Tag: management

Job Posting: Curator of Drawings and Prints, Whitney Museum (New York, NY, USA)

  • Position Level: Manager/Supervisor
  • Education: Master’s Degree
  • Position type: Full Time Permanent

The Whitney Museum seeks a curator with an extraordinary record of exhibitions and publications to fill a newly created position overseeing the Museum’s distinguished collection of drawings and prints. The incumbent will report directly to the Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator and join the museum’s highly collaborative senior curatorial team at a time of great institutional growth and transformation. This position requires strong expertise in 20th- and 21st-century American art; a specialty in early to mid-twentieth-century art is preferred but not required.
Responsibilities
– Oversee the growth of the Whitney’s drawing and print holdings through gifts and purchases by acquisition committees.
– Help to define the Museum’s collection strategy and display methodology in consultation with the Chief Curator and Director of the Collection.
– Collaboratively shape the scholarly program and research functions of the Museum’s recently inaugurated Sondra Gilman Study Center for works on paper.
– Propose and organize collection displays and loan exhibitions (in any medium), including the writing and preparation of related scholarly catalogues, brochures, and didactic texts; development of educational programs; and fundraising.
– Cultivate external relationships with artists; trustees and various patron groups; members of the press; and colleagues at other institutions.
– Work closely with other curatorial staff and departments in the museum, in particular Conservation, Education, Exhibitions and Collections Management, Publications, Advancement, and Research Resources.
– Approve loans; work with artists, scholars, and other interested parties to access the collection; undertake special research projects for the collection and acquisitions as needed; represent the Museum within the scholarly community through participation in panels, symposia, and other forums; supervise administrative matters related to these activities.
Requirements
– M.A. in art history; Ph.D. preferred
– 10+ years of experience, including a distinguished record of exhibitions, publications, and acquisitions in the field.
About the Whitney
As the preeminent institution devoted to the art of the United States, the Whitney Museum of American Art presents the full range of twentieth-century and contemporary American art, with a special focus on works by living artists. Designed by architect Renzo Piano and situated between the High Line and the Hudson River, the Whitney’s new building vastly increases the Museum’s exhibition and programming space, providing the most expansive view ever of its unsurpassed collection of modern and contemporary American art
Application Instructions / Public Contact Information
Please send resume, cover letter and salary requirements to: hr@whitney.org and state “Curator of Drawings and Prints” in the subject line.
For more information about this position and to apply, visit: http://www.whitney.org and www.nyfa.org/Jobs/Show/19d7eade-e835-4983-914e-91ac91a606a3

Job posting: Team Leader, Preservation Services – Historic New England (Waltham, MA, USA)

*Location: Lyman Estate, Waltham, Massachusetts
*Classification: Full-time
Description: Historic New England, the nation’s oldest and largest regional heritage organization, seeks a dynamic and public-focused preservation professional to serve as Team Leader for Preservation Services. As a member of senior management, the team leader is responsible for programs and services that facilitate the preservation and rehabilitation of private properties that are significant to New England history. Lead our regional team in directing and growing the Preservation Easement Program, a national model for protection of privately-owned historic properties, and in delivering programs and services to historic homeowners. Work with colleagues and partner organizations to develop innovative programs to educate the next generation of preservation professionals.
Qualifications: Master’s degree in historic preservation, architectural history, or related field. Minimum of six years job-related experience, including easement development and management.
Applications: Please send resume and cover letter to jobs@historicnewengland.org or mail to Historic New England, 151 Essex Street, Haverhill, MA 01832 Attn: Human Resources
Historic New England is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer with a strong commitment to supporting equality of opportunity and respect for diversity. We are committed to providing equal opportunity in employment to all qualified persons without regard to non-work-related factors such as race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, national origin, or sexual orientation.
Historic New England offers generous and comprehensive vacation, holiday, and health and wellness benefit packages.
For position description visit: www.historicnewengland.org

Power to Preserve: Creating a Collection Care Culture: AIC’s Collection Care Network Hosts a Session at the American Alliance of Museums Annual Meeting

–By Marianne Weldon, Objects Conservator and Collections Manager of the Art and Artifacts Collection, Bryn Mawr College
On Sunday, May 29, I attended the panel entitled Power to Preserve: Creating a Collection Care Culture moderated by Rebecca Fifield.  This session was developed by AIC’s Collection Care Network (CCN) for the Collection Management track at the Annual Meeting of the American Alliance of Museums in Washington, D.C.  The AAM Annual Meeting Theme for 2016 was Power, Influence, and Responsibility, encouraging exploration of “how the themes of power, influence and responsibility shape the work of museums in the U.S. and around the world”.
A goal of the presentation was to share influencing strategies to support development of collection care, as well as to highlight resources and partnerships available through AIC. The three presenters spoke of ways that they have been working at their institutions to foster relationships with partners within and outside their institution to better enable them to care for their collections.
 Maryanne McCubbin spoke to fostering aligned goals across an institution.  She emphasized the importance in finding common ground among museum staff and that most people working in the museum are collections stewards in some way whether directly or indirectly.  She outlined the importance of fostering that relationship with others that work in the museum in a variety of ways including:

