe.

Reporting to the Associate Director of Collections & Discovery and working in close partnership with other members of the GRI management team, the GRI Chief Curator will develop and implement the GRI’s strategic priorities for Special Collections in an academically stimulating environment.

To accomplish this ongoing effort, the GRI Chief Curator will oversee a team of 11 Curators who collectively manage roughly 72,000 rare books, 27,000 single prints and drawings, 800 collections of rare photographs, and over 120,000 linear feet of manuscripts and archives, along with optical devices, architectural models, audiovisual recordings, and digital-born materials.

The focus of the GRI Chief Curator will be to oversee the acquisition and collection process from a wide variety of perspectives reflecting a collection mission and strategy that focuses on shifts in scholarship, engaging new audiences, and creating access and amplifying the acquired and newly-acquired content with the curators and institutional partners while emphasizing a current initiative to promote cataloging of large collections alongside reducing the number of incoming acquisitions.

The efforts of the GRI Chief Curator and curators will be anchored in a strong interest to bring existing departments and work processes into alignment and center the work along the core set of values : Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion, as well as Sustainability and Education so that the GRI can more effectively advance the local, transnational, and global discovery of research materials essential to the study of art history, visual culture, and the built environment.

The GRI Chief Curator works closely with other institutions within Getty, including the Museum, Conservation Institute, Foundation, Getty Digital, Development, Communication, and the Trust, to encourage further discourse and partnership (acquisitions, exhibitions, and programming) and strengthen this department's work in furthering Getty’s mission.

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

The ideal candidate will be a scholar and a strong administrator and manager who may come from

art libraries, rare book libraries, special collections, university libraries, academia more generally, or from a foundation, museum, or other cultural institution focused on humanistic inquiry.

They will manage a department noted for its collegiality among the staff who embody a willingness to experiment with new ideas and approaches.

The department will continue to work on generating groundbreaking exhibitions, publications, and research projects that the ideal candidate will influence.

The new GRI Chief Curator will oversee the growth and shift of this department into one that reflects 21st-century collection best practices, with particular attention to ethical stewardship, and will be noted for their administrative, management, and problem-solving abilities.

Growth, passion, and excitement will result from inspired partnership from the curators advocated by the new GRI Chief Curator, particularly with the institutions within the Getty and, most importantly, with The Getty Trust.

This is an exceptional opportunity for a candidate passionate about the centrality of visual culture to join the management team at one of the world’s premier humanities-based research institutes.

APPLY

The position will remain open until filled. Applications received by May 30 will be given first consideration. The letter of interest should outline your interest in joining GRI and relevant accomplishments.

Please provide two examples of why you would be a strong candidate and the key attributes you would bring to this .

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The Hiring Pay Scale for the position is $150,077 - $206,353 annually. Getty offers a comprehensive full employment benefits package.