Art Museum Curator

Description:

University Museums is currently seeking a highly motivated Curator III to lead the curatorial and educational advancement to enhance a dynamic Christian Petersen Art Museum (CPAM). In partnership with the Director and Chief Curator, and other University Museums’ Curators, you will shape and implement the University Museums’ curatorial and educational objectives that help advance the museums’ and university’s visions and missions. As the Curator III you will provide senior-level leadership for exhibitions, project management, collections development and management, public programming, education, and exhibition installations for the CPAM.

As the Curator III of the CPAM and Christian Petersen Art Collection you will serve as the exhibitions and permanent collections curator, including scholarship, installation, care and conservation, and education duties of the Christian Petersen Art Collection. You will work to create, conceptualize, implement, and evaluate curatorial and educational projects that fulfill the mission of University Museums. The position will use active listening and respond to the needs of the campus audience, resulting in relevant, experimental, and innovative acquisitions, exhibitions, and educational programs.

Position duties include:

• Acts as lead curator for CPAM and provides functional supervision of the museum spaces

• Designs/prepares exhibitions and plans/presents educational programs

• Authors and prepares content for publications, brochures, and other educational materials for broad audiences

• Conducts research related to collections and shares findings through publications, exhibitions, lectures, etc.

• Collects and maintains artifacts and artworks including acquisition, documentation, storage, care, and preventative conservation

• Advises on preparation, classification, and cataloging of collections

• Develops and manages grants and other funding proposals to support programs

In partnership with the Curator III (Art on Campus/Anderson Sculpture Garden), you will oversee the CPAM Museum Security and Education Program Assistant (Program Specialist I), student intern employees, and engage with docents and volunteers.

To be successful in this position you will bring:

• A background in American art, with specialization in post-1930 through contemporary art

• Experience curating art exhibitions

• Excellent interpersonal skills to effectively work with colleagues, artists, collectors, gallerists, donors, as well as campus partners and faculty

• Strong organization skills, attention-to-detail, and have excellent strategic and logistical planning/implementation skills with the proven ability to handle a variety of administrative, exhibition installation, educational, and curatorial responsibilities

• A vision to lead the curatorial and educational advancement of University Museums

Frequent local and occasional regional travel will be required in this position. Evening and weekend hours will also be required in this position. The Curator III reports to the Director and Chief Curator of University Museums.

This is an exempt, Professional & Scientific position.

Level Guidelines

• Senior-level position possessing high-level professional and/or technical skills working independently under minimal supervision to support ISU’s mission and department or work unit goals
• Applies senior-level professional knowledge and expertise to work requiring greater latitude
• Solves moderately complex problems and regularly exercises judgment to determine appropriate action
• Regularly exercises judgment to resolve problems and determine appropriate action on a broad set of issue and problems. May provide recommendations regarding problems/issues outside the bounds of defined procedures and practices
• Responds to complicated inquiries, provides training, and provides direction to lower-level staff
• May provide supervision for one to two other staff (i.e., leads a small work team)
• May lead projects for which well-defined practices and procedures may not exist
• Provides guidance to students