  • Avoiding rhetoric and demystifying what collections staff are doing. Avoid terms that people won’t understand, such as agents of deterioration.
  • Being proactive and available so people don’t feel like they are bothering you or that you are too busy for them.
  • Provide frequent, regular, repeated communications on many levels and in many directions up and down the chain.
  • Make sure to demonstrate that you have the “big picture” in mind and that you understand and present things in an inter-disciplinary way.

Kathy Garrett-Cox spoke to the importance of working with community partners to enable smaller institutions to create a collection care culture beyond their institutions.  At Maymont, an American estate in Richmond Virginia, the staff numbers 3 full-time and 3 part-time, which is small when considering the needs of institutions during emergency response.  Garrett-Cox spoke about the formation of The Museum Emergency Support Team (MEST), which was formed by a group of small local organization in 2006 in response to Hurricane Katrina as an alliance for response to help to share resources, planning and training.  She additionally outlined many specific examples of the way the group grew and changed over the years, introducing challenges associated with volunteer group continuity, what worked, and what didn’t.
Patricia Silence works at Colonial Williamsburg Foundation where she manages the preventive conservation team of 20 members.  She gave numerous examples of ways that demonstrated the power of communication strategies to strengthen staff partnerships in supporting collection care. Overall, these ideas helped create relationships where colleagues in other departments wanted to help further collection care. These strategies included:

  • Meeting with over 150 site interpreters and supervisors in small groups and explaining the reasons for temperature set points. This included a briefing on dew point and how they use temperature to reduce the possibility of having water in the walls. This has helped their facilities department get fewer calls regarding comfort issues.
  • Tracking the number of hours spent cleaning gum off of items and cleaning up soda spills in order to explain why these items should not be allowed in historic buildings with collections.
  • She emphasized the importance of expressing professional “needs and desires” in terms of value. Giving reasons beyond collections value when necessary and aligning the rationale with the goals of colleagues in other departments.

Additionally Patricia spoke of areas for improvement, where things haven’t gone as well as she would like.  One specific example was in the area of excessive lighting, where additional buy-in by leadership and security staff is still needed.
As a result of all the panelists discussing both things that worked well and areas that needed improvement, discussion with the audience then centered around how we respond to hearing “NO” at our institutions and what are the most compelling arguments to win institutional support for preservation programs.  Several  members of the audience responded with ways that they build partnerships with allies within their institution or develop data to support their argument before again attempting to implement change.
The panelists presented a variety of examples, both successful and unsuccessful, to promote collection care cultures at their institutions. It contributed renewed energy to go back to our institutions to continue to forge stronger relationships to support collections care in a variety of creative ways.
Find out more information about the activities of AIC’s Collection Care Network.
 
SPEAKER BIOS:
Rebecca Fifield is Head of Collection Management for the Special Collections at the New York Public Library. She is a graduate of the George Washington University Museum Studies program and a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation. A 25-year veteran of large and small art and history institutions, she is Chair of AIC’s Collection Care Network and an Advisory Council Member of the Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists.
Maryanne McCubbin is Head, Strategic Collection Management at Museum Victoria. Maryanne has worked in archives and museums for close to thirty years. An expert in history and care of heritage collections, her work has centered on the development, care and preservation, use and interpretation of collections. Her current position involves addressing the big, tough issues around managing a major, complex state collection.
Patty Silence is Director of Preventive Conservation at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, responsible for preservation in the historic area, museums, storage, and loans. Her focus is on site maintenance, environmental management, emergency preparedness, exhibit preparation, pest control, and safe transport of collections. Patty has over 30 years of experience in encouraging colleagues to gain and use expertise in collections care.Kathy Garrett-Cox is Collection Manager of the Preservation Society of Newport County, Rhode Island and formerly Manager of Historic Collections at Maymont in Richmond, Virginia, where she worked for 11 years. She currently serves as President of the Virginia Conservation Association and as Chair of the Richmond Area Museum Emergency Support Team. Kathy speaks frequently on coordination of conservation projects and writing disaster plans. She recently coordinated the Central Virginia Alliance for Response program.